How to Start a Massage Therapy Business in Florida: Licenses, Costs & Requirements
Florida licenses massage therapy as a health profession, through the Department of Health rather than the department that licenses its salons. A license for every therapist who puts hands on a client, a separate establishment license that cannot issue until your space passes inspection, a named manager responsible for the establishment, 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.
On this page
- Who licenses massage therapy in Florida
- Florida massage therapy requirements at a glance
- Florida licenses for the people who provide massage
- The Massage Establishment license for your space
- Forming your LLC with the Division of Corporations
- Registering your business name as a fictitious name
- Getting your federal Employer Identification Number
- Florida sales tax: services are not taxed, retail products are
- Florida reemployment tax for employers
- Hiring staff: wages, classification and workers' comp
- City zoning, occupancy and the local layer
- Insurance and the costs that keep coming back
- Dates to put on your calendar
- Frequently asked questions
Who licenses massage therapy in Florida
Massage therapy in Florida is licensed by the Board of Massage Therapy, inside the Florida Department of Health. That is a different home from the rest of Florida beauty licensing, and owners arriving from the salon side get this wrong first. Hair salons answer to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Massage answers to Health, because Florida treats it as a health profession. The statute is Chapter 480 of the Florida Statutes, and the board rules sit at Chapter 64B7 of the Florida Administrative Code. The board's site is floridasmassagetherapy.gov, and its application forms, including the therapist application Form DH-MQA 1115 and the establishment application Form DH-MQA 1263, are the documents your launch runs on.
Keep that separation in mind if your business will offer massage alongside salon services. The massage side answers to the Board of Massage Therapy under Chapter 480, with its own establishment license, inspection and manager requirement. The salon side answers to a different department under different chapters. Neither license covers the other trade, and a combined business carries both tracks at once.
The rest of your setup spreads across the agencies you will meet in any Florida launch. The Division of Corporations, through Sunbiz, takes your company filing, annual report and fictitious name registration. The Department of Revenue handles sales tax registration on Form DR-1 and the reemployment tax account. Your city and county add zoning and occupancy on top.
Florida massage therapy requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Agency | Cost | Key facts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licensed Massage Therapist license, by examination, one for each therapist | Board of Massage Therapy, Department of Health | $155 total: $50 application, $100 initial licensure, $5 unlicensed activity | 500 classroom hours at a board approved school; MBLEx; fingerprints; renews biennially |
| Massage Establishment license | Board of Massage Therapy, Department of Health | $255 total: $50 application, $100 initial licensure, $100 inspection, $5 unlicensed activity | Inspection must pass before the license issues; named DEM required; per location, non-transferable |
| 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 | Plus newspaper publication in the county of the principal place of business |
| 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 |
| Reemployment tax on wages | Department of Revenue | 2.7 percent of the first $7,000 of wages per employee, new employer rate | Applies once you employ staff |
| Therapist renewal and continuing education | Board of Massage Therapy | $105 renewal | Expires August 31 of odd numbered years; 24 hours of CE per biennium |
Florida licenses for the people who provide massage
Every person who provides massage in your business must hold their own Florida Licensed Massage Therapist license. No establishment license covers your staff, and the route described here is licensure by examination, the standard path for a new therapist entering practice in Florida.
| Requirement | What Florida requires |
|---|---|
| Education | 500 classroom hours at a board approved massage school, with the curriculum components in Rule 64B7-32.003 |
| Anatomy and Physiology | 150 hours |
| Basic Massage Theory and History | 100 hours |
| Florida Laws and Rules | 10 hours |
| Professional Ethics | 4 hours |
| HIV/AIDS Education | 3 hours |
| Medical Errors | 2 hours |
| Examination | Pass a board designated national examination, the MBLEx |
| Background screening | Fingerprint background screening required |
| Age and education credential | 18 or older, or high school diploma / GED |
| Total initial cost | $155: $50 application fee (nonrefundable), $100 initial licensure fee, $5 unlicensed activity fee |
| Renewal | Biennial, expiring August 31 of odd numbered years; $105; 24 hours of board approved continuing education per biennium |
The curriculum detail is where Florida is more specific than a simple hour count. The 500 hours must be completed at a board approved massage school, and Rule 64B7-32.003 sets the components inside the total: 150 hours of anatomy and physiology, 100 hours of basic massage theory and history, 10 hours of Florida laws and rules, 4 hours of professional ethics, 3 hours of HIV/AIDS education and 2 hours of medical errors. Those components are part of the 500 hour total, not additions to it. When you compare schools, compare them against that breakdown, because a program with the right total and the wrong composition is a problem you want to find before enrollment, not at application.
After school comes the examination and screening. You pass a board designated national examination, the MBLEx, and you complete fingerprint background screening. The state cost by examination is $155 in total: a $50 application fee, which is nonrefundable, a $100 initial licensure fee and a $5 unlicensed activity fee. Renewal then runs on a fixed statewide rhythm. Therapist licenses renew biennially and expire August 31 of odd numbered years, the renewal fee is $105, and therapists complete 24 hours of board approved continuing education per biennium. That shared expiration date means your whole staff renews in the same season, so track it as a business calendar item, not as each therapist's private errand.
