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How to Start a Massage Therapy Business in Michigan: Licenses, Costs & Requirements

Michigan regulates massage as a health profession, licensed by the Board of Massage Therapy in LARA under Part 179A of the Public Health Code. The individual credential is substantial: a board approved curriculum of 625 hours, the MBLEx, and a 3 year license cycle with 18 hours of continuing education. The establishment side is the surprise: Part 179A licenses individuals only, so Michigan licenses the therapist and not the room.

Researched from Michigan state sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.

The regulator: the Board of Massage Therapy in LARA

A Michigan massage practice answers to a health professions board, not a beauty board. Massage therapy is licensed by the Board of Massage Therapy in the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, through the Bureau of Professional Licensing, under Part 179A of the Public Health Code, Act 368 of 1978. The Board licenses individual massage therapists, and licenses and renewals for the LARA boards run through MiPLUS, the Michigan Professional Licensing User System. The health profession framing matters for two reasons a salon owner would not predict. The education bar is set as a board approved curriculum with a fixed hour count, backed by a national examination, and the licensing is entirely individual, so the state credential follows the therapist from room to room and employer to employer.

One institutional split surprises applicants every year. Massage therapy schools are licensed by the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, not by LARA and not by the Board of Massage Therapy. The Board approves the supervised curriculum a school delivers for licensure purposes, while the school's own authority to operate sits with a different department entirely. A prospective student therefore checks two things that live in two places: that the school is licensed to operate, and that its massage curriculum is the board approved supervised curriculum the licensing statute requires. Part 179A then does something quietly important for business planning: it licenses individuals only, and it creates no massage establishment license, which the establishment section below takes up in full.

Michigan massage practice requirements at a glance

Practitioner licenses: 625 hours, the MBLEx, and a 3 year cycle

The education requirement turns on a single enrollment date. Under MCL 333.17959, an applicant must complete a board approved supervised curriculum of 625 hours of classroom instruction if the applicant enrolls on or after August 1, 2017, and 500 hours if the applicant enrolled before that date, with the same split applied to a substantially equivalent out of state program. Anyone starting school now is on the 625 hour side of the line, and the date matters mainly to experienced therapists credentialed under the older standard or arriving from another state. The statute also requires successful passage of an examination meeting MCL 333.17961, and the examination adopted in the Board of Massage Therapy rules is the MBLEx, the Massage and Bodywork Licensure Examination of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards.

The money is best read exactly as the statute states it, because Michigan does not bundle it into a single quoted total. MCL 333.16334 sets an application processing fee of $20 and a license fee of $75 per year. The license cycle is 3 years under MCL 333.17965, so a new licensee should budget the $20 application processing fee plus $75 a year across the 3 year cycle, and a renewal carries the per year license fee for the new cycle on the same structure. Renewal is not automatic on payment alone: each 3 year cycle requires at least 18 hours of board approved continuing education in subjects related to the practice of massage therapy. Spread across the cycle that is a modest load, but it is a condition of renewal rather than a suggestion, and a therapist who reaches the renewal date without the hours has a licensing problem that scheduling cannot fix. Keep completion records with the license file, cycle by cycle.

The establishment question: no state establishment license

There is no massage establishment license, registration, or permit in Part 179A or in its fee section. The part licenses individuals only, so Michigan licenses the therapist and not the room: the therapist's license is the whole state credential for the practice, and it travels with the person into a solo studio, a rented treatment room, a clinic, or a salon. A massage practice therefore opens at the state level on the business filings in this guide, the entity, the assumed name, the Treasury registration for any retail sales, and the employer registrations if therapists or support staff are hired. No state inspector approves the premises as a massage establishment, because no state premises license exists to approve it under.

The salon crossover deserves its own paragraph because it shapes many Michigan practices. A massage therapist who works inside a salon carries their own Board of Massage Therapy license with them and practices under it wherever they work; the salon's cosmetology establishment license covers the salon's services and does not extend to massage, and the therapist's license does not extend to salon services. The Michigan hair salon guide covers the salon side of a shared premises. The honest limit on the state picture is the local one: the state framework sets no establishment license, and city or township rules are set locally, so a practice confirms the local position for its address rather than assuming the absence of a state license settles the premises question everywhere. That check is covered in the local section below.

