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Spanish Fork licenses every business inside city limits, including an online store run from a spare bedroom. You apply through the city's Citizenserve portal, and the license runs on the calendar year no matter when you start. This page covers the four license types, the application steps, renewal, and the utility and zoning checks the city handles itself.
Apply online through the Citizenserve portal linked from spanishfork.gov, choosing Commercial Business, Home Occupation, Itinerant Merchant or Solicitor. Every Spanish Fork license runs January 1 to December 31 and is not prorated, and the city posts no fee amount, so call the Community Development Office at (801) 804-4580 for yours. If a fire safety inspection is required, the license is emailed to you after the Fire Marshal passes you.
Anyone running a business, trade, professional service or other commercial activity inside Spanish Fork city limits. The city's licensing page says this includes an online business operated from a home. If you live in Spanish Fork and sell candles on Etsy, you need one.
A few cases the city spells out. A contractor generally does not need a Spanish Fork license unless the business is physically located in the city, although the work itself can still need a building permit. A mobile food vendor already licensed by another Utah city generally does not need a second Spanish Fork license, but multiple locations or separate business activities may. Door-to-door salespeople need an individual solicitor license each. Residential yard sales need no license: you can hold up to three of 48 hours or less in 12 months at the same house.
Everything else here assumes your address is in Spanish Fork. For the county overview and what Provo, Orem and unincorporated areas ask for, read our Utah County business license guide first.
Pick the type by where and how you work, not by what you sell. The application portal has a separate form for each.
| License type | Who it covers |
|---|---|
| Commercial Business | Non-residential locations such as retail, restaurants, offices, healthcare, daycares, manufacturing and warehousing. Includes a Booth Rental License for independent salon booth renters. |
| Home Occupation | A business run from a residence by a resident: home offices, daycares, professional services, businesses that receive customers at home, and businesses that serve customers elsewhere. |
| Itinerant Merchant | Temporary or seasonal businesses in non-residential areas, up to 180 days: fireworks stands, produce stands, special-event vendors and mobile food vendors. |
| Solicitor | Individuals who sell goods or services, take orders or hand out sales material door to door or place to place. |
Spanish Fork takes applications online only. The city's one-page process chart lays out the order below.
The city's licensing page and application chart do not print a fee, and we could not find a posted fee schedule for business licenses when we checked on November 3, 2026. Do not rely on a number from a third-party site. Call the Community Development Office at (801) 804-4580 and ask for the fee for your license type before you apply.
One legal rule helps if you work from home. Utah Code 10-1-203 says a city may not charge a resident any fee to run a home-based business unless the business and the household together have a materially bigger offsite impact than the household alone. A city can still charge an administrative fee if an exempt owner asks for a license. Spanish Fork still requires the Home Occupation application, so ask what, if anything, they charge you.
Separate from the city, the Utah Division of Corporations fee schedule we found (effective July 1, 2025) lists $59 for an LLC certificate of organization and $22 for an assumed name (DBA) registration. Confirm the current amounts when you file.
Every Spanish Fork license is valid January 1 through December 31, and the city does not prorate. A license you get in November still ends on December 31, and one you get in January lasts the full year. If you are choosing between a late-year and an early-year start date, ask the city what the fee would be in each case.
You need a brand-new license, not a renewal, when your business name, address or owner changes. So a move from a home to a shop on Main Street means a Commercial Business application, not a home occupation renewal.
The city's pages do not say how renewal notices are sent, what date renewals are due or what a late renewal costs. Ask the Business License Office at (801) 804-4580 in November so you are not guessing in January. Also ask what Ordinance 13-2026 changes. The City Council adopted that Title 5 amendment on provisional business licenses on August 4, 2026, and the full text is on file with the City Recorder and on BoardDocs. We could not read it, so we do not know who qualifies.
Zoning decides whether you can operate at an address at all, so check before you sign a lease. Spanish Fork publishes an Interactive Zoning Map at maps.spanishfork.gov/Zoning. Look up the address, find its zoning district, then read that district's rules in Title 15 of the Spanish Fork Municipal Code. Planning is at 40 South Main Street, (801) 804-4500.
A home occupation is the license for a business run from a residence by a resident. The city's page says it covers a home office, a daycare, a professional service, a business that receives customers at home, and a business that works at customers' locations. The specific limits on customers, employees and signs live in the city code, and we could not pull the current text, so confirm them with Planning before you put a sign in the yard.
Spanish Fork City runs its own Power & Light department and bills power, culinary water, pressurized irrigation, sewer and storm drain on one city utility bill. That means a new business address has a second sign-up besides the license. Use the Business Utilities form on the city's Sign Up for Utilities page, or call (801) 804-4500. A business that only wants internet or TV has its own form there.
Bills generally arrive around the 8th and are due on the 25th. The city says signing up for ACH Autopay avoids paying a deposit, but it does not post a deposit amount. Sewer is calculated each April from winter drinking water use, so a business that opens in the fall will not get its sewer charge set from its own usage until that first April.
A Transportation Utility Fee is proposed for the same bill. Non-residential properties would pay by estimated traffic, so a busy grocery store pays more than a home. The City Council holds a public hearing December 8, 2026, and if it passes, the fee starts January 1, 2027 and first shows up on bills received in February. The city lists proposed residential amounts but no business dollar figures yet, so check the Engineering page.
If your move involves construction, the city's building fee page for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 lists a $360 commercial partial building permit, a $1,634 plan check per non-residential plan, and $132 per re-inspection trip. Community Development and Building is at (801) 804-4540.
Register your LLC or DBA with the Utah Division of Corporations first. If you sell taxable goods, apply for a sales tax account on the Utah State Tax Commission's Taxpayer Access Point. You estimate your annual sales tax when you apply, and filing frequency follows from that: quarterly at $50,000 or less a year, monthly from $50,001 to $96,000, and monthly with required electronic payment above that.
Utah Code 10-1-203 also requires the city to send each approved license application to the county assessor within 60 days. That is how a new shop ends up on the county's list for business personal property tax, so read our Utah County business personal property tax guide before that notice shows up.
Set up a free Google Business Profile with the exact name and address on your license. Our Google Business Profile guide walks through it, and you can add the business to our Local Directory. The where to advertise in Utah County guide compares the other paid options with published prices.
We publish Provo FOMO, a free daily newsletter with more than 3,000 Utah County subscribers, and we sell ads in it, so weigh this knowing that. A grand opening is one of the things our ad plans are built for, and a single ad costs $99.
