How to Start a Hair Salon in Florida: Licenses, Costs & Requirements
Florida splits a salon launch into more pieces than most states. A license for every person who touches a client, a separate license for the space, a state filing for your company, and state tax accounts. This guide walks through each piece from the agencies' own published fees and rules.
State sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026Researched from Florida sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.
Who licenses hair salons in Florida
Hair salons in Florida are licensed by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), through its Board of Cosmetology, under Chapter 477 of the Florida Statutes. One detail trips up owners arriving from other states: Florida keeps a second, separate board in the same department. The Barbers' Board, under Chapter 476, licenses barbers and barbershops on its own rules, fees and renewal dates. A salon that employs barbers deals with both boards at once.
The rest of your setup spreads across three more agencies. The Division of Corporations, through its Sunbiz portal, takes your company filing and trade name. The Department of Revenue handles sales tax and reemployment tax on a single application. The Florida Department of Commerce publishes the minimum wage. Start at MyFloridaLicense and Chapter 477 itself.
Florida hair salon requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Agency | Cost | Key facts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmetologist license, one for each stylist | DBPR, Board of Cosmetology | $90 in state fees: $50 examination and $40 licensure | 1,200 hours; exam eligibility can begin at 1,000 hours; renews every 2 years |
| Salon license for the premises | DBPR, Board of Cosmetology | $95 with the application: $50 application fee, $40 license fee, $5 unlicensed activity fee | Tied to owner and address; renews November 30 of even years |
| LLC Articles of Organization | Division of Corporations, Sunbiz | $125 | One time filing |
| LLC annual report | Division of Corporations, Sunbiz | $138.75 | Due January 1 to May 1; a $400 late fee applies after May 1 |
| Fictitious name registration, if you trade under another name | Division of Corporations | $50 | Valid 5 years; advertise the name in a newspaper first |
| Employer Identification Number (EIN) | IRS | Free | Apply directly with the IRS |
| Sales tax registration, Form DR-1 | Department of Revenue | Free | Register before your first retail sale; the same form opens your reemployment account |
| Reemployment tax on wages | Department of Revenue | 2.7 percent of the first $7,000 of wages per employee, new employer rate | Filed quarterly on Form RT-6 once you hire |
Florida licenses and registrations for the people who do the hair
Every person who provides a regulated service in your salon must hold their own DBPR license or registration; no salon license covers your staff. Chapter 477 gives you one full license and three specialty registrations: the cosmetologist sits a state examination, while specialists register without one.
| License or registration | Training hours | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmetologist (license) | 1,200 hours | The full scope: hair services, hair removal including wax treatments, manicures, pedicures and skin care. |
| Full Specialist (registration) | 400 hours | Manicuring, pedicuring, facials and skin care combined. No state examination. |
| Facial Specialist (registration) | 220 hours | Facials and skin care services. No state examination. |
| Nail Specialist (registration) | 180 hours | Manicuring and pedicuring, including artificial nails. No state examination. |
The cosmetologist path runs like this. You complete 1,200 hours of training at a licensed school. Board rules let your school certify you to take the state examination after 1,000 actual hours: pass, and the training requirement is satisfied; fail, and you must finish the full 1,200 hours before you can retest. The minimum age is 16, or you hold a high school diploma. State fees are $50 for the examination and $40 for the original license. Once you have passed, you may work under the supervision of a licensed cosmetologist in a licensed salon while your license is issued. The license renews every two years, expiring October 31 of odd years for one renewal group and even years for the other, with 10 hours of board approved continuing education and a $40 renewal fee in the current cycle. Renew late and DBPR adds a delinquent fee on top of the $40.
Specialists skip the examination entirely. A nail, facial or full specialist completes the hours above at a licensed school, then registers with DBPR on application and fee: a $30 application fee plus a $40 initial registration fee. While registration is pending, the applicant may practice under the supervision of a registered specialist in a licensed salon. Registrations renew on the same two year cycle and October 31 deadlines as cosmetologist licenses. Barbers sit outside this section entirely: the Barbers' Board licenses them under Chapter 476, covered in our Florida barbershop guide.
Verify every applicant's license or registration with DBPR before their first shift: an unlicensed person providing services puts your salon license at risk, not just their own. Match the service to the credential, too. A nail specialist registration does not cover hair color, and a facial specialist registration does not cover manicures; the full specialist registration exists for staff who work across the nail and skin line.
The salon license for your space
Separate from every individual license, the salon itself needs a DBPR salon license before it opens. Chapter 477 provides for cosmetology salons, specialty salons and mobile cosmetology salons. A multi chair hair salon applies as a cosmetology salon. The cost is the same either way: $95 in total on DBPR's salon application, Form COSMO 6, made up of a $50 non-refundable application fee, a $40 license fee set by Rule 61G5-24.005, and a $5 unlicensed activity fee.
