Updated March 30, 2022
Are you ready to apply for a TABC liquor license or permit for your retail establishment in Austin, Texas, but don’t know where to start?
We think one of the best first steps is getting your required certifications from your local city, county, and comptroller. Here we are providing an overview of these certifications and the requirements that often go along with them, and we’ve compiled some tips for the Austin-specific portion to help you get started. This will give you the basic information you need to create a plan for acquiring your Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) permit or license and develop a realistic timeline.
REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS IN GENERAL
A complete TABC permit application requires, in part, certification from your local city and county and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The way TABC’s new online system is set up now, can be a little misleading. This TABC Alcohol Industry Management System (“AIMS”), mentions the certifications up front, but doesn’t prompt you to prepare and submit the certifications until the end of the application process. We strongly recommend that you take a different approach and acquire these certifications as one of your first steps.
This is so important we are going to say it again:
We strongly recommend that you acquire the required city, county, and comptroller certifications as a first step in your TABC application process.
Why take this step seemingly out of order?
Until each of the city, county, and Comptroller have signed off on your application, it’s hard to be 100% certain that they will do so. We have seen many, many applicants spend a lot of time and money working toward a bar or restaurant opening only to find out there is an issue with the city, county, or Comptroller.
City issues are the most common, but a problem with any of the three has the ability to stall out your application indefinitely. Cities require everything from zoning to certificates of occupancy to special-use permits before they will certify your TABC permit application. Counties have their own requirements, and they will not certify your application if the proposed location fails to comply with any wet/dry status, local ordinance, rule, regulation, or other requirements. We list below the unique requirements for locations in the Austin city limits.
City processing takes time and can cost money. Two questions applicants most commonly ask are:
How long will it take to get my TABC liquor license?
How much will it cost?
If there is a city permit that you need before getting your TABC application certified, such as Austin’s Public Assembly Permit or a special use permit or any sort of variance, that can take some significant time. If there is a city process that is going to take you months to complete, you need to know up front what it will cost and generally how long it will take.
Even if you do not need any additional city permits, the city’s processing of your TABC application typically takes from a week up to a month or longer. The City of Austin is typically on the shorter end of this spectrum, but that’s not guaranteed. Cities also can charge a fee for processing the TABC application, though this is typically nominal.
CITY OF AUSTIN LIQUOR LICENSE REQUIREMENTS
The downside of getting your TABC liquor license application certified in a larger city (Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston) is that it can be hard to get someone on the phone to give you verbal confirmation that they will certify your specific location. In smaller towns, you can almost always call up the city secretary or county clerk and ask them to look up your location. They can usually tell you over the phone if there are any issues with selling alcohol at your location, if there will be any special permitting required, and what their overall process is.
The upside of being in a larger city like Austin, however, is that they typically have their process detailed online. The City of Austin provides a great description of its process on its website. They even have a Spanish version of this page. Note, however, that their website has not been updated to reflect the new process and forms for the TABC AIMS online portal.
According to the City of Austin website, several requirements must be satisfied before you approach the City to certify your TABC liquor license application:
If the business is classified as Group A Occupancy (e.g., bar, nightclub, or restaurant) and sales of alcohol are or will be 51% or more of total sales at the location, a Public Assembly Permit will be required.
A business must have a current, valid Permit to Operate a Food Enterprise before opening a bar or other food business in Austin.
Applicants must complete the APD Liquor License Information Form and send it to the Alcohol Control Team at NAU@austintexas.gov. The Austin Police Department conducts background checks on all applicants.
A certificate of occupancy is required to lawfully occupy, use, or change the use of a structure.
Source: City of Austin
This is a list of City of Austin requirements. They must be satisfied before you can even approach the City to certify your TABC liquor license application. If you, for example, need a Public Assembly Permit or don’t yet have a certificate of occupancy, get started on meeting those requirements before you go any further. As we said before, sometimes city requirements can take a lot of time, so figure out what will be involved as soon as possible.
COMPLETE THE REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS FORM
Once you know you are all set with the City of Austin’s requirements, our recommendation is that you complete the TABC’s Required Certifications form. Again this is a departure from the way the TABC AIMS portal leads you through the process, but the TABC will accept this form as an alternative to the AIMS-generated form. Know that later on when you get to the point in AIMS where it generates a certification form, ignore that. You will simply upload the Required Certifications form instead.
Once you have the form prepared, you are ready to proceed with the City of Austin’s TABC application process approval, starting with obtaining a tracking number from the City Clerk as they explain on their website. Once you complete those steps you are ready to go to the City of Austin, Travis County, and the Texas Comptroller to get your certification.
Want a detailed guide for the City of Austin required certifications, including detailed step-by-step instructions and how to obtain certifications from the City, County, and Comptroller? Check out our Austin TABC Permit Application Guide available on our Resources page.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in February 2019 has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
Disclaimer: Nothing in our articles or on our website is legal advice and should not be taken as such. Please address all legal questions to your counsel. While our team is not a law firm, we can refer you as needed.
