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California

Running a construction business in California

The admin behind a California job is a city tax certificate, a seller permit, an employer account and a license that has to stay current, and every one of them has its own renewal date. These guides cover the accounts a working contractor keeps open and the day to day of running jobs on top of them.

Click through it first

Registration, tax, licensing and insurance in one tracked run. Open a business that is already through it and see where every document lands.

Open the demo business

No card, no form. Sign in later and everything you built stays on the same account.

7 guides on this

After you qualifyCDTFA seller permitRegulation 1521 makes you the consumer of materials and the retailer of fixtures, so lighting, plumbing and cabinets put you on the retail side. The three question test, resale certificates at the supply counter, and a Q3 return due 31 October.After you qualifyCity business tax certificatesThe city business tax certificate the permit counter asks for, why you register in every city you work in rather than where the truck sleeps, the field list that makes a new city fifteen minutes of typing, and what four days of registration cost a booked crew.Before you qualifyC-51 Structural steelOr equal data is due within 35 days of award, while the shop drawings are still being detailed, and time related overhead is capped at 20 percent, so delay money belongs in the bid. Covers the statement of responsibility you sign before the first load, and a 30 day lien window on a trade that finished its work ten months before the building did.After you qualifyHiring your first employeeA three week countdown to a real Monday start: the EIN, comp bound with the certificate filed at CSLB, EDD registration, a written IIPP under 8 CCR 3203, and the I-9 within 3 business days. Plus daily overtime, meal periods and final pay.Before you qualifyC-46 SolarSince 1 January 2026 field verification runs through the ECC Program and a registered certificate gates permit closeout, which is why 16 days of documentation sit between the crew's last day and completion. Covers the 30 day owner payment clock, the 90 day lien window a recorded notice cuts to 60, and the $1,000 deposit cap.Before you qualifyASB Asbestos certificationThe switch is 100 square feet of asbestos containing material: a 9 by 12 kitchen ceiling at 108 square feet is over the line, a 90 square foot bathroom floor is under it. The certification sits on the license you already hold, and it needs Cal/OSHA registration and trained workers behind it before your crew can stay in the room.Before you qualifyC-10 Electrical contractor licenseThe state electrician certification under Lab. Code s.3099 is not the C-10, and the two come from different agencies. Covers Title 24 energy documents, the ECC field verification change on 1 January 2026, the $450 application and the $25,000 bond.

The rest of the California library

Getting and keeping a CSLB licensePreliminary notices and mechanics liens in CaliforniaRetention on California jobsPrevailing wage and public works in CaliforniaBuilding standards on a California siteCal/OSHA on a construction siteWorkers comp for California contractorsSales tax for California contractors
Every guideThe whole California libraryAfter you qualify