Texas Mixed Beverage Permit: Application, Taxes, and Liability

A Texas Mixed Beverage Permit lets a business sell liquor, wine, and beer for on-site consumption, and it is issued by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). The original permit runs $6,000 in state fees plus a surcharge, roughly $6,602 before any local fees.¹ Approval typically takes 30 to 35 days after you submit a complete application through TABC’s online portal, though certain situations can stretch that timeline.² The rest of what follows is the qualifying rules, the paperwork, the money, and the compliance obligations that begin the day the permit issues.

Who Can Apply

Individual applicants must be at least 21 years old and have no felony convictions under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code. A conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude within the five years before the application date is disqualifying. If a corporation or LLC applies, every officer and majority stockholder must meet the same background standards.

Two other rules catch people. If TABC previously canceled a permit of yours, you cannot reapply for two years.² And you cannot hold a financial interest in a manufacturer or wholesaler of alcoholic beverages. Texas enforces this separation between the retail and wholesale tiers strictly, and TABC will deny an application if it finds crossover ownership.

Where You Can Operate

The proposed location must sit in a “wet” area that permits mixed beverage sales. Texas leaves alcohol legality up to local jurisdictions through local-option elections, so a spot that works in one part of a county may be illegal a few blocks away. Both the City Secretary and the County Clerk have to sign TABC’s Required Certifications form (Form L-CERT) confirming the address is wet for this permit type.³

Distance restrictions from schools, churches, and hospitals are not automatic statewide. Cities and counties may adopt ordinances prohibiting alcohol sales within 300 feet of a school, church, or public hospital, and the school distance can be extended to 1,000 feet under certain circumstances. If your local government has not adopted such an ordinance, there is no mandatory distance restriction.⁴ Check with the city and county before signing a lease.

Documents You Need Before You Start

Gather the paperwork before you touch the portal. You will need:

Business formation documents (Articles of Incorporation or LLC filings from the Texas Secretary of State) confirming the legal existence of your entity.
A signed lease agreement or deed showing your right to occupy the location.
Detailed floor plans showing the physical layout of the area where alcohol will be served.
The signed L-CERT form from both the City Secretary and County Clerk.³
A $5,000 conduct surety bond, unless you hold a Food and Beverage Certificate. It can be posted through a qualified surety company, a certificate of deposit, or a letter of credit. TABC will forfeit the full bond amount if your permit is canceled for violations.⁵

The Food and Beverage Alternative

A Food and Beverage Certificate is not required, but it eliminates the $5,000 bond and signals that the business is primarily a food operation. To qualify, alcohol sales cannot exceed 60 percent of total gross receipts. You also qualify if you operate a permanent food service facility with commercial cooking equipment and prepare multiple entrees for on- or off-premises consumption.⁶ For a new opening, TABC relies on your revenue projections. If your actual alcohol-to-food ratio later drifts above the threshold, you risk losing the certificate and having to post the bond.

The Newspaper Notice

Before TABC will approve your application, you must publish a notice in two consecutive issues of a local newspaper of general circulation in the city where the business will operate. If no newspaper is published in that city, use one from the county. If none exists in the county, use one from the nearest adjacent county that circulates in yours.⁷

The notice must be printed in 10-point bold type and include the full name of the permit (no abbreviations like “MB”), the name of the owner or entity, the trade name, the exact street address including suite and building numbers, and the names and titles of each officer or partner. Every detail must match your application exactly. After publication, you submit a clipping along with the publisher’s affidavit as proof.⁷

Filing Through AIMS

All TABC applications go through the Alcohol Industry Management System (AIMS), the agency’s online portal for licensing, tax filings, and related tasks.⁸ You upload documents, complete the application, and submit through the dashboard. That triggers an administrative review for completeness and a physical inspection of the premises by a TABC field officer, who checks that the actual layout matches your floor plans and that the space meets safety requirements.

TABC estimates the process takes about 30 to 35 days from a complete submission, though the timeline varies by permit type and can run longer in some cases.² You can track status through AIMS and will get notifications if the agency needs more information.

Protests That Can Delay You

Anyone who lives within 300 feet of your proposed location can file a protest. A protest must raise at least one issue within TABC’s jurisdiction, such as criminal activity at the location or illegal alcohol sales. Complaints about noise, traffic, or parking alone are not enough and will likely be rejected.⁹

For original applications, a protest can be filed between 60 days before and 15 days after TABC lists the application as “pending” in its public database. For renewals, the window is within 60 days of the permit’s expiration date.⁹ In cities with a population of 1.5 million or more, residents can also challenge a permit if the premises are within 300 feet of a residence, church, school, hospital, or similar facility and 75 percent or more of the business’s revenue comes from alcohol sales.

