How to Start a Massage Therapy Business in Montana

Who regulates massage therapy in Montana

The regulator is the Board of Massage Therapy, a licensing board in the Business Standards Division of the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, administering Title 37, chapter 33 of the Montana Code Annotated. Note the chapter number, because it is the one most often gotten wrong: massage sits in chapter 33, not in the cosmetology board's chapter 31, and not in chapter 39, which is labor and unemployment law. The board licenses individual therapists only. Its fees and education rules sit in ARM Title 24, chapter 155: the fee rule at 24.155.401, the curriculum rule at 24.155.605 and the continuing education rule at 24.155.801, and its application checklist, form DLI-BSD-LMT004, is the document that assembles the whole route on one page.

Around the board sit the usual Montana agencies. The Secretary of State takes the practice's LLC and assumed business name filings. The Department of Revenue runs income tax and withholding in a state with no general sales tax. The Department of Labor and Industry's wage and unemployment divisions govern any staff the practice hires. Your city or county controls zoning and premises, and because the state issues no establishment license for massage, the local layer carries more of the premises regulation here than in the salon trades. Tattooing and body art sit with the Department of Public Health and Human Services, relevant only if a wellness practice strays toward services that are not massage at all.

Montana massage at a glance

The massage therapist license, step by step

The board's application checklist states the personal qualifications plainly: the applicant must be at least 18 years old, of good moral character, and a high school graduate or the holder of an equivalent credential. The education requirement is a massage therapy program of at least 500 hours, and Montana is unusually specific about what is inside the 500. The curriculum rule at ARM 24.155.605 requires 200 hours of in class, instructor supervised instruction in massage and bodywork assessment, theory and application; 150 hours combined of instruction in the body systems, meaning anatomy, physiology and kinesiology, and pathology; and 150 hours combined of business and ethics instruction and instruction in a related field. A program that reaches 500 hours with the wrong internal mix does not meet the rule, which is the first thing to check when evaluating a school, particularly an out of state or online heavy one.

The examination requirement is a passing score on one of the examinations the board accepts: the MBLEx, administered by the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, the NCETMB, the NESL or the NCETM, or a state examination the board deems equivalent. The sequence matters: the board reviews and approves the applicant's education first and then issues the eligible to test letter that lets the candidate sit the examination through the federation. The application fee is $140, with a $5 litigation fund fee added, a small Montana specific charge that supports the department's legal fund. Therapists already licensed elsewhere use licensure by credential instead: an active license in another state whose requirements are equivalent to Montana's, including the 500 hours and a passing examination score, at the same $140 application fee.

The license then runs on an annual clock unlike anything in the cosmetology chapter. The renewal window opens July 3 and runs through September 1, the license expires August 31, and the fees are $90 for an active renewal, $180 for a late renewal and $45 to renew as inactive; the board's fee rule at ARM 24.155.401 labels these annual fees, and the board's 2026 renewal cycle opened July 3, 2026 on the same pattern. Continuing education runs on a two year rhythm inside the annual renewals: under ARM 24.155.801 a therapist earns at least 12 credits every two consecutive years, reported by the renewal date on even numbered years, affirms the requirement at each annual renewal, and keeps completion records for three years. New licensees are prorated in: no credits are due from a therapist licensed less than one full year at the first reporting date, and six credits from one licensed between one and two years.

Premises: the establishment license Montana does not issue

There is no Montana massage establishment license, and the negative is worth verifying rather than assuming: Title 37, chapter 33 licenses massage therapists, and no establishment license appears in the chapter, in the board's rules at ARM 24.155, in the application checklist, or on the board's licensing pages. A massage practice therefore opens without a state premises application, without a state premises inspection and without a premises renewal. The therapist's own license, displayed and current, is the whole of the state licensing layer, whether the practice is a single room, a multi therapist studio or a room inside a salon or wellness center.

What replaces the establishment license is the local layer and the general law. Zoning decides where a massage practice may operate, including the home occupation rules for the therapist practicing from a residence, and some Montana municipalities regulate massage businesses by local ordinance in ways the state chapter does not preempt field by field, so the city clerk's office is a genuinely necessary stop rather than a formality. A practice employing other therapists carries the employment obligations in the hiring section, and a practice sharing space with licensed salon trades should remember that the salon's premises license belongs to the cosmetology board's framework and neither requires nor confers anything about the massage rooms.

Forming your business: the LLC

Most Montana massage practices that sign a lease or hire help 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. A solo therapist may practice as a sole proprietor, but the LLC is what separates the practice's lease and liabilities from the therapist's personal assets.

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. Note the collision the calendar creates for this trade in particular: the LLC report falls in April, the license renewal in late summer, and the two never share a trip to the calendar.

Registering your practice name

A practice 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 annual report and the license's August renewal.

