Arcadia, CA Local Taxes & Fees: Business Tax Classification (2026)

Section 6211 imposes license taxes on the trades, professions, callings and occupations listed in the Division and bars anyone from doing business in the City without first procuring a license. Adult businesses sit outside that section and are handled under Sections 9279 and 6700 et seq. Massage therapy businesses are inside it and are read together with Section 6418 et seq.

Section 6220 then sets the rate for each classification, unless another provision of the Code specifically requires a different fee. General engineering and general building contractors pay $150 per year, and other contractors pay $120 per year under Section 6220.15.1, with a separate license for an electrical or plumbing contractor. Apartment houses pay $40 per year for the first four rental units plus $10 for each additional unit. Professional services regulated by the State pay $50 per year, plus $20 per year for each employee the State requires to be licensed and $10 per year for every other employee. Trade services and any business with no license otherwise specified pay $50 plus $10 for each employee, and real estate brokers pay $50 per year plus $10 per year for each salesman and employee.

Mining and landfill operators are taxed differently: one percent of gross receipts, payable quarterly within ten days after the quarter ends (Sections 6220.25 and 6220.25.2). Short-term operators pay by time: transient peddlers $40 per month, and a carnival $150 for the first day and $20 for each additional day.

Section 6213 defines the periods. An annual license runs twelve months from the first day of the month of issue, a monthly fee covers the calendar month or fraction of it, and a daily license is paid each day in advance. Under Section 6220.1 the Finance Director reviews the October Consumer Price Index for the Los Angeles-Anaheim-Riverside Area each December and adjusts the whole fee schedule on January 1, so the dollar amounts printed in the Code are base figures.