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

120 of the Whittier Municipal Code sets a distinct license tax rate for each of more than thirty enumerated trades rather than one flat business tax. An advertising agent or agency pays thirty-two dollars per year; outdoor advertising or "sniping" costs fifty dollars per year; a contractor, subcontractor, or builder-owner engaged in construction or demolition pays one hundred dollars per year or thirty-five dollars per quarter; a financial institution lending money on real or personal property pays one hundred twenty dollars per year; and a person renting dwelling units, including a single-family home, apartment, duplex, triplex, or boardinghouse, pays fifty dollars for the first year and thereafter a rate keyed to gross annual rental receipts.

Any profession, trade, occupation, or calling not separately listed falls under subdivision 32's catch-all schedule: a minimum of fifty dollars per year on the first twenty thousand dollars of gross annual receipts, one dollar per thousand on the next thirty thousand dollars, seventy cents per thousand on the next one hundred fifty thousand dollars, fifty cents per thousand on the next three hundred thousand dollars, thirty-five cents per thousand on the next five hundred thousand dollars, and twenty cents per thousand on everything over one million dollars.

081, may audit a licensee's reported gross receipts, giving fifteen days to produce a CPA-certified statement, a copy of the business tax return, or access to the licensee's books at city hall or the business location before assessing any unreported tax.