How to Start a Massage Business in North Dakota

Who regulates massage in North Dakota

The licensing authority is the North Dakota Board of Massage Therapy, administering Century Code chapter 43-25 and its rules at Administrative Code title 49. The board licenses individual massage therapists and nothing else: no establishments, no schools as premises licenses in the business sense, no room or chair credentials. Its rule chapters divide the work the way this guide follows it, education standards at article 49-02, and licensure, fees, applications, expired licenses, discipline and continuing education at chapter 49-01-02. A massage business therefore deals with the board exactly as many times as it has therapists, and with the city for everything about the building.

Around the board sit the agencies every North Dakota owner deals with. The Secretary of State takes the Articles of Organization, the $50 annual report due November 15, and trade name registrations through the FirstStop portal. The Office of State Tax Commissioner issues the sales and use tax permit and the withholding account through ND TAP. Job Service North Dakota runs unemployment insurance on a $46,600 taxable wage base for 2026, and Workforce Safety and Insurance is the only lawful seller of workers compensation in the state. One boundary is worth stating because massage clients and menus blur it: massage therapy is not esthetics or cosmetology, the cosmetology board's licenses do not authorize paid massage as a practice, and a spa offering both massage and skin services runs two licensing systems side by side, the massage chapter for the therapists and chapter 43-11 for the estheticians and the establishment.

North Dakota massage at a glance

The massage therapist license, step by step

Section 43-25-07 sets the personal requisites: the applicant is at least 18 years of age and of good moral character and temperate habits, presents a diploma or credentials from an approved massage therapy education program meeting the standards set by the board, receives a passing score on an examination approved by the board, and pays the required fees with the application. The education standard itself lives in the board's rules: Administrative Code section 49-02-01-01 requires a cumulative total of 750 hours of instruction, and section 49-02-03-01 requires that at least 250 of those hours be practical instruction, consisting of practical application and clinical practice, with a clock hour defined as a 60 minute block carrying at least 50 minutes of instruction. The hours may be earned at one school or accumulated across more than one, provided they are not redundant.

The application file is itemized at Administrative Code section 49-01-02-02, and it is worth building in the rule's order: proof that the education requirements are satisfied, a passport size photo, proof of identity including documentation of any name previously used, proof of a passing score on the board approved test with results received directly from the organization administering it, and completion of the jurisprudence examination on the laws applicable to massage therapy in North Dakota with a score of 80 percent or higher. Reciprocity applicants add the dates and locations of prior massage work experience. The fee, at section 49-01-02-01, is $150 to receive the license. The license must be displayed at the place of practice under section 43-25-09, and a licensee must notify the board of any change of name, mailing address, business address, business name or phone number within 60 days under section 49-01-02-03, a detail mobile and multi location therapists miss most often.

Renewal is where this license leaves the cluster's common pattern. The license is biennial, and section 43-25-09 splits the calendar by license number: odd numbered licenses report continuing education and pay the $200 renewal fee on or before February 28 of each odd numbered year, even numbered licenses on or before February 28 of each even numbered year, so two therapists hired the same week can sit on opposite renewal years. The continuing education requirement is 24 hours every two years, of which 12 must be classroom, hands on hours, earned in the two years before renewal with no carryover, attested at renewal under section 49-01-02-05 with the board entitled to the course details. The statute tapers the load with experience: a licensee in good standing who has actively practiced for the 15 years immediately preceding renewal owes 6 hours every two years, and at 25 years, 3 hours. Board policy adds that no continuing education is required for the first renewal after becoming licensed in North Dakota, with the full requirement, including at least 3 hours of ethics, arriving at the second renewal. An expired license may be renewed within two years of expiration on the applicable fees, the $200 renewal plus the $50 late penalty, and proof of continuing education, without proration; practicing massage on an expired license is unauthorized practice under section 43-25-03 and grounds for discipline, so the February date is a hard wall rather than a grace period.

Premises: no establishment license, and what fills the gap

There is no premises section in the massage framework, and this guide prints that absence as the finding it is. Chapter 43-25 licenses therapists; title 49's fee rule at section 49-01-02-01 lists exactly two charges, the license and its renewal, with no establishment fee, no premises application and no inspection cycle; and no other state agency licenses a massage room as such. A massage studio's premises therefore answer to the ordinary local layer alone: zoning for the use, a lease, building and signage permits, occupancy rules, and any business license the city itself imposes. The comparison with the rest of this cluster is stark: the cosmetology establishment across the street holds a $150 state license and sits on an inspection cycle, the body art studio holds a $160 license with plan review, and the massage studio between them holds neither, because the legislature licensed the hands instead of the room.