What the Permit Costs

Mixed Beverage Permit fees are among the highest in the TABC system, and they decrease with each renewal cycle. The statutory base fees per two-year term are:

Original permit: $6,000 plus surcharge (about $6,602 total)
First renewal: $4,500 plus surcharge (about $5,102)
Second renewal: $3,000 plus surcharge (about $3,602)
Third and subsequent renewals: $1,500 plus surcharge (about $2,102)

The surcharge is subject to annual adjustment, so confirm the current total on the TABC fee chart before submitting.¹ If you also need a Late Hours Certificate to serve between midnight and 2:00 a.m., that carries its own additional fee.¹⁰

Hours of Service

Standard service hours under a Mixed Beverage Permit are:

Monday through Friday: 7:00 a.m. to midnight
Saturday: 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Sunday
Sunday: Noon to midnight (10:00 a.m. to noon only if food is being served)

After closing time, you have 15 minutes to clear all drinks from tables. No alcohol can be served or consumed beyond that window.⁵ Where local jurisdictions allow it, a Late Hours Certificate extends service to 2:00 a.m. every day. It is a separate permit with its own fee.¹⁰

Taxes You Have to File

Two separate state taxes apply to every mixed beverage sale, and permit holders file them independently with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The first is the 6.7 percent Mixed Beverage Gross Receipts Tax, owed by the permit holder on gross receipts from selling or serving alcoholic beverages, including non-alcoholic mixers sold to be combined with alcohol on the premises. The second is the 8.25 percent Mixed Beverage Sales Tax, collected from the customer at the point of sale.¹¹ Both taxes require monthly returns filed by the 20th of each month.

Paying Distributors on Time

When you buy liquor or wine on credit from a wholesale dealer, payment windows are tight. Deliveries between the 1st and 15th of the month are due by the 25th of that month. Deliveries from the 16th through the end of the month are due by the 10th of the following month.¹² When a due date falls on a weekend or holiday, it shifts to the next business day. A mailed payment is not late as long as the dealer receives it within four business days of the due date.

Seller-Server Training and the Safe Harbor

Texas law does not require bartenders or servers to hold a TABC seller-server certificate. Even so, nearly every employer requires it, because certification unlocks a real legal protection.¹³ Under the safe harbor provision, TABC will not take administrative action against a permit holder when an employee illegally serves a minor or an intoxicated person, provided the employer meets all of the following:

The person who made the sale is not the owner or an officer of the company.
The seller holds a current seller-server certificate from a TABC-approved school.
All employees who sell, serve, or deliver alcohol, plus their direct managers, were certified within 30 days of hire.
The employer maintains written responsible-service policies and ensures every employee has read and understood them.
The employer did not encourage the employee to break the law.
There have not been three or more similar violations within a 12-month period.

Meet every condition and your permit is protected from suspension for that violation. The individual server may still face criminal charges, but the business avoids administrative penalties.¹³ Certificates are valid for two years, so you need a system to track expirations across staff.

Signs, Records, and Inspections

Once the permit is active, the original must be displayed in a prominent, visible location inside the establishment. If you do not hold a Food and Beverage Certificate, you must post the required human trafficking sign where employees and the public can clearly see it.¹⁴ Size and language specifications for these signs are set by the state.

Records are where TABC agents focus during inspections. Invoices and receipts for all alcohol purchases must be kept on the premises and made available to any TABC agent or law enforcement officer during business hours.¹⁵ TABC administrative rules require certain permit holders to keep these records for at least two years. Missing paperwork creates problems well beyond the inspection, since those same records prove correct tax payments to the Comptroller.

Penalties for Violations

TABC’s penalty structure escalates quickly and is designed to make a third offense genuinely threatening to a business. For the most serious public safety violations, each day of suspension can be converted into a $300-per-day fine as an alternative, but the length of suspension is what gets attention.¹⁶

Selling alcohol to a minor carries these administrative penalties:

First violation: 8 to 12 day suspension
Second violation: 16 to 24 day suspension
Third violation: 48 day suspension up to permit cancellation

Serving an intoxicated person follows a similar pattern but escalates faster:

First violation: 8 to 12 day suspension
Second violation: 16 to 24 day suspension
Third violation: permit cancellation

Cancellation means you lose the permit, forfeit the $5,000 conduct surety bond if you had one, and cannot reapply for two years.⁵

Civil Liability Under the Dram Shop Act

Administrative penalties are not the only exposure. Under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, a permit holder can be sued if it served someone who was obviously intoxicated to the point of being a clear danger to themselves and others, and that intoxication was a direct cause of injury or property damage.¹⁷ The standard is “obviously intoxicated,” not just legally intoxicated, and a plaintiff must prove the signs were apparent at the time of service. When plaintiffs clear that bar, damages are often substantial, which is why most permit holders carry liquor liability insurance.

1
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. License and Permit Fees Chart
2
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. TABC License and Permit FAQs
3
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Required Certifications for Mixed Beverage Permit – Form L-CERT
4
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. FAQs
5
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Mixed Beverage Permit – MB – On-Premise Retailers
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Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Food and Beverage Certificate – FB
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Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Newspaper Publication Example Form
8
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Alcohol Industry Management System
9
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Protest a License
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Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. TABC License and Permit Types
11
State of Texas. Tax Code Chapter 183 – Mixed Beverage Taxes
12
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Cash and Credit Law
13
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. TABC Certification FAQs
14
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Sign Requirements
15
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Digital File Retention
16
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Public Safety Penalty Chart
17
Texas Legislature. Alcoholic Beverage Code Chapter 2 – Civil Liabilities