One route no longer exists, and older guides still describe it as if it does. The apprenticeship route is closed: no new apprentice licenses were issued after July 1, 2020, and all apprenticeships had to complete by July 1, 2023, under section 480.041(7) of the Florida Statutes. If a candidate's plan depends on apprenticing into licensure, that plan is out of date. The school and examination route above is the path a new Florida therapist takes.
Verify every applicant's license with the board before their first shift. An unlicensed person providing massage puts your establishment license at risk, not just their own. Match the credential to the service as well: staff who also perform salon services need the separate credentials those services require from their own board.
The Massage Establishment license for your space
Separate from every individual license, the location itself needs a Massage Establishment license, applied for on Form DH-MQA 1263 under Rule 64B7-26.002. The total initial cost is $255: a $50 application fee, a $100 initial licensure fee, a $100 inspection fee and a $5 unlicensed activity fee. Two features of this license shape your entire opening plan, and both are easy to miss if you plan from salon experience: the inspection comes before the license, and the license names a manager.
First, the inspection. The establishment must pass a Department of Health inspection before the license is issued. The sequence is application, inspection, then issuance, in that order. And Florida states the second half of the rule just as clearly: passing an inspection is not by itself authorization to operate. The license must be issued first. A passed inspection feels like a green light, and inspectors, landlords and excited staff will all treat it like one, but legally the green light is the issued license. Do not book clients, advertise an opening date or start services on the strength of a passed inspection. Build your build out and fit out schedule so the space is inspection ready early, apply early, and let the issuance date set the opening date.
Second, the manager. Every establishment must name a Designated Establishment Manager, called a DEM, who is responsible for the operation of the establishment under Chapter 480. The DEM must be a licensed massage therapist, a Chapter 457 acupuncturist, or a Chapter 458, 459 or 460 physician, holding a clear, active and unrestricted license. This is not a paper title for a silent partner. Choose a person who actually oversees the operation, confirm their license status before you name them, and understand that a change in who manages the establishment is a licensing event to handle with the board, not just an internal staffing note. If you, the owner, are a licensed massage therapist, you may be your own DEM. If you are a non-practitioner owner, your DEM hire or partner is a foundational decision, on the same level as the location itself.
The license is also strictly local. It is location specific and non-transferable: it belongs to that establishment at that address, and a change of ownership requires a new application, at $255 again. A second location is a second license. Buying an existing massage business does not buy its license. Owners also undergo Livescan fingerprint background screening, so the owner's screening belongs in the application timeline alongside the inspection. Establishment licenses renew on the same rhythm as therapist licenses, biennially, expiring August 31 of odd numbered years. And as on the practitioner side, you do not need a massage therapist license to own the business: you need the establishment license, a qualified DEM, and licensed therapists providing the services.
Forming your LLC with the Division of Corporations
Most first time massage business 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 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. Florida has no general state business license beyond the board licenses above; the annual report is the recurring state obligation for the entity itself. Form the entity before you apply for the establishment license, so the applicant name, the lease name and the bank account name match from the start.
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 business name as a fictitious name
If your business will operate under a name different from your legal entity name, Florida calls that name a fictitious name. You file with the Division of Corporations at the state level, not with a county clerk. The fee is $50. Before you register, you publish the name: fictitious name registration requires newspaper publication in the county of your principal place of business. Budget for the publication cost in your county as a separate local expense, because it is not part of the $50 state fee. 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 puts the public on notice of your trade name, and your bank will typically want to see it before opening accounts in that 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. Apply early, while the entity paperwork is fresh, so the EIN never becomes a bottleneck when you open accounts, set up payroll or answer an application question. Keep the confirmation with your formation papers, because the same number is asked for again and again during a launch.
Florida sales tax: services are not taxed, retail products are
The Florida rule that matters most at your register: services are not taxed in Florida, and retail products are. The massage session is a service, so the session price is not charged sales tax. The take home 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. The rate is 6 percent state tax plus your county's discretionary sales surtax. Itemize services and products separately from day one, so tax is collected only on the products and your records prove it. One related change matters if your lease math is older than this year: Florida's tax on commercial rent was repealed for rental or occupancy periods on or after October 1, 2025. If a landlord's quote still adds sales tax to your rent for a current period, that line should not be there.
Florida reemployment tax for employers
Florida has no state personal income tax, 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, and you register for it on the same Form DR-1 as your sales tax account. New employers pay 2.7 percent on the first $7,000 of wages per employee per year. That wage cap keeps the tax predictable for a small studio: the per employee exposure in a year is a small, calculable figure, and it belongs in your labor cost model from the first hire rather than arriving as a surprise in your first filing season. Keep payroll records clean from day one, because the tax runs on wages actually paid, therapist by therapist.
