Salon Booth Rental Laws in Indiana (2026)

Booth and suite rental in Indiana — the whole program

Who may rent a booth or a suite in Indiana

You work under a beauty culture professional license from the Indiana State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners, administered by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (PLA). IC 25-8-2-2.6 defines a beauty culture professional as a cosmetologist (IC 25-8-9), electrologist (IC 25-8-10), manicurist (IC 25-8-11), esthetician (IC 25-8-12.5), barber (IC 25-8-12.1) or instructor (IC 25-8-6). For a cosmetologist licence IC 25-8-9-3 requires that you be at least 17, have completed the tenth grade or its equivalent, have graduated from a beauty culture school or completed a U.S. Department of Labor registered apprenticeship, and have passed the Board's examination; the apprenticeship route was added by P.L.82-2024 (IC 25-8-9-4.5). The Board publishes the school-hour minimums: cosmetologist 1,500, barber 1,500, esthetician 700, manicurist 450, electrologist 300, instructor 500. Two things fall outside the licence entirely: threading (IC 25-8-2-19) and natural hair braiding (IC 25-8-2-20) are carved out of the definition of cosmetology by IC 25-8-2-5(c), and shampooing and uncompensated work are excluded by IC 25-8-2-5(b). Effective July 1, 2026, House Enrolled Act 1131 widened the esthetician scope to eyelash lifts and tinting, eyebrow lamination and tinting, and microneedling as newly defined in IC 25-8-2-14.7, with the agency able to demand proof of advanced microneedling training.

The individual licences that qualify you

• Cosmetologist, IC 25-8-9: 1,500 hours or a registered apprenticeship, Board examination, $40 application/issuance (820 IAC 7-1-1(1)).
• Barber, IC 25-8-12.1: 1,500 hours, $40. Since P.L.170-2013 repealed IC 25-8-8.1, a barber shop is licensed as a beauty culture salon, and IC 25-8-7-1(b) requires that such a licence state in prominent type that it is a 'barber shop license'.
• Esthetician, IC 25-8-12.5: 700 hours, $40. Scope expanded July 1, 2026 by HEA 1131 (lash and brow services, microneedling).
• Manicurist, IC 25-8-11: 450 hours, eighth-grade education, $40.
• Electrologist, IC 25-8-10: 300 hours, $40. Today the applicant must already hold a cosmetologist or esthetician licence; HEA 1131 drops that prerequisite and moves electrology to a 600-hour standalone route from July 1, 2027.
• Beauty culture instructor, IC 25-8-6: 500 hours, must hold and keep a primary beauty culture licence, and must pass an examination on Indiana statutes and rules with a score of 75% (820 IAC 2-2-1).
• Facility licences: beauty culture salon $40, mobile salon $40, beauty culture school $400, tanning facility $200 under 820 IAC 7-1-1 (reduced to $40 by the final rule effective July 22, 2026).
• Every individual and facility licence renews on a four-year cycle at the same amount, $40 (820 IAC 7-1-3; IC 25-8-4-17 makes a licence expire four years after its initial expiration date). Reinstatement is $80 for an individual or salon licence, being the $40 renewal plus the $40 application; a licence expired five years or more requires passing the written examination again.

Do you need your own establishment licence?

Indiana does not issue a separate establishment licence to a booth or suite renter.

Indiana settles the booth-rental question in the statute itself rather than in board policy. IC 25-8-7-7 provides that the Board 'may not require a beauty culture professional to obtain a license under this chapter if the beauty culture professional has leased or subleased a portion of a beauty culture salon from a person licensed under this chapter.' Rent a booth, a chair or a closed suite inside a licensed salon and you need no facility licence of your own, and unlike most states Indiana draws no line between an open booth and a lockable suite. The shelter has a condition attached, and it is the one that matters: it exists only when you rent from a person licensed under IC 25-8-7. IC 25-8-9-14 states the same rule from your side, that a licensee may not engage in beauty culture outside a beauty culture salon unless the person has the permission of a cosmetology salon licence holder who either employs the person or leases or subleases a portion of the salon to the person. Verify the owner's salon licence on the PLA licence search before you sign, and again at renewal. You do need your own beauty culture salon licence if you operate the salon rather than rent inside one, open your own address, work out of a structure that contains a residence, or travel to clients. Travelling work is not booth rental: a business that transports equipment to clients' homes, nursing homes or other salons falls within the definition of a mobile salon in IC 25-8-2-15.5(2) and needs a mobile salon licence of its own.