The space has to meet DBPR's facility rule, Rule 61G5-20.002, and inspectors check against it. A full service salon needs a minimum of 100 square feet of floor space, and no more than one cosmetologist or specialist may work at that minimum size; each additional licensee needs another 50 square feet. A specialty salon runs on the same math: 100 square feet for one specialist, plus 50 square feet for each additional licensee. Salons need shampoo bowls with hot and cold running water; a specialty salon may substitute a sink or lavatory with hot and cold running water. Toilet and lavatory facilities must be on the premises or in the same building within 300 feet. The salon must be well ventilated, and nail extension and sculpting services need a separate ventilated area.
The license is tied to that licensee at that address. It does not transfer to a buyer, and only the mailing address can be changed on an existing license: a change of name, ownership or physical address requires a new application. Salon licenses renew every two years and expire November 30 of even numbered years. Miss the renewal and the license goes delinquent: renewing it costs the renewal fee plus a $25 delinquent fee under Rule 61G5-24.009. Leave it delinquent through the end of that two year cycle and the license expires, and opening again means a new salon application. A salon license cannot be placed on inactive status. And you do not need a cosmetology license to own the salon: you need the salon license, and licensed people doing the work.
Forming your LLC with the Division of Corporations
Most first-time salon owners form a limited liability company so the business's debts stay with the business instead of following them home. In Florida you form an LLC by filing Articles of Organization with the Division of Corporations, usually online through its Sunbiz portal. The state fee is $125: a $100 filing fee plus a $25 registered agent designation fee. Your registered agent needs a Florida street address and signs the filing, and the company name must include a limited liability company designator.
Florida then asks for one filing every year, and it is the one new owners most often miss. Beginning the calendar year after your LLC takes effect, you file an annual report on Sunbiz between January 1 and May 1, at $138.75. File after May 1 and a $400 late fee applies. Leave it unfiled into late September and the state administratively dissolves the company. Florida has no general state business license beyond the DBPR licenses above; the annual report is the recurring state obligation for the entity itself.
Forming the LLC: file the Articles of Organization yourself on Sunbiz for the $125 state fee, or pay a formation service to file it. The fee is $125 either way; a service is optional, never a requirement.
Registering your salon name as a fictitious name
If your salon will operate under a name different from your legal entity name, Florida calls that name a fictitious name. One Florida difference matters: you file with the Division of Corporations at the state level, not with a county clerk. The fee is $50 under the Fictitious Name Act, section 865.09 of the Florida Statutes.
Before you register, you must advertise the fictitious name at least once in a newspaper in the county of your principal place of business, and you certify that advertisement when you sign the registration. The registration is valid for five years and expires on December 31 of the fifth year. Trading under your LLC's exact legal name needs no registration at all. A fictitious name is not a license and does not create your entity; it simply puts the public on notice of your trade name.
Getting your federal Employer Identification Number
Your EIN is your business's federal tax ID, issued by the IRS. You need one to hire employees, open most business bank accounts and file business taxes. It is free when you apply with the IRS directly. Ignore any website charging for one; the form is free from the government.
Florida sales tax: services are not taxed, retail products are
The Florida rule that matters most at your register: beauty services themselves are not subject to Florida sales tax. Florida taxes retail sales of tangible personal property, and only a short list of services named in the statute; haircutting, coloring, nail and skin services are not on that list. Retail product sales are taxable. The take-home shampoo and styling products a client buys at the front desk are retail sales, and you collect tax on them.
You register with the Department of Revenue on the Florida Business Tax Application, Form DR-1, before your first retail sale. Registration is free, and the Department issues a Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11) and an Annual Resale Certificate (Form DR-13). The rate is 6 percent state tax plus your county's discretionary sales surtax. Itemize services and products separately from day one, use the resale certificate when you buy inventory you will resell, and remit what you collect on Form DR-15 at the filing frequency the Department assigns you. Products your salon consumes while providing services are not resale purchases. The Department's own summary is Florida's Sales and Use Tax (GT-800013).
Rent got cheaper in 2025: Florida was long the only state that taxed commercial rent. That tax is gone for rental or occupancy periods beginning on or after October 1, 2025, under Department of Revenue Tax Information Publication 25A01-04. If a landlord's quote still adds sales tax to your salon rent for current periods, that line should not be there.
Hiring staff: reemployment tax, minimum wage and classification
Florida has no state personal income tax; the state constitution prohibits one, so there is no state withholding account to open. The state employer tax that does apply is the reemployment tax, Florida's unemployment tax, administered by the Department of Revenue. You register for it on the same Form DR-1 as your sales tax account. Liability begins when you pay $1,500 or more in wages in a calendar quarter, or employ at least one person in 20 different weeks in a year. New employers pay 2.7 percent on the first $7,000 of wages per employee per year, reported quarterly on Form RT-6. Report every new hire to the Florida New Hire Reporting Center within 20 days of their start date.
