Norfolk, VA Local Taxes & Fees: Business Tax Classification (2026)

Every person doing business in Norfolk, whether from a definite office, a home-based abode, or as a peddler, contractor or itinerant merchant, must apply for a BPOL license under § 24-25.3(a). Classification determines the tax rate under § 24-25.9(c): contractors and persons building for sale pay $0.16 per $100 of gross receipts; retailers pay $0.20; wholesalers pay a flat $50.00 plus 15/100 of one percent of purchases; financial, real estate and professional services (architects, attorneys, CPAs, engineers, land surveyors, physicians and other licensed healing-arts practitioners under § 24-25.2) pay $0.58; and everything else not separately classified, the repair, personal and business services catch-all, pays $0.36.

Separate flat-rate classifications also exist: freight forwarders/shipping agents and tugboat operators pay $0.36 per $100 capped at $2,500.00, and stevedores pay the same rate capped at $2,500.00, under § 24-25.9(e), (f) and (h). A small-business exemption under § 24-25.9(a)(1) relieves any business with $100,000.00 or less in annual taxable gross receipts from the tax itself, though a license is still required. A separate exemption applies to new "qualifying businesses" with total taxable gross receipts of $1,000,000.00 or less, which lapses at the end of the first full license year following the year the business locates in Norfolk.

Applications are due before starting business, or by March 1 for existing licensees, and gross-receipts-based tax is due by March 1 each year under § 24-25.3(b), (c). The Commissioner of the Revenue may deny a license if the business location violates the zoning ordinance or required state or local permits are missing, per § 24-25.3(g).