Yes, a sidewalk vendor in Los Angeles who sells anything hot or any soda needs a California seller's permit, a free sales tax registration. A cart that sells only cold food to go may not need one under state rules, but the City of Los Angeles requires one for every sidewalk vending permit.

Does the City of Los Angeles require a seller's permit for a sidewalk vending permit?

Yes. StreetsLA, the City's bureau that runs the vending program, requires a State of California seller's permit before it issues a Sidewalk & Park Vending Permit. Its checklist for anyone selling food or merchandise on City sidewalks or in City parks lists these three items.

• City of Los Angeles Business Tax Registration Certificate (BTRC)
• State of California Sellers Permit
• County of Los Angeles Public Health Permit (food vendors only)

The BTRC is the City's own business tax registration, separate from the state permit. Under the City's tax booklet, a registered business with worldwide gross receipts of $100,000 or less owes no city business tax for the period if it files its annual renewal on time.

The County health permit is a health requirement, not a tax one. The vending permit itself is renewed every 12 months.

Which foods make a sidewalk cart need a seller's permit?

Hot prepared food and sodas are the items that make a sidewalk cart need a seller's permit, because both are taxable sales under CDTFA Regulation 1603 and Revenue and Taxation Code section 6359.

Under Regulation 1603, food is hot when it is prepared in a heated condition and sold warmer than the air around it, and it stays a hot sale even if it cools on the way to the customer. Tacos, hot dogs, elotes and champurrado all count. Sodas and sparkling water are always taxable, even sold cold, because California Revenue and Taxation Code section 6359 leaves carbonated beverages out of its definition of food products.

CDTFA's mobile food vendor guide, written for anyone selling from a truck, stand, or wheeled cart, says you register and report sales tax as if you were a store or restaurant. If more than 80 percent of your sales are food and more than 80 percent of that food is taxable, CDTFA's 80/80 rule can make your cold to-go items taxable too. The food truck sales tax guide explains the rule, which applies to carts the same way.

Do I need a seller's permit if I only sell cut fruit or other cold food to go?

Usually not from the state, though the City of Los Angeles still lists a seller's permit for its vending permit. CDTFA says a seller whose sales are all exempt does not need a seller's permit, and it names fresh produce and other cold food products sold to go as the example. A cart selling only cut fruit, raspados, or aguas frescas with no soda falls in that exception.

Under CDTFA's vendor guidance, a cold-food seller still needs the permit if it sells food where admission is charged, sells carbonated or alcoholic beverages, or provides tables, chairs, counters or other dining facilities.

California presumes every sale is taxable until the seller shows otherwise. For a cold-only cart, I would keep a daily sales sheet by item, which is the record that shows the sales were exempt.

How much does a seller's permit cost, and what do I file once I have one?

The permit itself is free, and once you have it you file a sales tax return on the monthly, quarterly or annual schedule CDTFA assigns, due by the last day of the month after each period. Publication 73 says CDTFA can require a security deposit in limited circumstances, such as a revoked permit or a history of nonpayment.

The same publication says you file even for a period with no sales at all. You also owe the tax on taxable sales whether or not you collected it from customers.

A seller's permit covers sales tax only; the profit from the cart still goes on Schedule C, the business profit-and-loss page of your federal Form 1040.

"I work as vendor in San Bernardino CA. I don't have an tax ID but I do have a sellers permit what tax code do I use?"

— a vendor in San Bernardino, California, on the TurboTax Community in 2021

Our food vendor tax checklist lists the other filings a food vendor makes for the year.

How do I figure the sales tax on a day of cart sales in Los Angeles?

On a hypothetical $400 day at a Los Angeles cart, $27.89 of the money collected is sales tax the cart owes the state, at CDTFA's rate of 10.25% for the City of Los Angeles effective October 1, 2026.

You may price items with tax added separately or fold it into the menu price. If no separate tax amount is added to the price, CDTFA presumes the menu price already includes the tax, and the tax comes out of what you collect. That presumption covers un-motorized carts and names hot dog carts directly.

To back the tax out, CDTFA's formula divides the tax-included total by one plus the rate.

The fruit cups carry no tax because cold food sold to go is generally not taxable. CDTFA's rate lookup tool gives the rate for an exact address.

What happens if I sell hot food without a seller's permit?

If you should have filed sales tax returns and did not, CDTFA can bill the unpaid tax for up to eight years back, as a 2022 California Office of Tax Appeals decision shows. In that decision, two bakeries sold baked goods for take-out only, with no seating, and operated without seller's permits because they believed all their sales were exempt. A CDTFA outreach team visited one of the bakeries in January 2014, and the agency later dated one permit back to July 1, 2007, roughly when that business began.

The appeals panel held that the hot, meat-filled items were taxable hot prepared food and applied the eight-year limit because the bakeries should have filed returns and did not. The decision is nonprecedential (it does not bind other cases) and involved storefront bakeries rather than carts, but the mechanics are the same ones CDTFA applies to any seller of hot food.

If anything on the cart is hot, or any soda is in the cooler, register for the free permit before the first sale and file on the schedule CDTFA assigns. A vendor already selling without a permit registers the same way, and CDTFA can assess the earlier periods.

N&T Tax & Advisory Group is based in Santa Clarita and prepares tax returns for caterers and food vendors remotely anywhere in the US; our food truck and catering accounting page describes the work. To book a meeting, use our contact page.