Florida's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, effective September 30, 2026, the final scheduled increase under the constitutional amendment voters approved in 2020. For tipped employees the minimum direct cash wage is $11.98 an hour, reflecting the state's $3.02 tip credit. The Florida Department of Commerce publishes the rate and the poster you must display.
The structural decision is employees or booth renters. Florida expects cosmetology services to be performed in a licensed salon, and every practitioner, employee or renter, needs their own license or registration in force. A true booth renter sets their own prices and hours, collects their own money and files their own taxes. If you set a stylist's schedule, prices and product lineup, the relationship looks like employment. Put booth rental agreements in writing.
City zoning, occupancy and the local layer
State licenses do not guarantee your location is legal. Your city controls zoning, and a salon has to be a permitted use at the address you choose. Before you sign a lease, confirm with the city that a hair salon can operate in that space. Most cities issue a certificate of occupancy, and many cities and counties also issue a local business tax receipt before you open; salons commonly need local permits and inspections tied to the build out, plumbing, fire safety and signage. Fees vary city by city, so your city's development services office is the authority for your address. A cheap space in the wrong zoning category, or one that cannot meet DBPR's plumbing and ventilation rules, is not cheap once you have paid for chairs and bowls you cannot legally use.
Insurance and the costs that keep coming back
Beyond the state fees above, salon owners typically shop for general liability coverage, professional liability coverage, and property coverage for the build out, chairs, dryers and retail inventory. Premiums vary widely with your city, service menu and team size, so this guide does not quote benchmark prices that would be wrong for your shop. Your recurring state costs, by contrast, are small and predictable: license renewals on DBPR's two year cycles, the $138.75 Sunbiz annual report every spring, sales tax remitted on retail products only, and quarterly reemployment tax once you employ staff. The expensive mistakes in a Florida launch are almost never the state fees. They are the lease signed before zoning was checked, and the stylist hired before their license was verified.
Dates to put on your calendar
- October 31, every two years: practitioner licenses and registrations renew, Group 1 in odd years and Group 2 in even years.
- November 30, even years: salon license renewal. After the deadline a $25 delinquent fee applies on top of the renewal fee, and a license left delinquent expires at the end of the cycle.
- January 1 to May 1, every year: LLC annual report on Sunbiz, $138.75. After May 1 the $400 late fee applies.
- Every five years: fictitious name renewal, expiring December 31 of the fifth year.
- Quarterly: reemployment tax return, Form RT-6; sales tax returns on Form DR-15 at the frequency the Department assigns.
- Within 20 days of each hire: new hire report to the Florida New Hire Reporting Center.
This guide is general information researched from official Florida state sources, not legal or tax advice. Requirements, fees and forms change; verify the current rules with DBPR and the other agencies linked above before you file, sign or spend.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a cosmetology license to own a hair salon in Florida?
No. The owner of a Florida salon does not have to hold a cosmetology license. What DBPR requires is a salon license for the premises, and every person who provides services in it must hold their own license or registration. If you plan to work behind the chair yourself, you need your own cosmetologist license.
How many hours of school does a Florida cosmetologist need?
A Florida cosmetologist completes 1,200 hours of training at a licensed school. Your school can certify you to take the state examination after 1,000 actual hours; pass, and the training requirement is satisfied, but if you fail you must complete the full 1,200 hours before retesting. State fees are $50 for the examination and $40 for the original license, and the license renews every two years.
How much does a Florida salon license cost?
DBPR's salon application, Form COSMO 6, totals $95: a $50 non-refundable application fee, a $40 salon license fee and a $5 unlicensed activity fee. The license renews every two years, expiring November 30 of even numbered years, and it cannot be transferred: a change of owner, name or address means a new application.
Are hair services subject to sales tax in Florida?
Generally, no. Florida taxes retail sales of tangible personal property and only a short list of services set out in statute, and hair, nail and skin services are not on that list. Retail product sales are taxable, so take-home products are charged the 6 percent state rate plus your county discretionary sales surtax. Register with the Department of Revenue on Form DR-1 before your first retail sale, and itemize services and products separately.
Does Florida charge sales tax on salon rent?
Not for current rental periods. Florida used to tax commercial rent, but that tax was repealed for rental or occupancy periods beginning on or after October 1, 2025, per Department of Revenue Tax Information Publication 25A01-04. Rent for periods before that date is still taxable, even if it is paid late.
How much does it cost to form an LLC in Florida?
Forming a Florida LLC costs $125: a $100 filing fee for the Articles of Organization plus a $25 registered agent designation fee, filed with the Division of Corporations through Sunbiz. The annual report costs $138.75, due between January 1 and May 1 each year; filing after May 1 adds a $400 late fee.