Getting your EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the federal tax identity for the business, issued free by the IRS. A massage practice needs one to open a business bank account in the entity's name and before the first payroll if it hires, because Montana withholding and unemployment reporting key off it. Apply on the IRS site, keep the number with the business records, and use the same legal name on the EIN record, the Secretary of State filings and any health insurance or clinic credentialing paperwork so the 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 a massage practice that means no tax collected on a session and none on the retail shelf either: the oils, linens related products and self care items a client takes home are sold without a state sales tax, and there is no sales tax permit to obtain or return to file. Practices in most states split taxed retail from untaxed services at the register; a Montana practice never makes that split.

The qualifications still apply. Practice profits remain subject to Montana income tax, on the owner's return for a sole proprietorship or pass through LLC, and employers register for withholding and unemployment insurance as the hiring section describes. A practice in a designated resort community, and Montana's resort towns support a great deal of massage, 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 clients in other states follow those states' rules; Montana's clean register ends at the state line.

Renting a room: no booth license in chapter 33

Massage therapists frequently rent rooms inside salons, chiropractic offices, wellness centers and suite buildings, and Montana's massage chapter has no booth rental license to structure that arrangement, because the booth license belongs to the cosmetology chapter and authorizes booths for the chapter 31 services only. A therapist renting a room is therefore governed by her own massage license, the lease, and the general law of employment classification: if she serves her own clientele, sets her own prices and schedule, and pays rent for the room, she is an independent business operating inside someone else's premises; if the host schedules her, prices her sessions and directs her work, she is the host's employee for wage and tax purposes, whatever the agreement calls her.

Two overlaps deserve care. Where the host premises are a licensed salon or shop, the salon's license covers the cosmetology services performed there and is simply beside the point for the massage room; the therapist does not work under it and does not need to. And the unemployment exclusion at section 39-51-204(1)(e), which suite operators in the salon trades rely on, is written for licensed cosmetologists and barbers and does not name massage therapists, so a room rental for massage should be documented as a genuine commercial lease with the control facts to match, without borrowing comfort from a statute aimed at another trade.

Hiring therapists: 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 therapist is paid the full $10.85 in wages with tips on top. Commission and percentage split arrangements sit on that floor, and a therapist the practice schedules, prices and directs is an employee for wage and tax purposes; every therapist the practice employs must hold her own current massage license, since the license is personal and chapter 33 provides no premises license under which an unlicensed person could work.

Hiring triggers three registrations. The practice 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 practice 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 practice carries workers' compensation coverage through the Montana State Fund or a private insurer.

The local layer: cities, zoning and premises

Because Montana issues no massage establishment license, the local layer is the premises regulator for this trade. Zoning approval for a massage or personal services use, any local business license or registration the city requires, and occupancy and building questions run through the city or county where the practice sits. Some municipalities add their own massage ordinances, covering matters such as operating hours, facility standards or local registration, and those ordinances survive because the state chapter licenses people and leaves premises largely to local government. The home based practice runs through home occupation zoning: there is no state residence rule for massage as there is for salon premises, so the city's code is the first and often only gate.

The practical sequence is therefore local first: confirm the zoning and any municipal massage ordinance before signing the lease, then handle the state business filings, since the therapist's own license is already in hand or in process on its own track. In a designated resort community, add the local resort tax question from the sales tax section to the same round of calls.

Insurance for a Montana massage practice

Chapter 33 does not condition the massage license on liability insurance, so coverage is a business judgment apart from workers' compensation for employees, carried through the Montana State Fund or a private insurer. For massage the judgment is well settled in the market: professional liability written for massage therapy is the core policy, with general liability for the premises and property coverage for tables, equipment and retail inventory around it. Practices renting rooms to independent therapists should require each therapist to carry her own professional policy and name the arrangement in the lease, mirroring the salon trades' booth practice even though no booth license formalizes it here.

What it costs to open a Montana massage practice

The state costs are the most legible in this cluster. Licensing: $140 plus the $5 litigation fund fee to apply for the massage license, then $90 a year to renew, with no establishment license fee at any point because none exists. Formation: $35 for the LLC's Articles of Organization, $20 for the assumed business name if the practice trades under a different name, and nothing for the EIN. Continuing education runs on the two year cycle at prices set by course providers, and the LLC annual report is free when filed by April 15. A practice staffing three therapists carries three personal licenses and no premises license at all.

The commercial costs are the room and what goes in it: lease, table and equipment, linens and laundry, product inventory, booking systems and the insurance stack. Montana adds no transaction tax layer, since there is no general sales tax to collect on sessions or retail and no sales tax permit to maintain.

Renewal and filing calendar

The rhythm of a Montana massage year is an April entity report and a late summer license renewal, with continuing education landing every second August.

Official sources

• Board of Massage Therapy: the board's licensing pages and its application checklist, form DLI-BSD-LMT004, with the $140 application fee and the renewal schedule.
• Board of Massage Therapy, continuing education: the 12 credits every two years under ARM 24.155.801.
• 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.
• Department of Labor and Industry, 2026 minimum wage determination: the $10.85 rate effective January 1, 2026 under MCA 39-3-409.
• 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 massage FAQ