Forming your LLC: the $50 filing and the February 15 annual statement

Most Michigan massage practice owners form a limited liability company so the debts and legal problems of the business stay with the business instead of following them home. An LLC is formed by filing Articles of Organization, Form 700, with the Corporations Division of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and the filing fee is $50 under MCL 450.5101. Filing runs online through the state's filing portal, and the company needs a resident agent and a registered office in Michigan, because that is where the state and process servers reach it. A professional LLC files Form 701 instead, also for $50, but the standard Form 700 is the filing for a massage practice.

The recurring duty is the annual statement, and Michigan's version is gentle but not toothless. Every LLC files an annual statement of resident agent and registered office with LARA not later than February 15 of each year, for a $25 fee, and an LLC formed after September 30 does not have to file a statement on the immediately following February 15. There is no late fee for a standard LLC. The consequence arrives on a longer fuse: if an LLC fails to file annual statements for 2 consecutive years, the administrator sends a notice, and if the missing statements and fees are not filed within 60 days after that notice, the LLC is not in good standing. While it is not in good standing, no certificate of good standing will issue, its name becomes available for use by another entity, and the administrator accepts no filings from it except a certificate of restoration of good standing, which costs $50. The LLC is not dissolved, it remains in existence, and it may continue to transact business while it restores itself. Adopt a written operating agreement even though it is never filed; it governs the money between members, and the statutory defaults are a poor substitute in a two owner business.

Registering your assumed name

Michigan calls a trade name an assumed name, and where you file yours depends on what kind of business you are, which is the detail out of state guides routinely get wrong. A sole proprietor or a general partnership files a certificate of assumed name with the county clerk of each county where the business is conducted or a location is maintained, under Act 101 of 1907. The county filing costs $6, the certificate runs for a term of 5 years, and a renewal certificate filed with the county clerk before expiration costs $4 and extends the name for another 5 years. Letting the term lapse is treated as abandonment of the name, so the renewal date belongs on the calendar from the day the business opens.

An LLC takes the state route instead. It files a certificate of assumed name with LARA for $25, and the certificate expires on December 31 of the fifth full calendar year following the year it was filed. The LLC can extend the name for additional consecutive 5 year periods with a renewal certificate, also $25, filed within 90 days before expiration, and the administrator must notify the LLC no later than 90 days before the name expires. A corporation pays $10 for its certificate of assumed name on the same December 31 term. One point owners miss: the filing only bites when the business trades under a name different from its own legal name. A massage practice that opens under the exact name on its Articles of Organization needs no assumed name filing at all, while the same business trading under a shorter storefront name needs the certificate in place before the sign goes up.

Getting your federal Employer Identification Number

Your Employer Identification Number is the one free, fast step in a Michigan opening. Apply on the IRS website and the number issues immediately; every LLC and corporation needs one for banking and payroll, and a sole proprietor needs one once they have employees. Michigan paperwork keys off it: if the business has an EIN, that number doubles as the Treasury account number for the state tax registrations covered below, and the unemployment insurance registration runs under it as well. Your bank and your card processor will ask for it before the first account opens. Get it after the entity exists and before the first state application, so the number never becomes the bottleneck when you sign a lease or set up payroll.

Sales tax: untaxed services and taxable retail

Michigan's sales tax is simpler than most states' because there is only one rate and only one level of government collecting it. The state sales tax is 6 percent on retail sales of tangible personal property, and Michigan has no city, local, or county sales tax, so the rate at the register is 6 percent anywhere in the state. The tax reaches retail transfers of tangible personal property, which means the service charge itself sits outside it: the massage service itself, the session a client books and receives in the treatment room, carry no sales tax. What a client takes home is different. Shampoo, cosmetics and other products the client takes home are taxable retail sales, and any property that goes with the customer in connection with a service is treated as a sale at retail. The business collects the 6 percent from the customer on those products and holds it for the state, so the point of sale has to itemize services and products separately from day one.

Before the first retail sale, register with the Department of Treasury. Registration runs through Michigan Treasury Online, using the Start a New Business e-registration, or on paper with Form 518, the Registration for Michigan Taxes. The online application is recognized within 15 minutes and processed within up to 48 hours, and if the business has an EIN it doubles as the Treasury account number. Registration issues the sales tax license, and the license runs on a calendar term: it is valid January through December of the current calendar year and is renewed annually. A business that sells tangible personal property alongside its services must hold the license even if retail is a small share of revenue, because the duty attaches to the retail sales, not to the size of the product shelf.

