Licenses and permits in Wyoming

The Secretary of State filing is not a license to do the work. What you need depends on the activity and the city or county. The office tells you to ask the City Clerk in the Wyoming city where you do business¹, then the agency that regulates your kind of work.

What’s different in Wyoming

• No single license covers every business. Food, electrical contracting, and sales tax each have their own office.
• General contracting is local. Electrical contracting is a state license, and it requires a master electrician.
• Some food sold straight to the customer sits under the Food Freedom Act. The act, linked from the department’s license page, sets the limits.
• The state Liquor Division is the wholesaler of spirits and listed wines. Retail licenses are local.

Do this

1. Ask the city clerk where you will actually work. The business FAQ says that, other than registration with the Secretary of State, a company may need a license based on its purpose, and it names the City Clerk in the Wyoming city where you do business¹. The FAQ does not say whom to ask outside a city.* Ask the county clerk if you are not inside a city.
2. Building or remodeling? General contractors go to the local jurisdiction where the construction will happen¹. Electrical contractors start at the Department of Fire Prevention and Electrical Safety. The contractor license is $400 to issue and $400 to renew. It expires July 1 after the date of issue. The page says you need a Wyoming licensed master electrician as the master of record before the contractor license can proceed. A card payment adds 2.5% of the payment, or $1 if that percentage is less than $1⁵. Low-voltage work is a different contractor license on the same page.
3. Selling food? Read the Consumer Health Services page. A license is required for anyone processing, distributing, storing, or preparing food for wholesale or retail sale. A new establishment, a new owner, or a new location pays $200, then $100 a year. The application is not online. Get it from the local inspector or health department. The license has to be displayed, and it does not transfer. Laramie, Natrona, Teton, Sweetwater, and Sublette counties, and the city of Laramie, have their own health departments. Everywhere else, the department’s own inspectors cover the area. A temporary food stand is $50 for up to 14 consecutive days².
4. Selling homemade food directly to the person who will eat it? Read the department’s Food Freedom note. Under the act, some items can be sold directly to the person who will eat them without an inspection. The note adds that the act has limits on what you may sell³. The act itself, linked from the Consumer Health Services page, sets them: the sale has to be to an informed end consumer, happen only in Wyoming, and not include meat products other than the exceptions the act lists. It covers a producer who makes no more than 250,000 food or drink items, and no more than $250,000 in gross revenue from them, a year⁴. Call Consumer Health Services before you rely on the exemption. The phone on the license page is (307) 777-7321.
5. Selling alcohol? The Liquor Division is the exclusive wholesaler of spirits and of wines it lists, and it sells only to licensed retailers⁷. The license list includes a wholesale malt-beverage license, a manufacturer license, an importer license, industry-representative licenses, and an out-of-state wine shipper license. Retail licenses are local: under W.S. 12-4-101, incorporated cities, towns, and counties license and regulate, or prohibit, retail sales of alcohol⁸. Ask the clerk where the drinks will be sold, and read that license’s fee and food-sales rule before you pay.
6. A professional license is separate from the company. The Secretary of State filing does not license the work. This guide does not list every licensing board.* Start with the city clerk, then the board for your profession.
7. Selling taxable goods? Register with the Excise Tax Division: Get your tax IDs.

What you get back

A local permit where the city or county requires one, a food license or a Food Freedom answer from the department, an electrical contractor license if the work needs it, and an alcohol license from the office that actually issues the kind you need. Each one renews on its own date. Write that date down. The food license renews yearly. The electrical contractor license expires July 1 after the date of issue⁵.