Starting a Business in Palm Beach County: Business Tax Receipts

Applying for a Business Tax Receipt

Among  the obligations faced when opening a new business location, Palm Beach County requires registering and paying a tax. When we opened our marketing business’s new office location we had to go through this process.

Unlike getting registered with the State, where you can do everything online, applying for a Business Tax Receipt requires showing up at one of the county tax collector offices. The closest one to Boca is on Congress in Delray, south of Atlantic Avenue, in the county complex.

Inside the Tax Collector’s offices  there’s an interesting queue system that moves assigns visitors to different lines depending on what their need is; driver’s licenses are renewed there as well. As soon as you get a number, if you’re there to get a Tax Receipt, then you’re in a separate queue quickly, and you’re not waiting in the same line as the folks getting their drivers licenses renewed.

This year Business Tax Receipts only cost $33 per year and are due for renewal on September 30th. Conveniently I only had to pay half of that since the year was more than half over (it was after April 1st). The nicest thing about the whole process is that you walk out with the papers you need and don’t have to wait for anything to be sent in the mail. You essentially get a sheet of paper stating that you went through the process and that your business is registered.

I asked the lady if I had to frame the certificate, because I had seen so many other businesses with their certificate framed. She told me that it wasn’t a requirement, but that people often do frame and display their certificates at their business location. I told her that I decided I was going to frame it too, only because the only way to get one is to visit and pay for it – so that makes it valuable.