Renting a room, working in a salon, and hiring other therapists

Room rental in massage runs on ordinary business law rather than a rental license, because Part 179A has no equivalent of a booth renter credential: it licenses therapists, and a licensed therapist who rents a room in a spa, a clinic, or a salon needs no additional state credential to do it. The rent, the hours, the laundry, and the booking system are lease and contract questions between the parties. What does not change with the setting is the therapist's own position: the license is personal, the continuing education duty follows the licensee into every room, and the therapist remains answerable to the Board of Massage Therapy for practice in a rented room exactly as in a practice they own outright.

The duties arrive when the practice hires. A practice owner who employs other therapists is a Michigan employer on the full stack in the hiring section below: the Form 518 registration covering withholding and unemployment insurance, quarterly Wage and Tax reports in MiUI, and workers' compensation coverage where the act reaches the business. Classification discipline matters here as it does in the salon trades: a therapist the practice schedules, prices, and supplies like an employee is an employee for unemployment and tax purposes whatever the agreement calls them. And because the practice holds no establishment license that could cover anyone, each therapist on the floor, employee or renter, holds their own Board of Massage Therapy license, current and renewed on its own 3 year cycle, with its own 18 hours of continuing education behind it.

Hiring staff: withholding, unemployment, and wages

The first hire triggers the employer stack, and Michigan folds much of it into the registration you may already have filed. Form 518, the Registration for Michigan Taxes, registers a business for sales tax, use tax, income tax withholding, corporate income tax and unemployment insurance tax in one filing, and the Michigan Treasury Online e-registration replaces it online. An employer required to withhold federal tax must deduct and withhold Michigan income tax at 4.25 percent. Unemployment tax is paid entirely by the employer, and the Unemployment Insurance Agency issues the unemployment account number. A new non-construction employer pays 2.7 percent plus one third of its chargeable benefits component in year one, on the first $9,000 of each employee's wages for 2026 for employers in good standing, or on the first $9,500 for employers who do not meet the good standing criteria. Quarterly Wage and Tax reports are due even with no employees and no wages to report, and account management now runs in the new MiUI system, because MiWAM was permanently retired on November 2, 2026.

Two wage floor and coverage rules complete the stack. The Michigan minimum wage effective January 1, 2026 is $13.73 an hour, and the tipped minimum wage is $5.49 an hour provided the employee receives at least $8.24 in tips. Both rates are already scheduled to rise: on January 1, 2027 the full rate goes to $15.00 and the tipped rate to $6.30, so a business opening late in 2026 should build the higher floor into its pricing from the start. Workers' compensation runs under the Worker's Disability Compensation Act, which reaches private employers who regularly employ 3 or more employees at one time, and employers with fewer than 3 employees if at least one employee has been regularly employed at 35 or more hours a week for 13 weeks or longer during the preceding 52 weeks. An employer under the act secures payment of compensation through a policy from an insurer authorized to transact workers' compensation insurance in Michigan, or through authorized self-insurance.

The local layer: city and township rules are set locally

Because the state licenses only the therapist, the establishment layer for massage in Michigan is local by default, and this guide keeps that layer honest rather than filling it with specifics no state source verifies. The state framework sets no massage establishment license. City or township rules are set locally, which means the premises questions, whether the jurisdiction has its own requirements for a massage practice at the address, and whether zoning allows the use there, are answered by the city or township for that address and not by LARA. Two practices in adjoining jurisdictions can face different local answers under the same state license, and a permit position at one address does not travel to the next.

The sequence that follows is the reverse of the salon trades. Start at the Board of Massage Therapy for the people, then at city or township hall for the premises: confirm the local position and the zoning before the lease is signed, while the question is still cheap to ask. A therapist moving a practice across a municipal line should recheck the local layer at the new address rather than assuming the old address's answer holds. What never moves is the therapist's own license: it is statewide, personal, and current only while its 3 year cycle and continuing education are maintained, and it is the one credential every Michigan massage setting shares.

Insurance and the costs that keep coming back

The licensing layers above do not condition a license on a bond or an insurance filing, which makes Michigan simpler than states that build coverage into the application; the one coverage that is a legal duty rather than a choice is workers' compensation coverage for employees who fall under the act, covered in the hiring section. Insurance enters through the lease and through prudence: landlords require general liability coverage with the landlord named as an additional insured before handing over keys, and a working massage practice carries professional liability for its services and property coverage for the buildout, equipment and retail inventory.