The licence is issued by Indiana State Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners, Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, 402 West Washington Street, Room W072, Indianapolis, IN 46204.

1. Hold a current Indiana beauty culture professional licence covering every service you sell.
2. Verify on the PLA licence search that the salon you are renting in holds a current beauty culture salon licence; IC 25-8-7-7 shelters you only if you rent from a person licensed under that chapter.
3. Put the lease or sublease of your portion of the salon in writing, so that the arrangement matches the statute you are relying on and evidences your independence.
4. Get written permission from the salon licence holder if you will practise anywhere other than in the salon, as IC 25-8-9-14 requires.
5. Display your individual licence in a conspicuous place in your work area, clearly visible to a customer standing there (IC 25-8-4-13). The Board's own facility instructions warn that an expired licence posted at a workstation will sink the salon's application.
6. If you are opening your own salon instead: select the site, and where it shares a building with a residence separate it by a substantial floor-to-ceiling partition with a separate entry (IC 25-8-7-2(1)(A), IC 25-8-4-30); obtain any building permit or certificate of occupancy required under IC 22-15-3 and IC 36-7-4; install the furnishings and equipment required by the Board's rules; and file the verified statement that the salon will be under the personal supervision of a licensed beauty culture professional (IC 25-8-7-2(4)).
7. Apply online with the $40 fee only once the facility is ready to open. A temporary permit issues on a complete application and lasts three months (IC 25-8-7-5, IC 25-8-7-6), so applying early only burns that window; PLA states that operating without a temporary permit will cause the application to be denied.
8. Register the business with the Secretary of State through INBiz if you are trading as an entity, and obtain a Registered Retail Merchant Certificate before selling any retail product.

Fee: $40 application/issuance for a beauty culture salon or a mobile salon, paid by card with the online application and non-refundable (820 IAC 7-1-1(7), (12); PLA fee schedule). Beauty culture school $400, tanning facility $200 (reduced to $40 by the rule effective July 22, 2026). No fee is charged for transferring a salon licence under IC 25-8-4-4 (IC 25-8-13-2), but 820 IAC 2-1-1 forbids a salon operating under new ownership or at a new location until a new licence has issued.

Renewal: $40 every four years for a salon licence, the same as for an individual licence (820 IAC 7-1-3; IC 25-8-4-17). PLA sends the renewal notice about 90 days before expiry, to the email or postal address of record, which makes IC 25-8-4-10 (notify the Board of any change of address) a practical obligation rather than a formality. Reinstatement is $80 within three years; beyond three years IC 25-8-4-21 and IC 25-1-8-6(d) apply, and a beauty culture professional licence expired five years or more requires passing the written examination again.

What the booth and suite rules actually say

Booth, chair and suite rental are lawful in Indiana and, unusually, the exemption is statutory: IC 25-8-7-7 bars the Board from requiring a salon licence of anyone who has leased or subleased a portion of a licensed beauty culture salon. That shifts your compliance onto three points. First, the host's licence. Your exemption is derivative, so a lapsed salon licence upstairs removes your legal footing, and IC 25-8-9-14 independently forbids you to practise outside a beauty culture salon without the permission of a salon licence holder who employs you or leases to you. Second, your own posting. IC 25-8-4-13 requires your licence to be displayed in a conspicuous place in your work area and clearly visible to a customer present there; the Board's inspection checklist for beauty culture salons asks item by item whether every worker has a proper licence displayed, whether any expired, revoked or suspended licence is on display, and whether anyone unlicensed was providing services. Failure to display is one of the five violations that carries a civil penalty of up to $500 under IC 25-8-3-30. Third, the boundary of the sheltered activity. The exemption covers renting part of a salon, nothing more. Seeing clients at their homes or in nursing homes is a mobile salon under IC 25-8-2-15.5 and needs its own licence, which the Board must inspect before issuing (820 IAC 3-1-18(c)). Working from your home requires a beauty culture salon licence and a substantial floor-to-ceiling partition with a separate entry (IC 25-8-4-30). Note also what the statute does not do: it does not license your booth, so the salon licence holder remains the person responsible for the premises' sanitary and signage duties, and it says nothing about what your rental agreement must contain. Nothing in IC 25-8 or 820 IAC prescribes the form of a booth rental agreement.

