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Renting a booth or a suite in a Mississippi salon? The big question is whether you need your own establishment license or whether you are covered by the salon you rent from. Here is exactly how Mississippi treats it in 2026 — the license question, the fees, the inspection rule, how your rent is taxed, and the steps and postings to get compliant — sourced to the state’s own rules and dated.
Yes. MSBCB Rule 10.4 states verbatim: 'All establishments where any profession licensed by the Board is practiced must also hold an establishment license,' and each establishment must have a licensee as either the owner or the manager. There is no booth-rental or independent-contractor exemption. Practical effect for renters: if you rent a self-contained SUITE (your own enclosed area), you almost certainly need your OWN establishment license — Rule 10.4 expressly provides that any change to 'location (including area within a building i.e. suite)' requires submission of a new establishment license application, meaning each suite is treated as a separate establishment. If you rent a booth/chair inside a larger salon that already holds one establishment license for the premises, that salon's establishment license generally covers the location and you work under it as a listed practitioner (you must still hold and display your own individual license). Confirm the boundary with MSBCB at 601.359.1820. Cite: Rule 10.4 (verified against the official rules PDF).
The schedule is STATUTORY, not merely a web page: Miss. Code Ann. Sec. 73-7-29 (effective 1 April 2026) sets $85 application and inspection, $35 re-inspection, $60 renewal, $50 late penalty, and $55 reciprocity/UROLA. A 'Certification $35' line appears on the Board's fees page but not in the statutory list.
Yes. Every person performing services must hold the applicable MSBCB individual (practitioner) license — cosmetologist, barber, esthetician, or nail technician (instructor if teaching, $80). Renting a booth does not change this. The practitioner license/renewal fee is $50.00 and must be renewed biennially (every 2 years) — Rule 5.x renewal provisions confirm 'each licensee must biennially' renew; no renewal fee for licensees age 70 or older. Statutory basis: Miss. Code Ann. Title 73, Ch. 7.
Yes — required before opening. Rule 10.5 (verbatim): 'An establishment license cannot be issued until after an inspection by the Board or a Board agent is successfully passed.' The inspection is scheduled only after a complete application is submitted, and its cost is bundled into the $85 application fee (a no-show/failure triggers the $35 re-inspection fee). Thereafter, Rule 10.12 requires unannounced inspections at least biennially.
Mississippi has no explicit booth-rental regime and no independent-contractor exception — the word 'booth' appears in the rules only in the plumbing standard (a water source within 15 feet). The renter's position is reached by inference from the establishment rule, which defines the licensed unit as a 'location (including area within a building i.e. suite)': a self-contained suite is therefore a new establishment application at $85 with a pre-opening inspection, while a chair in an open salon rides on the owner's establishment licence. That inference is not published by the Board as such — confirm your configuration with the MSBCB before committing to a lease. One change to note: an unlicensed owner no longer has to name a licensed manager; the July 2026 Establishment Application V.7.2026 asks only for the owner's MSBCB licence number and drops the notarized declaration.
Generally NOT subject to Mississippi sales tax. Mississippi's 7% sales tax applies to sales of tangible personal property and to a specific enumerated list of services under the Sales Tax Law (Miss. Code Ann. Title 27, Chapter 65). The DOR confirms tax attaches to 'all sales of tangible personal property … at the regular retail rate of sales tax (7%) unless the law exempts the item.' The rental/leasing of real property (which is what a booth or suite lease is) is NOT among the enumerated taxable services, and barber/beauty services are likewise not taxed — so the rent a booth/suite renter pays to a landlord is not a sale subject to Mississippi sales tax. NOTE: this is about the RENT. If the renter SELLS retail products (shampoo, tools, take-home product), those product sales are taxable at 7% and require a DOR sales-tax permit; and a bundled arrangement that includes taxable tangible personal property could differ — confirm any unusual arrangement with the Mississippi DOR. Sources: DOR 'Mississippi Sales and Use Taxes,' https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/sales-use-tax/mississippi-sales-and-use-taxes; Miss. Code Ann. Title 27, Ch. 65 (§ 27-65-23 enumerated services — real-property rental and beauty services not listed).
