Glossary · Institutions & Instruments
TPT license
In short
The license that lets a business report and remit TPT. Separate from an ROC license and from any city business license, and not always required for contractors.
In full
A.R.S. § 42-5005(A) requires every person receiving gross proceeds of sales or gross income on which transaction privilege tax is imposed, and wanting to engage or continue in business, to apply to the Department for an annual transaction privilege tax license with a $12 fee. The same subsection bars engaging or continuing in business until the license is obtained.
It is applied for on Form JT-1. Online registration is unavailable to a new contractor because a bond may be required, so the paper application is filed with the bonding paperwork.
Modification work requires a license, for the prime and for subcontractors alike. A contractor performing only MRRA work generally does not, and pays tax on materials at the point of purchase instead. A contractor who buys materials exempt and remits the retail equivalent later does need one, because there is no way to report the retail equivalent without it. An out-of-state contractor responsible for completing an Arizona project needs one regardless of where the business is based.
One narrow exception exists. An MRRA-only subcontractor working under a prime on a single one-off Modification project is not required to be licensed, and buys materials for that project against a Form 5009L obtained by the prime from the Department. More than one Modification project ends the exception.
ADOR's Contracting FAQs offer a second route for that case — a Form 5000M presented together with a Form 5005. Form 5000M states on its face that it pertains only to maintenance, repair, replacement or alteration projects, which a Modification project is not. Published sources differ; the form governs, and Form 5009L is the route that survives it.
The license creates a filing obligation rather than a conditional one. A licensed contractor files every period, marking the return as having no gross receipts where nothing was earned. Licenses can be verified at AZTaxes.gov.
A.R.S. § 42-5005(A); ADOR Contracting FAQs, Licensing; Arizona Form JT-1