Hiring staff: wages, classification and workers' comp
Florida's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, effective September 30, 2026. For tipped employees the minimum direct cash wage is $11.98 an hour. Massage therapists are not typically tipped wage staff in the way servers are, but gratuities are a normal part of massage income, so set your pay structure, tip handling and payroll treatment deliberately and in writing before the first therapist starts, not after the first pay period raises questions.
Workers' compensation in Florida is not optional the way it is in Texas. Coverage is mandatory at 4 or more employees, and at 1 or more in construction. A growing studio crosses the four employee line quickly, and massage is physical work with real injury exposure, so treat the coverage decision as part of opening rather than part of scaling. Confirm your obligation against your actual headcount with the state before you open, because part time and full time counting questions are exactly the kind of detail that should be settled from an official source, not assumed.
The structural decision is employees or independent renters. A true renter sets their own prices and hours, collects their own money and files their own taxes. If you set a therapist's schedule, prices and protocols and collect their money as your revenue, the relationship looks like employment. The licensing overlay applies either way: whoever provides massage needs their own LMT license, and the location needs its establishment license with its named DEM. Put agreements in writing, and treat classification as a legal decision, not a payroll preference.
City zoning, occupancy and the local layer
State licenses do not guarantee your location is legal. Your city controls zoning, and a massage business has to be a permitted use at the address you choose. Before you sign a lease, confirm with the city that a massage establishment can operate in that space, and ask what the build out will require. Most cities issue a certificate of occupancy, and businesses 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.
The local layer interacts with the state layer in one specific way: your Department of Health inspection happens at the finished location, so local build out delays become state licensing delays. Sequence the work backwards from the inspection. Finish the rooms and plumbing, pass your local inspections, then bring the state inspection into a space that is actually ready for it.
Insurance and the costs that keep coming back
Beyond the state fees above, massage business owners typically shop for general liability coverage, professional liability coverage for the services performed, and property coverage for the build out, tables and 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 studio. Get quotes before your lease starts, because many landlords require proof of liability coverage as a lease condition, and coverage needs to be in force when the first client is on the table.
Your recurring state costs are small and predictable: therapist renewals at $105 and 24 hours of continuing education per therapist every biennium, establishment renewal on the same August 31 cycle, the $138.75 Sunbiz annual report every spring, sales tax remitted on retail products only, and reemployment tax once you employ staff. The expensive mistakes are almost never the state fees. They are the opening advertised before the establishment license issued, the DEM named without checking that their license is clear, active and unrestricted, and the location treated as licensed because it passed inspection.
Dates to put on your calendar
- August 31, odd numbered years: therapist and establishment licenses expire and renew. Therapist renewal is $105, with 24 hours of board approved continuing education per biennium.
- January 1 to May 1, every year: LLC annual report on Sunbiz, $138.75. After May 1 the $400 late fee applies.
- Before you open: Department of Health inspection passed, and then the establishment license issued. Passing inspection alone is not authorization to operate.
- On the Department of Revenue's schedule: sales tax returns and remittance for retail product sales, at your assigned filing frequency.
- Once you hire: reemployment tax on wages, at the 2.7 percent new employer rate on the first $7,000 per employee.
- On any change of ownership or location: a new establishment application. The license is per location and does not transfer.
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 the Board of Massage Therapy and the other agencies linked above before you file, sign or spend.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a massage therapist license to own a massage business in Florida?
No. Florida licenses the therapist and the establishment separately. The owner needs a Massage Establishment license for the location, and every therapist who provides massage there needs their own Licensed Massage Therapist license. If you plan to provide massage yourself, you need the therapist license as well.
How many hours of school does a Florida massage therapist need?
A Florida Licensed Massage Therapist completes 500 classroom hours at a board approved massage school. The curriculum in Rule 64B7-32.003 includes 150 hours of anatomy and physiology, 100 hours of basic massage theory and history, 10 hours of Florida laws and rules, 4 hours of professional ethics, 3 hours of HIV/AIDS education and 2 hours of medical errors, as components of the 500 hour total.
How much does it cost to get licensed as a massage therapist in Florida?
By examination, the total initial cost is $155: a $50 application fee, a $100 initial licensure fee and a $5 unlicensed activity fee. You also pass the MBLEx and complete fingerprint background screening.
How much does a Florida massage establishment license cost?
The total initial cost is $255: a $50 application fee, a $100 initial licensure fee, a $100 inspection fee and a $5 unlicensed activity fee. The establishment must pass a Department of Health inspection before the license is issued, and passing the inspection alone is not authorization to operate.
What is a Designated Establishment Manager in Florida?
Every Florida massage establishment must name a Designated Establishment Manager, called a DEM. The DEM is a licensed massage therapist, a Chapter 457 acupuncturist, or a Chapter 458, 459 or 460 physician, holding a clear, active and unrestricted license, who is responsible for the operation of the establishment under Chapter 480.
When do Florida massage licenses renew and how much continuing education is required?
Therapist and establishment licenses renew biennially and expire August 31 of odd numbered years. The therapist renewal fee is $105, and therapists complete 24 hours of board approved continuing education per biennium.