Work through these in order — the kit turns them into a checklist you can tick off:
Before you can rent a booth, a chair or a suite anywhere in Mississippi you must hold your own practitioner licence issued by the Mississippi State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering (MSBCB), the single agency that now regulates both the cosmetology professions and barbering. Miss. Code Ann. Section 73-7-9 (effective 1 April 2026) is the base rule: 'No person required by this chapter to have a license shall conduct a school of any profession regulated by the board, salon or barber shop, or practice cosmetology, barbering, esthetics, nail technology, or practice as an instructor, unless such person has received a license or temporary permit therefor from the board.' The same section adds a trap that catches unlicensed renters: anyone who violates the rules before being licensed 'shall be subject to the same discipline by the board as licensees. They may be disciplined and fined accordingly.' Being unlicensed does not put you outside the Board's reach; it only removes the licence the Board could otherwise suspend, and leaves the fine. Section 73-7-35 then shapes where you may work: 'No person licensed pursuant to this chapter shall practice his or her profession except within the physical confines of a salon/barber shop possessing a properly executed license issued pursuant to Section 73-7-17', with narrow exceptions for clients confined by illness and for services to deceased persons; and subsection (2) forbids any salon or barber shop owner from allowing a cosmetologist, barber, esthetician or nail technician to practise there without a valid licence. Your landlord has a statutory duty to check your licence, and the address must sit under a live establishment licence - Mississippi has no address-free practitioner status. Entry requirements come from Section 73-7-13: at least sixteen (16) years old, tenth grade completed or successful enrolment in a community college or higher-education institution, fee paid, prescribed hours completed, Board examination passed. Finally, check whether you need a licence at all. Section 73-7-31 removes three categories from the whole chapter: services given in the home to family or friends free of charge (and the same at an event venue with the Board's express written approval); 'persons whose practice is limited to only performing makeup artistry, threading or applying or removing eyelash extensions', combining no more than those three; and hair braiders as defined in Section 73-7-71 who have completed the self-test in the State Department of Health infection-control brochure and keep the brochure and self-test available where they braid.
Mississippi does not license booths; it licenses addresses, and every address at which a regulated profession is practised must carry an establishment licence. Rule 10.4 opens: 'All establishments where any profession licensed by the Board is practiced must also hold an establishment license.' Section 73-7-17(1) requires that 'All salon/barber shop owners shall have a salon/barber shop license', and Section 73-7-35(1) forbids any licensee from practising outside the physical confines of a licensed salon or barber shop. There is no booth-renter licence, no independent-contractor exemption and no renter's endorsement anywhere in Title 73, Chapter 7 or in the Board's rules. That leaves one practical question, which Mississippi answers through the transfer clause rather than a definition. Rule 10.4 makes an establishment licence non-transferable and provides that 'Any change to the establishment ownership, location (including area within a building i.e. suite), and/or name requires the submission of a new establishment license application.' The Board therefore treats a suite as a location in its own right: rent a self-contained suite and expect to hold your own establishment licence, with your own $85.00 application, pre-opening inspection and $60.00 biennial renewal. Rent a chair on the open floor of an already licensed salon and that licence covers the address; you work under it as one of the 'licensed practitioners associated with the establishment' whom the owner lists at application and at every renewal, and you buy no Board licence beyond your own. The line between booth and suite is not defined in statute or rule and the Board has published no written answer; it is settled in practice by the inspector and by how the space is built. Before signing a lease for anything with walls and a door, put the floor plan to the Board and get the answer in writing - being wrong means you have been operating an unlicensed establishment, a misdemeanour under Section 73-7-37 carrying a fine no court may suspend.
The licence is issued by Mississippi State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering (MSBCB), PO Box 55689, Jackson, MS 39296-5689.