What your own space must have

• Hot and cold running water, connected to a pressure supply where available (820 IAC 3-1-2).
• At least one wet EPA-registered bactericide, viricide and fungicide disinfectant and one dry sanitizer on the premises, plus a wet or dry sanitizer at every workstation (820 IAC 3-1-3).
• One covered waste receptacle for every four workstations, workstations meaning booths and chairs other than waiting-room chairs (820 IAC 3-1-4).
• A shampoo bowl or sink, cleaned and sanitized immediately after use and never located in a restroom (820 IAC 3-1-7).
• Per practitioner, at least 12 towels, 8 combs and 3 brushes; combs and brushes cleaned, fully immersed in disinfectant, rinsed, dried and stored in a closed clean container holding nothing undisinfected; clean towels in a closed cabinet or container and soiled towels in a covered hamper (820 IAC 3-1-9, 3-1-10).
• Hands washed with soap and water or waterless sanitizer before serving each customer, and a clean, opaque, washable outer garment worn while serving customers (820 IAC 3-1-8).
• Implements fully immersed in an EPA-registered disinfectant, with a tuberculocidal product for anything that contacted blood or body fluids, and the same distinction for cleaning spills (820 IAC 3-1-6). Floors, walls and furniture kept clean at all times (820 IAC 3-1-5).
• No pets on the premises, service animals excepted, and a 'no pets allowed' sign at the entrance (820 IAC 3-1-17). The Board's inspection checklist tests both the sign and the presence of animals.
• Manicuring and pedicuring stations: sink with hot and cold water, manicure table, two chairs, lamp, wet disinfectant, dry sanitizer and adequate implements; no razor or credo blades for shaving corns or calluses, and no reuse of disposable files (820 IAC 3-1-15, 3-1-16; salon inspection checklist).
• The final rule effective July 22, 2026 requires an electrology or esthetics separate room to be enclosed by floor-to-ceiling walls at least seven feet high and entered through a solid opaque door, and makes miscellaneous sanitary and equipment changes throughout 820 IAC 3-1.
• A salon in a building that also contains a residence must be separated from it by a substantial floor-to-ceiling partition and have a separate entry (IC 25-8-7-2(1)(A), IC 25-8-4-30).

What you must display

• Your individual beauty culture licence, in a conspicuous place in your work area and clearly visible to a customer present there (IC 25-8-4-13). In a mobile salon, 820 IAC 2-1-6.6 repeats the duty for your work space.
• The salon's facility licence, and never an expired, revoked or suspended one (IC 25-8-4-13 and the Board's salon inspection checklist).
• A clearly visible sign at the main public entrance stating in legible printing the name of the establishment and that it is licensed as a cosmetology, electrology, manicurist, esthetic or mobile salon (IC 25-8-7-8; 820 IAC 2-1-6).
• A 'no pets allowed' sign at the entrance (820 IAC 3-1-17(c)).
• The Board's sanitary requirement rules, posted in a conspicuous place in the salon; the Board furnishes them to each salon licence holder and PLA publishes them by discipline (IC 25-8-3-26, IC 25-8-3-27).
• Your Registered Retail Merchant Certificate at each location where customers can see it, if you sell retail product (Indiana DOR).

Inspection

There is normally no pre-opening inspection for a booth renter, because a renter inside a licensed salon holds no facility licence at all. For facilities, IC 25-8-3-28 lets any Board member, inspector or investigator inspect a beauty culture salon, school or mobile salon during regular business hours, and also before an initial licence is issued; a mobile salon must be inspected before its licence issues (820 IAC 3-1-18(c)). The agency staffs inspectors and investigators under IC 25-8-3-24. The Board publishes the inspection questions used for beauty culture salons, and the first section is entirely about credentials: the entrance sign identifying the establishment, the 'no pets' sign, whether unlicensed people were providing services, whether every worker's licence is displayed, whether the facility licence is displayed, whether any expired, revoked or suspended licence is on display, and whether the sanitation rules are posted. As a renter you are exposed on exactly those items even though the facility licence is not yours. Beyond fines, IC 25-8-14-1 and IC 25-1-11 let the Board refuse, suspend or revoke a licence, and IC 25-1-11-13 allows a 90-day summary suspension where a practitioner is a clear and immediate danger to the public.