Recurring state costs are predictable once they are listed in one place: the LLC annual statement at $25 each February, the assumed name renewal on its 5 year cycle, the sales tax license renewed annually on its January to December term, quarterly Wage and Tax reports whether or not wages were paid, and the practitioner and facility renewals on the cycles the calendar section lays out. Budget the renewal dates properly, because Michigan mixes fixed calendar deadlines, like February 15 and December 1, with anniversary dates keyed to the day a license first issued, and the two kinds are easy to confuse.

Your Michigan renewal calendar

• Every 3 years: each massage therapist license renews, with at least 18 hours of board approved continuing education completed in the cycle
• Every year, not later than February 15: the LLC annual statement is due to LARA at $25; an LLC formed after September 30 skips the immediately following February 15
• Every quarter: Wage and Tax reports are due to the Unemployment Insurance Agency in MiUI, even with no employees and no wages to report
• Every year, January through December term: the sales tax license renews with the Department of Treasury
• January 1, 2027: the minimum wage rises to $15.00 and the tipped wage to $6.30
• Every 5 years: a county assumed name certificate renews at $4 before expiration; an LLC certificate of assumed name renews at $25, filed within 90 days before its December 31 expiration
• Before opening and on any move: confirm the city or township position for the address, since no state establishment license exists

Official Michigan sources for this guide

• LARA, Massage Therapy licensing: the Board of Massage Therapy program under Part 179A, and the note that massage therapy schools are licensed by the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.17959: the board approved supervised curriculum of 625 hours for applicants enrolling on or after August 1, 2017, and 500 hours for earlier enrollment
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.17961: the examination requirement for massage therapy licensure
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.16334: massage therapy fees, the $20 application processing fee and the $75 per year license fee, in the part that licenses individuals only
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.17965: the 3 year license cycle and at least 18 hours of board approved continuing education per cycle
• Michigan Compiled Laws section 450.4207a: annual statements, the 2 year and 60 day good standing rule, and restoration of an LLC
• Department of Treasury, Who Needs a Sales Tax License: the 6 percent rate, the absence of any local sales tax, and registration for businesses that sell tangible personal property
• Department of Treasury, New Business registration: Michigan Treasury Online e-registration and Form 518 for sales tax, withholding, and unemployment insurance

This guide is general information researched from official Michigan sources, not legal or tax advice. Requirements, fees and forms change; verify the current rules with the agencies linked above before you file, sign or spend.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours of education does a Michigan massage therapist need?

An applicant who enrolls on or after August 1, 2017 must complete a board approved supervised curriculum of 625 hours of classroom instruction under MCL 333.17959. An applicant who enrolled before that date needs 500 hours. Massage therapy schools are licensed by the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, not LARA. Applicants also pass the MBLEx, the Massage and Bodywork Licensure Examination adopted in the Board's rules.

How much does a Michigan massage therapy license cost?

MCL 333.16334 sets a $20 application processing fee and a $75 per year license fee. The license cycle is 3 years, so the cost is the $20 application processing fee plus $75 a year across the 3 year cycle, with renewal on the same per year structure.

How often does a Michigan massage license renew, and how much continuing education does it take?

The license cycle is 3 years under MCL 333.17965. Renewal requires at least 18 hours of board approved continuing education per 3 year cycle, in subjects related to the practice of massage therapy.

Does Michigan license massage establishments?

No, not at the state level. Part 179A of the Public Health Code licenses individual massage therapists only and creates no massage establishment license, so Michigan licenses the therapist and not the room. City or township rules are set locally, so a practice should confirm the local position for its address.

Can a Michigan massage therapist work inside a salon?

Yes, on the therapist's own license. Part 179A licenses the individual, and the therapist carries that license wherever they practice, including inside a salon. The salon's own licenses cover the salon's services only, and the massage license covers massage only, so each practitioner works inside their own scope under their own board.

Are massage services subject to sales tax in Michigan?

The service charge sits outside the sales tax, because Michigan taxes retail sales of tangible personal property. Retail products a client takes home are taxable at the 6 percent state rate, and Michigan has no local sales tax. Register through Michigan Treasury Online e-registration or paper Form 518; the sales tax license runs January through December and renews annually.