Harrisburg, PA Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Harrisburg licenses solicitors through Chapter 5-305, the General License Tax, rather than through a separate door-to-door chapter. Section 5-305.6 imposes an annual license tax of $100 on all persons or dealers soliciting or taking orders for goods, wares or merchandise by sample or otherwise from others not dealers or merchants. Commercial travelers taking orders from dealers or merchants are excluded. Section 5-305.5 sets $10 a year for agents or canvassers for books, newspapers, periodicals or other publications, and § 5-305.13 sets $50 a year for anyone distributing advertising matter, including free samples, from house to house or in and upon the streets of the City. A person who distributes advertising for two or more persons within the license tax year is deemed to be in that business.

Payment rules apply to all of them. Taxes are payable to the City Treasurer, who gives a receipt stating the period covered, and § 5-305.18 provides that no person shall begin, continue, conduct or follow any of the covered trades or occupations without first paying. Under § 5-305.17 the taxes are due January 1 each year, unpaid amounts bear interest at 1% per month, and an amount equal to the tax is added as penalty and collected by the Tax Enforcement Administrator. A person who starts after January 1 pays the annual tax for the full license year. A person omitted from the annual assessment must apply immediately to the Tax Enforcement Administrator for a license under oath, and can appeal to the License and Tax Appeal Board under § 5-305.19, continuing in business during the appeal by paying the admitted amount and posting the bond described in § 5-305.20.

Separate rules cover sellers who set up temporarily. Under § 5-303.4 a transient wholesale or retail business needs a license from the Tax Enforcement Administrator for each place of business, at $200 per month under § 5-303.8 with a $1,000 bond under § 5-303.7. Persons who do not sell from stock but exhibit samples only to secure orders for future delivery are exempt from that chapter under § 5-303.2(J), which leaves § 5-305.6 as their license.