Tax — on your rent and on your services

Rent. Indiana taxes the rental or lease of tangible personal property as a retail transaction: Sales Tax Information Bulletin #42 states that a person renting or leasing tangible personal property to another, other than for subrent or sublease, is a retail merchant making a retail transaction and must register as a retail merchant (IC 6-2.5-4-10). Renting floor space is a lease of real property and is not within that provision, so pure booth rent is outside the sales tax. The exposure is in bundling. If your agreement puts a price on the use of chairs, dryers, a shampoo unit, a pedicure spa or other equipment, that component looks like a rental of tangible personal property and is presumptively taxable to the salon owner as gross retail income. Keep the space and any equipment on separate lines, and take a written DOR position if the agreement is mixed. Services. Sales Tax Information Bulletin #27 is squarely on point: 'Services provided by barbers and beauticians are not subject to Indiana sales tax', and it names permanents, shaves, haircuts, extensions, braids, braiding and dye services. Your service revenue carries no sales tax. Supplies and retail. The same bulletin makes you the end user of everything consumed in performing services, so shampoos, rinses, dyes, foils, combs, dryers, chairs, mirrors and even utilities are taxed to you at purchase. Product you buy to resell is different: you must register with the Department as a retail merchant and collect and remit tax on all product sales, and the resale purchase itself is untaxed. Registration. Before selling at retail you need a Registered Retail Merchant Certificate, obtained through INBiz at inbiz.in.gov; the state rate is seven percent, one certificate must be displayed at each business location, and the certificate renews automatically so long as you have no outstanding liabilities or unfiled returns (General Tax Information Bulletin #102; DOR sales tax page). Returns are filed on Form ST-103 through INTIME, monthly by default and annually if collections are under $1,000 a year. Income. As a renter you are self-employed, so federal self-employment tax, Indiana adjusted gross income tax under IC 6-3 and the local income tax under IC 6-3.6 for your county of residence all fall on your profit, with estimated payments rather than withholding.

Renter or employee: the classification test

This is where Indiana is harsher than its booth-rental statute suggests. IC 25-8-7-7 exempts you from salon licensing; it says nothing about whether you are an employee. For unemployment insurance, IC 22-4-8-1 imposes the 1-2-3 test, Indiana's version of the ABC test, and the Department of Workforce Development's guidance states that to be an independent contractor all three parts must be satisfied: the individual is free from direction and control; the work performed is outside the usual course of the employer's business; and the individual is engaged in their own independently established trade, occupation, profession or verifiable business of the same nature. Part 2 is the trap. DWD says the individual cannot be performing a service normally done by the business, that services recently performed by an employee of the business do not qualify, and that even a genuine freelancer working for several companies is likely not a contractor 'if what that person does is part of the business's ordinary operations'. A stylist cutting hair inside a hair salon is performing the salon's ordinary operations. That means a salon that also has W-2 stylists on the floor is in a weak position on any renter doing the same work, and the answer is not paperwork: DWD states expressly that issuing a 1099 or W-9 is not conclusive. Build the record the test asks for. Free from control means you set your own hours and prices, choose your own clients, buy your own product and tools, are not subject to a dress policy, are not scheduled, trained, monitored or assigned walk-ins. Your own business means documentation that survives an audit: a written lease of a defined space at a fixed rent, your own booking and client records, invoices rather than timecards, your own insurance certificate, your own advertising and paid business listing. Warning signs run the other way: a percentage split instead of a fixed rent, the owner setting prices or shifts, the owner holding the client list, the owner supplying colour and back-bar. The cost of getting it wrong sits with the salon owner: DWD assesses the unpaid unemployment taxes plus interest at 1% per month for every quarter the worker was misclassified, and a statutory penalty of 50% of the unpaid taxes if the misclassification was intentional. Worker's compensation is judged on a different standard: IC 22-3-6-1(b)(7) makes a person an independent contractor if they are one under IRS guidelines, and the Worker's Compensation Board issues a Worker's Compensation Clearance Certificate, applied for online through INTIME or on paper. A renter who was really an employee has paid both halves of self-employment tax and may still have unemployment and injury rights.