Fee: $85.00 for the establishment application and initial inspection. The figure is statutory: Miss. Code Ann. Section 73-7-29(e), effective 1 April 2026, sets 'Salon/barber shop application and initial inspection .... 85.00', the Board's fee schedule repeats it as item F, and the July 2026 temporary rules restate it as 'Establishment application and initial inspection $85.00'. It is non-refundable and covers the mandatory pre-opening inspection - Mississippi does not bill that separately. Related figures from the same list: re-inspection $35.00 (Section 73-7-29(f)); duplicate licence $10.00; demonstrator permit $10.00; insufficient-fund cheque penalty $20.00; affidavit processing $15.00; certification $35.00 (the last two and the demonstrator permit appear on the Board's fee page; certification does not appear in the statutory list read this session). Because Rule 10.4 makes any change of ownership, location or name require a new application, a relocation or a sale costs the full $85.00 again rather than an amendment fee.
Renewal: $60.00, biennially. Rule 10.6 states that 'An establishment license must be renewed biennially' and Section 73-7-29(h) sets the salon/barber shop renewal at $60.00. Section 73-7-17(1) grants 'A grace period of sixty (60) days ... in which to renew the license', after which a delinquent fee is added; that delinquent renewal penalty is $50.00 (Section 73-7-29(i)). The hard deadline is one year: a 'salon/barber shop license that has been expired for over one (1) year is nonrenewable and requires a new application', and Rule 10.6 spells out the consequence - you must reapply under Rule 10.4 and sit the pre-opening inspection under Rule 10.5 all over again, at $85.00. Two blocking rules apply to everyone: 'No license shall be renewed until all fines previously assessed to the establishment have been paid in full' (Rule 10.6), reinforced by Section 73-7-17(4), 'No license issued by the board may be renewed until all monetary fines and penalties assessed by the board to the licensee are paid in full.' Your individual practitioner licence renews on its own biennial cycle at $50.00, with a $50.00 delinquent penalty and no renewal fee at all once you are seventy or older.
Booth rental is lawful in Mississippi but legally invisible: no booth-rental licence, no booth-renter registration, no statutory definition of a booth renter, and no independent-contractor carve-out anywhere in Title 73, Chapter 7 or in the MSBCB rules. The word 'booth' appears in the rules only in a plumbing standard - Rule 11.2 requires hot and cold water under pressure 'within a distance of no more than fifteen (15) feet from all work booths or rooms'. Anyone describing an explicit Mississippi booth-rental regime is describing a different state. Mississippi regulates the address and the person and lets the lease sort itself out privately. Three shapes exist. A chair or booth on the open floor of a licensed salon: the host licence covers the address, the owner lists you among the licensed practitioners associated with the establishment at application and at every biennial renewal, the owner answers for the premises and you answer for your own station under Rules 10.2 and 11.1. A self-contained suite: Rule 10.4 treats a change of location 'including area within a building i.e. suite' as requiring a new establishment application, so a walled suite is normally its own establishment, with its own fee, equipment, inspection, renewal and inspection exposure. Working outside a licensed address at all, which Section 73-7-35(1) forbids except for clients confined by illness and for services to deceased persons. Two carve-outs matter: Section 73-7-35(3) provides that nothing in that section prevents a licensee from working at the physical practice location of a physician, physician's assistant or advanced practice registered nurse, or requires that location to be Board-licensed; and Rule 10.10 exempts an establishment inside a skilled nursing facility, long-term care hospital or comprehensive medical rehabilitation facility serving residents only. Mobile work is the live question. Rule 10.11 of the October 2025 rules defines a mobile establishment as 'a self-contained, enclosed motor vehicle that is movable to different locations' and states that 'Mobile establishments may not be operated in Mississippi.' The 2026 amendment reverses that: Section 73-7-17(2) directs that 'By January 1, 2027, the board shall promulgate rules and regulations to enable licensure of mobile salon/barber shops', each affiliated with a permanently located shop and confined to a radius the Board sets, and the July 2026 temporary rules have already deleted the prohibition. Ask the Board where that rulemaking stands rather than relying on either document. On the lease itself Mississippi imposes nothing: no mandatory written agreement, no filing with the Board, no client notice, no rent ceiling, no minimum term. That silence is not permission to be casual - because the Board splits responsibility between premises and station, and because the unemployment consequences below turn on facts of control rather than the contract's title, the written lease is the only document that will later show who controlled what: rent and what it buys, who supplies product and equipment, who sets hours and prices, who owns the client list, who holds the retail sales tax permit, insurance, and termination.
