The Salt Lake ValleyHand-picked Salt Lake County happenings, straight to your inbox. No fluff, no spam, easy to leave.
If you work out of a spare bedroom or garage in Salt Lake City, two sets of rules apply to you: a Utah law that limits what the city can charge a home business, and a city zoning section that limits how much of your business can show up at the house. This guide covers both, plus how Millcreek and West Valley City handle the same question.
Under Utah law, Salt Lake City cannot charge a fee to operate a home-based business unless the business adds noticeably more traffic or noise than a normal household, so many home businesses need no city license. A business that does bring clients, an outside employee or deliveries falls under the city's home occupation rules in zoning code 21A.36.030: no more than one employee from outside the home, two clients an hour, one client at a time, visits only between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., and one small flat nameplate for a sign. You can still request a license, which the city lists at $157 a year.
Often not. The Salt Lake City Business Licensing page answers this directly: citing state law, the city says it does not require a business license for a business operated from your home unless the business causes an impact to your neighborhood. A freelance writer, a bookkeeper or an online reseller who ships from the closet fits that description.
The word that matters is impact. If clients park on your street, a second person drives over to work for you, or trucks drop off stock, you are no longer in the no-license group, and the city's home occupation rules decide what you can and cannot do. The rest of this guide walks through those rules. For the standard commercial license, with fees, inspections and state filings, see our Salt Lake City business license guide.
The exemption comes from Utah Code 10-1-203, the statute that governs municipal business licensing. Subsection (8)(a) says a city may not charge any fee for a resident to operate a home-based business, unless the combined offsite impact of the home business and the household's normal use materially exceeds the offsite impact of the household alone. A tutor with one student at a time does not add much. A home with a steady stream of customers and a delivery truck does.
Subsection (9) closes the loop in both directions. A city may charge an administrative fee to a home business owner who is exempt but asks for a license anyway. And the city has to tell home business owners about the exemption in any communication with them, which is why the Salt Lake City licensing page opens with it.
One thing to keep straight: the state law is about licensing fees. It does not cancel zoning. The city's home occupation section is where the day-to-day limits live.
Salt Lake City zoning code 21A.36.030 covers home occupations. Under it, a home occupation needs a city license unless the zoning administrator decides the business's impact does not exceed the impact of the home's ordinary residential use. The code adds that meeting the standards does not by itself prove there is no impact, so the city looks at what you tell it.
What you tell it is on the application. The code asks for a full description of the business, where the work and storage happen, your expected hours, and the number of clients you expect per hour and per day. The city's Home Occupation form also asks how many people work at the address and how many of them do not live there. The zoning administrator issues the permit if the standards are met, and the permit belongs to you personally: it is nontransferable and does not pass to the next owner of the house.
A permit can also be taken away. The zoning administrator may end a home occupation if a required license is revoked or suspended, or if any rule in the section is broken. You can appeal a termination, so a complaint from a neighbor is not the end of the road, but plan on following the standards from day one.
To apply, use the city's online Business Licensing portal and upload the signed Home Occupation form. The city takes applications online only. For a bookkeeper or consultant who never sees a client at home, the better first step is to email the licensing office and ask whether your business needs anything. Their fee line is (801) 535-6644.
These are the standards in 21A.36.030(G) as the current code reads. The city's own Home Occupation form is dated 2017 and lists the same limits, but the code is the controlling text.
| Topic | Rule |
|---|---|
| Employees | No more than one employee from outside the home. People who live in the house can work in the business. |
| Clients | No more than two clients an hour, one client served at a time, and a client may occupy only one parking space at a time. |
| Visiting hours | Visits by clients or other foot or car traffic only between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. |
| Signs | One nonilluminated nameplate, mounted flat on the building. The maximum size comes from the city's sign chapter 21A.46. |
| Parking and vehicles | No vehicles or equipment stored outdoors beyond what a home would normally have. A work vehicle that doubles as your personal car, such as a taxi, must be parked in a legal parking space. |
| Deliveries | Residential-type delivery vehicles only, no semi trucks, and only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. |
| Where the work happens | Inside the home, or in a garage or fully enclosed accessory building. Not in a carport or any part of the yard. |
| Inventory and storage | Stock stays inside the dwelling. No outdoor storage. |
| Equipment | Nothing over 220 volts, and nothing that sends noise, smoke, odor, dust or vibration past your property line. |
| Retail sales | Direct retail sales are not allowed. Sales that come along with a service are. |
A hair stylist with one chair in a converted garage can work under these rules if appointments are spaced so no more than two clients arrive in an hour and the last one leaves before 10 p.m. A stylist who double-books, so two clients are in the house at once, breaks the one-client-at-a-time rule. A photographer who books one family per hour is fine; one who invites ten people to a shoot is not.
The sign limit is tighter than most owners expect. A yard sign or a banner on the fence is the kind of exterior advertising the code rules out: it says the house may show no visible sign that it is used for anything other than a residence, apart from the one nameplate.
Some businesses are barred from a residential address no matter how well they follow the standards. The code lists these as prohibited home occupations:
A home daycare can be a home occupation in Salt Lake City, except in the M-1 and M-2 industrial districts, but it follows its own standards. Group size is capped at 16 children at one time, with the caregivers the state requires, and outdoor play areas must be in the rear or side yard. The application asks for the expected number and ages of children, your staffing, and proof of state licensing or of an exemption.
The city lists the home occupation license at $157 a year, from September 2026, and marks it as available upon request only. That matches state law, which lets a city charge an administrative fee to an exempt owner who asks for a license. The license runs one year and renews annually. Our license guide has the full fee table, including the employee fee that applies when you hire.
Licensing follows the city on your property tax notice, not your mailing address. Moving a mile across a boundary can change what you have to file.
Millcreek. The city's Business Licensing page has a Home Business tab. Every home business has to submit a Home Business Compliance Checklist, plus a site plan showing the square footage the business uses and the parking spaces it takes. If you rent, a notarized Property Owner Authorization Form is required. Add a state sales tax ID if you sell products, and a Utah Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) license if your trade needs one. The page lists no fees, so call the licensing desk at (801) 214-2700.
West Valley City. A business based at your home address in West Valley City needs a home business license, with one exception on the city's page: a home business that grosses less than $2,000 a year is exempt if you sign an affidavit, and you must apply right away if your income goes over that. The page lists no fee. Call (801) 963-3290.
Sandy. Sandy sorts home businesses into categories with their own visitor and sign limits, and requires a conditional use permit for the bigger ones. Our Sandy business license guide covers it. We did not read Sandy's code directly for this page, so check the numbers with the city.
We could not load Salt Lake City's code on the city's code host today, so the section text here comes from a mirror of the same code that shows the 2026 amendment. Before you spend money on a build-out, call Business Licensing and ask if anything changed.
A home business lives or dies on neighborhood word of mouth, and the parking and sign limits above mean you cannot advertise with a yard sign. Start with a free Google Business Profile, then list the business in our Local Directory, which costs $49 a month.
We publish The Salt Lake Valley, a free newsletter with 2,400+ subscribers across the county, and we sell ads in it, so weigh this with that in mind. A home business that wants Salt Lake County readers without a storefront can look at our newsletter ad plans. Our guide to small business resources in Salt Lake City lists local help for new owners.