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

The Office of Finance treats every branch or location where a taxed business activity occurs as a separate business requiring its own registration certificate and its own tax payment for each classification of business conducted there, per LAMC Sec. 06(a). A certificate authorizes only the specific classified activity named on it at the location for which it was issued. Businesses operating from one or more locations entirely outside the City need only one certificate per classification covering all outside-location activity in the City, and warehouses or distributing plants used incidentally to a business already certificated at a City address are not treated as separate branch locations.

Where the tax is measured by number of vehicles, devices, machines, or coin-operated equipment, or by coin-operated gross receipts, the Director of Finance issues one certificate but a separate identifying sticker or symbol for each piece of equipment for each tax period paid (Sec. 06(b)). 1, added by Ord. No. 175,385, lets a business with two or more gross-receipts-taxed activities elect once a year to have all its taxable receipts reported and taxed at the rate of whichever activity produces at least 80% of its annual taxable gross receipts; activities taxed on a basis other than gross receipts cannot be folded into that 80% calculation and continue to be taxed under their own sections.

The election applies only to receipts generated at or originating from the same location covered by Sec. 06, and all apportionments must be completed before the single-classification election is made. If a later review shows the elected primary category never actually met the 80% threshold, any resulting tax deficiency accrues interest and penalties under Sec. 05.