Mississippi inspects before it licenses, then on a cycle. The pre-opening inspection is stated twice. Rule 10.5: 'An establishment license cannot be issued until after an inspection by the Board or a Board agent is successfully passed. The establishment inspection may be scheduled only after the submission of a complete application as per Rule 10.4.' Section 73-7-17(1): 'Prior to the initial issuance of such license, the board shall inspect the premises to determine if same qualifies with the law, upon payment by the applicant of the required inspection fee.' Since the $85.00 fee is described in statute as covering 'application and initial inspection', that visit is already paid for; what costs extra is missing or failing it - a $35.00 re-inspection fee before another can be scheduled (Section 73-7-29(f); the July 2026 temporary rules add 'unless good cause is shown in writing'). For a suite this step sets your opening date: the Board schedules only after a complete file, so a missing equipment list or good-standing certificate is a delay you pay for in rent. After opening, Rule 10.12 requires that 'All establishments licensed by the Board shall be inspected, without prior announcement, biennially at minimum', and the Board may also inspect while investigating a complaint. Interference can itself produce a violation and further discipline, and 'A licensee shall make his government issued photo identification available upon request of the Board or its agent(s)' - carry ID at your station. When a violation is found, Rule 10.13 governs: notice on the Board's citation form, which states the monetary penalty, served by certified mail or personal service; thirty (30) days to request a hearing under Chapter 12 or to waive it and pay; unpaid violations block any renewal.
Rent first. Mississippi taxes sales of tangible personal property and a closed list of enumerated businesses and activities. The Department of Revenue states the general rule: 'All sales of tangible personal property in the State of Mississippi are subject to the regular retail rate of sales tax (7%) unless the law exempts the item or provides a reduced rate of tax for an item.' The service side is Miss. Code Ann. Section 27-65-23, which levies 7% of gross income 'upon every person engaging or continuing in any of the following businesses or activities' and then lists them: trades and repair services (air-conditioning, vehicle, electrical, plumbing, machine, furniture, jewellery, shoe, office machine, refrigeration, radio and TV, welding, sheet metal, woodworking, tire vulcanizing), laundering and dry cleaning, car washing, computer software services, film developing, custom meat processing, excavating and landscaping, hotels, motels and trailer parks, marina services, parking garages and lots, public storage warehouses and storage lockers, telephone answering, pest control, cable and subscription TV, amusement venues such as billiard parlours and bowling alleys, geophysical surveying, and 'renting or leasing personal property'. Neither the rental or leasing of real property nor barber, beauty, nail or esthetics services appear on that list; the statute taxes leases of personal property, and a booth or suite lease is a lease of space. On the statutory text read this session, the rent you pay your salon landlord is not a taxable sale in Mississippi, and the haircut, colour, manicure or facial you sell is not taxed either. Retail is the exception that catches people. Shampoo, tools and take-home product are tangible personal property taxed at 7%, and the Department requires registration before you start: 'Before engaging in any business in Mississippi subject to sales tax, a permit or registration license is required from the Department of Revenue ... A separate permit is required for each location. The permit does not expire and does not require renewal as long as the holder continues in the same business at the same location.' Returns are due on or before the 20th day following the end of the reporting period. Two consequences for renters: the permit is yours, not your landlord's, if you make the retail sale; and a suite you later relocate needs a permit for the new location. If your landlord bundles product into the rent, or the arrangement mixes rent with tangible property or with an enumerated taxable service, the analysis can change - put that to the Department in writing rather than assuming. Income and self-employment are separate systems. As a renter you receive gross fees rather than wages, nobody withholds for you, you owe federal self-employment tax and quarterly estimated payments, and Mississippi levies its own individual income tax administered by the DOR (confirm current rates and thresholds; not verified this session). Keep records of rent paid, product bought and mileage - the deductions are yours to claim and yours to prove.
