How to Start an Esthetics Business in Montana

Who regulates esthetics in Montana

Esthetics is one of the six practices licensed by the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists, in the Business Standards Division of the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, under Title 37, chapter 31 of the Montana Code Annotated. The board licenses estheticians and electrologists as separate credentials, licenses the premises where they work as salons or shops, and sets its fees by rule at ARM 24.121.401, adopted effective November 22, 2025: $100 for each practice license, $125 for the salon or shop license, $150 for the inspection, and $95 for a booth rental license. Older board materials still circulating print a superseded $80 practice fee; the adopted rule is the figure to budget from.

The neighboring regulators mark the trade's edges. The board states that it does not regulate tattooing, permanent makeup or microblading, which belong to the Department of Public Health and Human Services under Title 50, chapter 48, so permanent brow and lip work is never an esthetics add on. Medical services sit further away again, with the medical regulators, and nothing in the esthetician license reaches them. The Secretary of State takes the studio's LLC and name filings, the Department of Revenue runs income tax and withholding in a state with no general sales tax, and your city or county controls zoning and the premises.

Montana esthetics at a glance

The esthetician license, step by step

The esthetician's scope is set by the definition in section 37-31-101: esthetics means skin care of the body, including but not limited to hot compresses or the use of safety approved electrical appliances or chemical compounds formulated for professional application only, and the temporary removal of superfluous hair by means of lotions, creams, or mechanical or electrical apparatus or appliances on another person. Read plainly, that sentence carries the modern studio menu: facials and skin treatments, professional grade peels and compounds, device based services using safety approved appliances, and waxing and other temporary hair removal. It also draws the trade's two hard lines. The hair removal it grants is temporary only. And the license is a skin license; it carries no haircutting, no chemical hair services and no nails beyond what the definition says.

Section 37-31-304 sets two routes to the license. The school route is 650 hours of esthetics education in a school licensed under section 37-31-311, which sets the same 650 hour floor for the esthetics curriculum and requires the school to furnish a $5,000 bond, for an applicant who is at least 18, of good moral character, and a high school graduate or the equivalent, followed by the board's examinations and the $100 fee for a two year term. The second route is the one experienced practitioners should notice: an applicant already licensed as a cosmetologist may be licensed as an esthetician on passage of the esthetics examination, because the cosmetology curriculum already contains the esthetics foundation. For a salon owner cross training a senior stylist into the skin room, that examination only path is the cheapest credential in the Montana cluster. Out-of-state estheticians use the endorsement route in the same section when their home state's hours equal or exceed 650 and the license is current and undisciplined, and new entrants can also train through the registered apprenticeship pathway at ARM 24.121.620, effective November 22, 2025, under a licensed mentor in a licensed salon.

The neighboring license completes the hiring picture. Electrology, defined as permanently removing superfluous hair by destroying the hair roots through an electric current with an electrified needle, is its own practice at 600 hours and its own $100 license; the definition adds that electrology may include waxes and chemical depilatories, while pilethermology, removal by radio frequency energy with electronic tweezers, is expressly not electrology. A studio building a hair removal menu therefore staffs temporary removal with estheticians and permanent removal with an electrologist, and markets the two honestly as different services. The esthetician license renews March 1 of the renewal year, with 45 days of late online renewal at a late fee equal to 100 percent of the renewal fee.

The salon or shop license for your studio

An esthetics studio takes the standard premises license: the salon or shop license under section 37-31-302, on the application that carries the $125 license fee and the $150 inspection fee together, renewing every July 1 at $125. Operating unlicensed premises is unlawful, and the owner may not employ an unlicensed person in any of the six practices, so every esthetician and electrologist on the floor holds her own current license. The same framework covers mobile salons and shops, and the residence rule in section 37-31-101 governs the home studio: a room in a residence is outside the salon or shop definition only while it serves residents, and paying nonresident clients make it premises that must be licensed, with local home occupation zoning as a second gate.