What fills the gap is the personal license discipline applied per chair. Every therapist working in the business holds her own current license, displayed at her place of practice under section 43-25-09, and the business's compliance habit is a license file per therapist: the license copy, the renewal year her number assigns her, and her continuing education attestation calendar, because a studio with six therapists has six February deadlines in two alternating cohorts. A therapist whose license lapses is not a scheduling problem; her practice on an expired license is unauthorized practice under the chapter, and the studio that keeps booking her has built its week on an offense. If the business adds esthetics, nails or hair, the cosmetology establishment license and its rules arrive with those services, and the premises then runs both systems: state licensed rooms for the cosmetology menu under a master licensee's supervision, and the massage rooms under the therapists' licenses alone.

Forming your business: the LLC

Most North Dakota massage businesses form a limited liability company under Century Code chapter 10-32.1, and formation is a single filing: Articles of Organization submitted to the Secretary of State through the FirstStop portal for $135. The articles name the company and its registered agent and office in the state.

The annual obligation runs on a fixed statewide date rather than an anniversary. The LLC annual report costs $50 and is due November 15, a report filed after November 15 draws a $50 late fee, and the first annual report is due in the year following the calendar year of registration.

Registering your business name

North Dakota registers trading names at the state level as trade names under Century Code chapter 47-25. A business using a name other than the name registered with the Secretary of State must file a Trade Name Registration, which covers the practice that forms an LLC under a plain legal name and trades under its studio brand, and the sole practitioner working under a practice name of her own. An LLC or corporation trading under its exact registered name needs no second filing, because that name is already on file with the Secretary of State.

Registration costs $25 through the FirstStop portal, the registration expires every five years, and renewal costs another $25, with cancellation priced at $10. Keep the name identical across the trade name registration, the bank account, the sales tax permit and the business address the therapists report to the board, because the board's file ties each license to the licensee's places of business, and a studio that rebrands without telling anyone accumulates mismatches across four files at once.

Getting your EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the federal tax identity for the business, issued free by the IRS. A practice with employees needs one before the first payroll, because federal withholding, the Job Service unemployment account, Workforce Safety and Insurance coverage, and new hire reporting all key off the business identity it anchors, and a solo therapist uses it on leases, supplier accounts and payment platforms in place of a Social Security number.

Sales tax: the service no, retail yes

North Dakota's sales tax is a tax on retail sales, and massage sits entirely on the untaxed side of the service line. The Office of State Tax Commissioner imposes sales tax on retail sales at a 5 percent state rate for most sales, plus city and county taxes where they apply, paid by the purchaser and collected by the seller.

The retail side of the practice is the other half of the rule. Oils, balms, tools and self care products sold to a client are taxable retail sales at the combined rate for the practice's location, which is why a practice with retail holds a sales and use tax permit, registers and files through ND TAP, and keeps product bought for resale separate from the oils and linens consumed in sessions.

Renting a room as a massage therapist

Room rental is the commonest structure in this trade, and North Dakota's version is refreshingly plain: there is no renter license to buy, because the massage framework licenses no premises and no categories inside one. A therapist renting a room in a spa, a chiropractic office, a wellness center or a salon holds her personal license, displays it at her place of practice, reports her business address to the board within 60 days of a change, and operates her own business under her own entity, trade name and tax permit.

The classification analysis is therefore the general one, unassisted by a licensing marker: whether the therapist is a renter or an employee turns on the working facts, who sets her schedule and prices, whose clients they are, who supplies the table, linens and product, and how the money moves. Studios that want the rental structure to hold keep the facts aligned with the paperwork, her book, her rates, her supplies, rent paid as rent.

Hiring therapists: wages, unemployment and reporting

The North Dakota minimum wage is $7.25 an hour under section 34-06-22, unchanged since July 24, 2009 and equal to the federal rate, with overtime at one and one half times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek. Most employed therapists are paid by the session or on commission, but the floor governs hourly arrangements, front desk staff and any paid training or meeting time, and the classification line in the room rent section governs which side of payroll a therapist sits on.