What your city or county may add

Indiana has no statewide general business licence, and the state salon licence is not one. The local layer reaches you through three doors. Building and zoning: IC 25-8-7-2(2) makes a salon applicant obtain any building permit, certificate of occupancy or other approval action required under IC 22-15-3 (the state building code and design release system) and IC 36-7-4 (local planning and zoning) before the Board will license the salon. A booth renter inside an existing salon inherits an already-approved space, which is one of the practical advantages of renting; a renter opening a suite in a shell space, or converting part of a home, does not. Merchant licensing: DOR's General Tax Information Bulletin #102 warns that a Registered Retail Merchant Certificate is not a transient merchant licence, that a county auditor may require the latter, and that 'some Indiana cities and towns have merchant licensing requirements as well, so it is important to check with local officials before selling in a particular location'. Mobile work: 820 IAC 3-1-18(a)(1) makes a mobile salon applicant affirm compliance with applicable city, county and state laws and ordinances, including fire and zoning, which is the Board importing local law into its own licence. Confirm your address with the city or county planning department and, if you are opening a location, with the local building department before signing a lease.

What operating unlicensed costs

IC 25-8-14-5 makes it a Class C infraction to violate any provision of the beauty culture article, or to perform any act authorized by a licence under the article without holding a valid licence. Separately, IC 25-8-3-30 requires the Board to run a programme investigating and assessing a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation for five specific failures: violating the article under IC 25-8-14-5, failing to display a licence as IC 25-8-4-13 requires, continuing to practise after you no longer meet the requirements for your licence (IC 25-8-4-29), engaging in beauty culture outside a beauty culture salon contrary to IC 25-8-9-14, and operating a tanning facility without a licence. Two of those five are the booth renter's own risks: your posted licence and the outside-the-salon rule. Penalties are appealable under IC 4-21.5 and are paid into the Board's compliance fund. On top of the fines, discipline under IC 25-1-11-12 reaches revocation, suspension, censure, reprimand, probation with conditions, consumer restitution and a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation, with the Board able to suspend a licence for non-payment except where the sole reason is inability to pay. IC 25-8-14-1 lets the Board refuse to issue, renew or reinstate a licence for non-compliance with IC 25-1-11, and IC 25-1-11-13 permits a 90-day summary suspension before final adjudication where a practitioner is a clear and immediate danger. Practising while carrying an infectious, contagious or communicable disease transmissible by casual contact is its own Class C infraction (IC 25-8-14-6). For the salon owner, PLA states that letting unlicensed people practise, or displaying expired licences, will cause a salon licence application to be denied outright.

Program sources: https://www.in.gov/pla/files/SBCBE-7.1.2024-EDITION.pdf · https://www.in.gov/pla/professions/cosmetology-and-barber-home/ · https://www.in.gov/pla/professions/cosmetology-and-barber-home/cosmetology-and-barber-licensing-information/ · https://www.in.gov/pla/files/Cosmo_BeautyCultureRuleAmendment_20260722.pdf · https://www.in.gov/pla/files/Cosmetology.pdf · https://www.in.gov/dA/92fbfc0540/Beauty-Cultural-Salons-inspection-checklist.pdf · https://www.in.gov/pla/rulesingov/lsa-document-25-328-cosmetology-and-barber-updates-to-board-rules/ · https://www.in.gov/dor/files/sib27.pdf · https://www.in.gov/dor/files/sib42.pdf · https://www.in.gov/dor/files/gb102.pdf · https://www.in.gov/dor/i-am-a/business-corp/sales-tax/ · https://www.in.gov/dwd/files/Misclassified_Worker_FAQs_Final_on_Letterhead.pdf · https://secure.in.gov/wcb/independent-contractors/