The license is tied to the location and the operator in the application. Moving the studio requires a new salon or shop license application, and so does an ownership change of more than 50 percent. A solo esthetician renting a treatment room inside an existing licensed salon usually takes the booth rental route in the next sections instead of a second salon license; a solo esthetician opening her own storefront takes the salon or shop license herself.

Forming your business: the LLC

Most Montana esthetics studios form a limited liability company under Title 35, chapter 8. Formation is one filing: Articles of Organization to the Secretary of State's Business Services division through the online filing portal, for $35, naming the company and its registered agent in Montana. Amendments cost $15, termination costs nothing, and a certificate of existence costs $5 when a landlord or lender asks for proof of standing.

The recurring obligation is the annual report, due April 15 each year, with the fee waived when the report is filed by April 15 and $35 when filed after. A company that lets its reports lapse faces reinstatement at $35 plus $35 for each delinquent year. The report keeps the entity, and the liability shield the lease and licenses sit inside, alive on the register.

Registering your studio name

A studio trading under a name other than its legal name registers an assumed business name with the Secretary of State under Title 30, chapter 13, part 2, for $20. Under section 30-13-206 the registration is effective for five years and renews for another five year term at $20, with the Secretary of State notifying registrants before expiration. Amending costs $20 and canceling is free. A $10 name reservation can hold a name during organization, but it is a different instrument from the registration, and both run on clocks separate from the LLC's April 15 annual report.

Getting your EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the federal tax identity for the business, issued free by the IRS. An esthetics studio with employees needs one before the first payroll, because Montana withholding and unemployment reporting key off it, and a single member LLC that elects corporate tax treatment or opens a business bank account will be asked for one as well. Apply on the IRS site, keep the number with the LLC records, and use the same legal name on the EIN record, the Secretary of State filings and the board's salon license application so the three files match.

Sales tax: the tax Montana does not have

Montana has no general sales tax, and the Department of Revenue's sales tax guidance for Montana businesses and residents confirms it. For an esthetics studio that means no tax collected on a facial, a peel or a wax, and none on the retail shelf either: the skin care products a client takes home are sold without a state sales tax, and there is no sales tax permit to obtain or return to file. Studios in most states split taxed retail from untaxed services at the register; a Montana studio never makes that split.

The qualifications still apply. Studio profits remain subject to Montana income tax, on the owners' returns for a pass-through LLC, and employers register for withholding and unemployment insurance as the hiring section describes. A studio in a designated resort community may face the local resort tax on its retail sales and should confirm its position with the community and the Department of Revenue. Products shipped to customers in other states follow those states' rules; Montana's clean register ends at the state line.

Booth rent in Montana: the esthetician holds her own license

The treatment room model in Montana runs on the booth rental license. Section 37-31-101 defines a booth as any part of a salon or shop rented or leased for performing the licensed services, and section 37-31-302 makes it unlawful to operate a booth without a booth rental license. The license is the esthetician's own: $95 to apply and $95 to renew, on the annual July 1 premises calendar. The board's conditions require a current Montana practice license in good standing, esthetician and electrologist licenses both qualify, and require that the renter not be employed by the owner of the shop as employment is defined in section 39-51-204(1)(e).

That unemployment definition doubles as the drafting template for the room agreement: the renter's written acknowledgment that she is not covered by unemployment insurance and workers' compensation, a contract with the salon, freedom from the owner's control and direction, payment from her own clientele, and her own equipment, skills and knowledge, in an agreement that can support a breach of contract action. The salon suite guide examines the renter's position in this structure in full. An owner who prefers employees hires estheticians under the salon license and takes the payroll obligations in the next section.

Hiring estheticians: wages, unemployment and withholding

Montana's minimum wage is $10.85 an hour from January 1, 2026, under the annual inflation adjustment in section 39-3-409, up from $10.55 in 2025 and recalculated every fall. Montana allows no tip credit, so a tipped esthetician is paid the full $10.85 in wages with tips on top. An esthetician the studio schedules, prices and directs is an employee for wage and tax purposes whatever the paperwork calls her; independence in Montana comes from the booth rental license and its written contract, not from a label.

