Smyrna, TN Soliciting & Door-to-Door: Solicitor Permits (2026)

Section 9-102 of the Smyrna Municipal Code makes it unlawful for any peddler, street barker, solicitor or transient vendor to ply a trade within the corporate limits without a permit. The permit is location-specific: a separate permit is required for each location at which a business operates, even when one operator runs several. Ord. No. 25-20 amended the section on 8-12-2025.

Applications go to the Town Clerk as a sworn written application (§ 9-104). It must give the applicant's name, permanent home address and local address, a brief description of the business and goods, the dates and length of time the applicant intends to do business, the name and permanent address of the business represented, and the make, model, description, license tag number and state of issue of each vehicle used to make sales or solicitations. A non-refundable processing fee from the fee schedule adopted with the annual budget ordinance is paid at filing. Transient vendors also submit the tax set under T.C.A. § 67-4-709(a) for each 14-day period.

Permits expire on the date the holder's privilege license expires, or after six months for a vendor not subject to the privilege tax. Street barker permits match the dates of the town's recognized parade or festival days. Permits for religious or charitable solicitors and subscription solicitors expire on the date printed on the permit, not to exceed 30 days (§ 9-110). Permittees must carry a valid permit while making sales or solicitations and show it at the request of any police officer or code enforcement officer (§ 9-106). Section 9-103 exempts wholesale sellers to dealers, newsboys, sellers of agricultural products they produced, bona fide merchants making regular deliveries, and bona fide charitable, religious, patriotic or philanthropic organizations. Chapter 6 adds a separate no-solicitation registry and sign rule for commercial solicitors at residences (§§ 9-602 and 9-603).