Mississippi does not deem booth renters to be independent contractors by statute, and nothing in Title 73, Chapter 7 addresses the employment status of a person who rents a chair. Classification is decided by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) for state unemployment tax under Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-5-11, and the starting posture is against you: services are treated as employment unless shown to fall outside it, and MDES cites its determining authority under Section 71-5-11 J.(14). MDES publishes the criteria it applies under seven headings - extent of control; nature of the business; furnishing of tools; materials and place of work; period of employment; method of payment; relationship of the worker to the firm - with the explicit caution that 'In each case, it is very important to consider all the facts - no single fact provides the answer.' Its guidance also weighs written contracts, significant investment, unreimbursed expenses, opportunity for profit or loss, and whether employee benefits are provided. Applied to a real arrangement, that framework tells you what to avoid. A renter who sets her own hours and prices, buys her own back-bar product and tools, keeps her own client records, pays fixed rent regardless of takings, carries her own risk of profit and loss, takes no benefits and holds a written lease looks like an independent business. A 'renter' scheduled by the salon, whose prices and services the salon sets, who uses the salon's product and takes a percentage of payments the salon collects, is being tested against the employment presumption whatever the lease is called - and the exposure, in assessed contributions, interest and penalties, sits with the salon as much as with the renter. Federal classification under the IRS common-law test is a separate determination on similar facts, and workers' compensation a third - confirm coverage obligations with the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission (not verified this session). If real money turns on the answer, request a determination from MDES rather than relying on the lease title, and keep the evidence of independence: the lease, your own product invoices, booking records, price list and insurance.
State licensing is not the whole permit stack, and the Board's forms say so. The establishment application (version 7.2026) lists among its attachments a 'City privilege license, if applicable', a building permit for new construction if applicable, evidence of successful inspection by the county or city if applicable, and evidence of successful inspection by the fire department if applicable; Rule 10.4 requires the same. The Board expects the local layer cleared before it issues the state licence, not after, and Rule 10.12 continues the duty into operation: 'An establishment shall meet all applicable health and safety standards required by local, state, and/or federal law.' What that layer contains varies by municipality and county and the Board administers none of it: a municipal privilege licence where the city levies one, zoning approval and a certificate of occupancy, fire inspection, sign permits, and - for a suite carved out of a larger building - the landlord's own building-code compliance for the walls, door and plumbing you add. A home-based suite adds a residential zoning question on top of the Rule 10.9 conditions. Because the Board treats a change of location including a suite within a building as a new establishment application, moving restarts both the local checks and the $85.00 state application and inspection. If you rent a booth inside someone else's licensed salon, most of this is your landlord's - but your own privilege licence where the city requires one, your own DOR sales tax permit for your own retail sales, and your own business registration remain yours.
Unlicensed practice and unlicensed establishments are criminal in Mississippi, and the fine is not discretionary. Section 73-7-37(1): 'The violation of any of the provisions of this chapter, including the use of fraudulent statements to obtain any benefits or privileges under this chapter or practicing one (1) of these professions without a license ... shall constitute a misdemeanor ... and any person or firm convicted ... shall be fined not less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) but not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00). The court shall not be authorized to suspend or suspend the execution of the fine required under this section.' Those are the amounts in force under the version effective 1 April 2026; the previous range was $100 to $500, so older guidance online understates the exposure. Administratively, Section 73-7-27 empowers the Board 'to revoke, suspend or refuse to issue or renew any license or certificate ... and to fine, place on probation and/or otherwise discipline an applicant, student, licensee or holder of a certificate' on proof, among other grounds, of non-compliance with a Board order or rule, violation of any section of the chapter, grossly unprofessional or dishonest conduct, knowingly false or deceptive advertising, or failure to display the licence as the chapter provides. Complaints go on the Board's notarised complaint form, are investigated under Chapter 12, and end in dismissal, consent order, informal conference or a formal hearing on at least twenty days' notice; the Board may summarily suspend without a hearing where public health, safety or welfare is in immediate danger, with a hearing within twenty days. Section 73-7-9 extends the same discipline and fines to people never licensed at all. Day to day the sanction a booth renter actually meets is the inspection citation: Rule 10.13 has the inspector issue the Board's citation form stating the monetary penalty, with thirty days to request a hearing or pay. Plan around the compounding: unpaid violations must be cleared before any licence renews (Rule 10.6, Rule 10.13, Section 73-7-17(4)); an unpaid violation follows the establishment to a new owner and survives a move or a name change; and an establishment licence expired more than a year cannot be renewed at all and must go back through application, fee and inspection. For your landlord the specific trap is Section 73-7-35(2) - allowing an unlicensed person to practise on the premises is itself a violation, which is why an owner who asks to copy your licence is protecting you both.
