Charlottesville, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

Junk dealers do not get a separate licensing chapter in Charlottesville; they are folded into Class II, Subclassification A of the Business, Professional and Occupational License (BPOL) tax under City Code § 14-17(b), which lists 'Junk dealers' by name next to general retailers, opticians and restaurants. That subclassification carries an annual license tax of twenty cents per hundred dollars of gross receipts, on top of the flat issuance fee City Code § 14-15(b) sets at $35 for receipts up to $50,000 or $50 for receipts up to $100,000; a dealer with $100,000 or less in gross receipts owes no license tax at all under § 14-15(a).

Before the Commissioner of the Revenue will issue the license, § 14-11(a)-(b) requires a written application stating the applicant's residence and the nature and proposed location of the business, and § 14-11(c) bars the Commissioner from knowingly licensing any business at a location where Chapter 34 (the Development Code) prohibits that use. A junk dealer with more than one location needs a separate license for each definite place of business under § 14-10(a). The Commissioner and the license inspector may audit a dealer's purchase and sale records at any time under § 14-14(a) to verify the gross receipts reported.