Job Service North Dakota sets the unemployment insurance taxable wage base at 70 percent of the statewide average wage, which produces $46,600 per employee for 2026, among the highest bases in the country, with a new non-construction employer rate of 1.00 percent on a positive balance and experience rated rates from 0.07 percent to 9.67 percent. Employers register with Job Service, file quarterly wage and contribution reports, register a withholding account with the Tax Commissioner through ND TAP, report new hires within 20 days of the start date, and open a Workforce Safety and Insurance account before the first hire, because workers compensation in North Dakota comes only from that state fund, a rule with real weight in a trade whose injuries are cumulative and physical. Section 9-08-06 then voids noncompetes outside a business sale or an ownership split, so a departing therapist takes her hands and her clientele lawfully, and retention is built from scheduling quality, session economics and a book the house keeps full.

The local layer: cities, zoning and premises

With no state establishment license, the local layer is the massage business's whole premises law, and it varies more than any other guide in this cluster because some North Dakota cities license or zone massage premises locally while others treat the practice as an ordinary personal service. Zoning approval for the use at the address, any city business license your locality requires, building and signage permits, and occupancy inspections run through the city or county where the premises sit, and a home based practice lives or dies on the local answer for residence based businesses. The local sales tax add-on on retail sales is set locally as well. Make the city call first in this business type, because it is the only premises call there is, and a city that requires its own massage establishment paperwork will set its own timeline for it.

The state level premises duties that do exist are the therapists' own: each license displayed at the place of practice, each business address current with the board within 60 days of a change, and each renewal met in the therapist's assigned February. A multi room studio should also expect its lease and its insurers to ask the questions the state does not: table sanitation between clients, linen handling, draping and consent practices, and client record keeping are professional standards enforced by liability and reputation in this state rather than by a premises inspector, which makes the studio's own written procedures the operative code on the wall.

Insurance for a North Dakota massage business

Unlike the South Dakota massage framework in this series, which writes a malpractice insurance minimum into its licensing statute, North Dakota's chapter 43-25 sets no insurance condition on the massage license, so professional liability coverage is a business judgment, and it is the judgment this trade can least afford to skip. The stack that matches the risk is professional liability written for massage therapy, general liability for the premises, and property coverage for tables, equipment and retail inventory. Landlords, host businesses and referral partners routinely require the professional policy by contract even though the state does not, and a therapist renting a room should expect to produce the certificate at signing.

Workers compensation is the regulated piece once employees arrive: North Dakota is a monopolistic state fund state, Workforce Safety and Insurance is the only lawful seller of the coverage, private carriers cannot write it, and the employer account must be opened before employees start. WSI coverage does not include employer liability protection, so a stop gap endorsement on the general liability policy is the standard completion. Therapists working as independent renters can seek a WSI determination of independent contractor status through its verification application, which runs one year at a time and settles the coverage question between the therapist and each host in writing, a useful paper in a trade where the same therapist may work in three buildings in a week.

What it costs to open a North Dakota massage business

The state level costs of opening a massage business in North Dakota are the lightest in this cluster after braiding, because the framework charges the person and not the room. On the licensing side: $150 for each therapist's license, renewed biennially at $200, with the jurisprudence and board approved examinations priced by their providers rather than by the state schedule. There is no establishment fee, no premises application and no inspection charge at the state level. On the formation side: $135 to file the Articles of Organization, $25 for a trade name registration if the practice trades under a name beyond its legal entity name, and nothing for the EIN or the sales tax permit application itself. Recurring state costs are the $200 biennial renewal per therapist, the $50 LLC annual report each November 15, the trade name renewal at $25 every fifth year, and the continuing education hours priced by their providers. Everything beyond the schedules, tables, build out, linens, product and deposits, is market cost, priced locally.

Renewal and filing calendar

The rhythm of a North Dakota massage year is late winter and late fall: February 28 carries half the profession's licenses in alternating years, November 15 carries the company, and no December stack exists unless the practice adds cosmetology services.

Official sources

• Administrative Code chapter 49-01-02: the Board of Massage Therapy licensure and fee rules, with the $150 license fee and $200 renewal at section 49-01-02-01, the application file at section 49-01-02-02, expired licenses at section 49-01-02-03 and continuing education at section 49-01-02-05.
• Administrative Code chapter 49-02-01: the 750 hour education requirement for massage licensure.
• Board of Massage Therapy, policies and procedures manual: the board's operating policies, including renewal notices and the continuing education schedule for first and second renewals.
• Secretary of State, limited liability companies: the $135 Articles of Organization fee, the $50 annual report and the November 15 deadline.
• Office of State Tax Commissioner, tax types: the 5 percent state sales tax on retail sales, use tax, and ND TAP registration.
• Job Service North Dakota, 2026 tax rate schedules: the $46,600 taxable wage base and the 1.00 percent new employer rate.
• IRS, apply for an EIN: the free federal application.

North Dakota massage FAQ