Program sources: https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/MSBCB-Updated-Statutes-4.1.2026.pdf (Board compilation of Miss. Code Ann. Title 73, Ch. 7 effective 1 April 2026 as amended by Laws 2026, S.B. 2566; read verbatim: Sections 73-7-9, 73-7-11, 73-7-13, 73-7-17, 73-7-27, 73-7-29, 73-7-31, 73-7-33, 73-7-35, 73-7-37) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MSBCB-Rules-and-Regulations-after-10.21.2025.pdf (MSBCB Rules, Title 30 Part 2101, effective after 21 October 2025; read verbatim: Rules 5.1, 5.2, 10.1-10.13, 11.1-11.5, Chapters 9 and 12, fee rule) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Temporary-Rules-1-12-1.pdf (MSBCB temporary rules, July 2026; diffed against the October 2025 rules; Rule 5.16 fee schedule, revised Chapter 10) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/fees/ (official fee schedule, items A-S) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Establishment-Application-V.7.2026.pdf (current establishment application and attachment list) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Board-Required-Establishment-Equipment-v7.2026.pdf (equipment list under Rule 10.7) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/licensure-renewals/ (index of current application and renewal forms) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/rules-and-regulations/ (index of rules, temporary rules and rules out for public comment, comments due 17 August 2026) · https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/sales-use-tax/mississippi-sales-and-use-taxes (DOR: 7% rate, permit required before doing business, separate permit per location, returns due by the 20th) · https://codes.findlaw.com/ms/title-27-taxation-and-finance/ms-code-sect-27-65-23/ (Miss. Code Ann. Section 27-65-23 enumerated taxable businesses and activities) · https://mdes.ms.gov/employers/unemployment-tax/reporting-and-filing/worker-classification/ (MDES worker classification, seven-factor framework, citing Section 71-5-11 J.(14)) · https://www.msbcb.ms.gov/ (Board contact details and site index)
Mississippi merged its cosmetology and barber boards into one agency — the Mississippi State Board of Cosmetology and Barbering (MSBCB) — so cosmetologists and barbers now license their shops under one identical $85 'salon/barber shop' establishment rule. The standout feature for suite renters is Rule 10.4's parenthetical: a change to the 'location (including area within a building i.e. suite)' triggers a brand-new establishment application. That single clause — verified verbatim in the current rules PDF — is what separates a booth renter (covered by the host salon's license) from a suite renter (needs their own license), a distinction most state boards leave vague but Mississippi wrote into the rule. Equally distinctive: Mississippi taxes neither the booth rent NOR the haircut, because its sales tax reaches only tangible goods and a closed list of enumerated services in Title 27, Ch. 65, neither of which includes real-property leasing or beauty services. Mobile salons are outright banned (Rule 10.11), closing a common 'independent' workaround.
Renters assume the building's license covers them. Rule 10.4 says otherwise for a self-contained suite: any change of 'location (including area within a building i.e. suite)' requires a new establishment application. Budget the $85 application-plus-inspection fee and expect your own pre-opening inspection.
Rule 10.5 bars issuance of the establishment license until a Board inspection is passed, and the inspection is only scheduled after a complete application. If you no-show or fail, you owe the $35 re-inspection fee. Do not book clients or commit to a hard lease start date before the inspection clears.
Booth/suite rent and the services themselves are not taxed, but if you retail shampoo, tools, or take-home product you are making taxable sales of tangible personal property (7%) and must register with the Mississippi DOR for a sales-tax permit. Don't read 'rent isn't taxed' as 'I never need a DOR permit.'