Hiring triggers three registrations. The studio registers with the Unemployment Insurance Division and pays contributions on the first $47,300 of each employee's wages in 2026, the wage base set at 80 percent of the state average annual wage; new employers start at their industry's average rate, which for services in 2026 is 1.10 percent on Schedule I, plus the 0.18 percent Administrative Fund Tax. The studio registers with the Department of Revenue for withholding through the Montana Business Registration form or the TransAction Portal, with employees completing Form MW-4 and the year reconciled on Form MW-3. New hires are reported to the Department of Labor and Industry within 20 days, and the studio carries workers' compensation coverage through the Montana State Fund or a private insurer.

The local layer: cities, zoning and premises

The state licenses the studio; the city decides where it can be. Zoning approval for a personal services use, any local business license or registration the city requires, building and signage permits, and occupancy inspections run through the city or county where the premises sit, on the local calendar. Esthetics studios often open in small converted spaces, so the change of use, plumbing and occupancy questions belong in the lease negotiation. In a designated resort community, the local resort tax question from the sales tax section belongs on the same checklist.

Premises facts carry licensing consequences. The salon or shop license is tied to the location and operator in the application, so a move or a greater than 50 percent ownership change requires a new application and inspection. A home based treatment room meets the residence rule in section 37-31-101: outside the salon definition only while it serves residents, and a licensed salon or shop the moment paying nonresident clients are in the room, with home occupation zoning as the second gate.

Insurance for a Montana esthetics studio

Nothing in chapter 31 conditions the studio's licenses on liability insurance, so coverage is a business judgment apart from workers' compensation, which a studio with employees carries through the Montana State Fund or a private insurer. For esthetics the standard stack is general liability for the premises and professional liability written for skin services, chemical compounds and device based treatments, with product liability for the retail shelf. Owners renting rooms should require each booth renter to carry her own professional policy, because the licensing structure makes her a separate operator inside your premises, and treatment claims are the claims most likely to test the boundary between the two businesses.

What it costs to open a Montana esthetics studio

The state level costs sit in two fee schedules. Licensing: the $125 salon or shop license fee and the $150 inspection fee at application, $100 for the esthetician license if it is not already held, another $100 if the studio adds an electrologist, and $95 for each booth renter's own license on the rental model. Formation: $35 for the LLC's Articles of Organization, $20 for the assumed business name if the studio trades under a different name, and nothing for the EIN. Recurring state costs follow the calendar: the salon license renews at $125 every July 1, booth licenses at $95 each, practice licenses at $100 every two years, and the LLC annual report is free when filed by April 15.

Beyond the schedules, the money is in the room: the treatment bed, devices the definition's appliance language covers, professional product lines, laundry and sanitation setup, and the insurance stack. Montana adds no transaction tax layer, since there is no general sales tax to collect on services or retail and no sales tax permit to maintain.

Renewal and filing calendar

The rhythm of a Montana esthetics studio year is a March in which the practitioners renew, an April entity report, and a July 1 on which every premises license in the building comes due at once.

Official sources

• Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists: the board's licensing pages for estheticians and electrologists, salons and shops, and booth renters, and the adopted fee rule at ARM 24.121.401.
• MCA 37-31-101: the definitions of esthetics and electrology, and of booth and salon or shop.
• MCA Title 37, chapter 31: license requirements at section 37-31-302 and qualifications, hours and the cosmetologist to esthetician route at section 37-31-304.
• Secretary of State, Business Services filing fees: Articles of Organization at $35, the annual report terms, and assumed business name registration at $20.
• Department of Revenue, sales tax guidance: the department's statement that Montana does not have a general sales tax.
• Unemployment Insurance Division, contribution rates: the 2026 taxable wage base of $47,300 and the industry rates for new employers.
• IRS, apply for an EIN: the free federal application.

Montana esthetics FAQ