Rule 5.1 requires your original individual license at your workstation and the establishment license(s) in the reception area; posting a photocopy or an expired/revoked/surrendered license is prohibited. Renters who leave the original at another shop or tape up a copy risk a citation with a monetary penalty during an unannounced inspection (Rule 10.13).
Timeline: Individual license: already held (initial licensure follows Board-set training hours — commonly cited as 1,500 hrs cosmetology, 1,500 hrs barber, 600 esthetics, 350 nail — plus exam; confirm current hours with MSBCB). Establishment license for a suite: typically 2–4 weeks from submitting a complete application to passing the required Board inspection, depending on inspector scheduling; a booth renter under an existing salon license needs no new establishment license and can start once their individual license is displayed.
Cost: Suite/salon establishment: $85 application (includes initial inspection) + $60 biennial renewal; $35 if a re-inspection is needed. Individual practitioner license/renewal: $50 biennial (free at age 70+). Booth renter inside an existing licensed salon: $0 in Board establishment fees (works under the host license) beyond keeping the $50 biennial individual license current. No Board 'booth rental' fee exists. Business registration and any local/fire permits are extra — confirm with MSBCB (601.359.1820) and your city/county. All Board figures confirmed on the official fee page.
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Build my Mississippi kit →Yes. MSBCB Rule 10.4 states verbatim: 'All establishments where any profession licensed by the Board is practiced must also hold an establishment license,' and each establishment must have a licensee as either the owner or the manager. There is no booth-rental or independent-contractor exemption. Practical effect for renters: if you rent a self-contained SUITE (your own enclosed area), you almost certainly need your OWN establishment license — Rule 10.4 expressly provides that any change to 'location (including area within a building i.e. suite)' requires submission of a new establishment license application, meaning each suite is treated as a separate establishment. If you rent a booth/chair inside a larger salon that already holds one establishment license for the premises, that salon's establishment license generally covers the location and you work under it as a listed practitioner (you must still hold and display your own individual license). Confirm the boundary with MSBCB at 601.359.1820. Cite: Rule 10.4 (verified against the official rules PDF).
The schedule is STATUTORY, not merely a web page: Miss. Code Ann. Sec. 73-7-29 (effective 1 April 2026) sets $85 application and inspection, $35 re-inspection, $60 renewal, $50 late penalty, and $55 reciprocity/UROLA. A 'Certification $35' line appears on the Board's fees page but not in the statutory list.
Yes. Every person performing services must hold the applicable MSBCB individual (practitioner) license — cosmetologist, barber, esthetician, or nail technician (instructor if teaching, $80). Renting a booth does not change this. The practitioner license/renewal fee is $50.00 and must be renewed biennially (every 2 years) — Rule 5.x renewal provisions confirm 'each licensee must biennially' renew; no renewal fee for licensees age 70 or older. Statutory basis: Miss. Code Ann. Title 73, Ch. 7.
Yes — required before opening. Rule 10.5 (verbatim): 'An establishment license cannot be issued until after an inspection by the Board or a Board agent is successfully passed.' The inspection is scheduled only after a complete application is submitted, and its cost is bundled into the $85 application fee (a no-show/failure triggers the $35 re-inspection fee). Thereafter, Rule 10.12 requires unannounced inspections at least biennially.
Generally NOT subject to Mississippi sales tax. Mississippi's 7% sales tax applies to sales of tangible personal property and to a specific enumerated list of services under the Sales Tax Law (Miss. Code Ann. Title 27, Chapter 65). The DOR confirms tax attaches to 'all sales of tangible personal property … at the regular retail rate of sales tax (7%) unless the law exempts the item.' The rental/leasing of real property (which is what a booth or suite lease is) is NOT among the enumerated taxable services, and barber/beauty services are likewise not taxed — so the rent a booth/suite renter pays to a landlord is not a sale subject to Mississippi sales tax. NOTE: this is about the RENT. If the renter SELLS retail products (shampoo, tools, take-home product), those product sales are taxable at 7% and require a DOR sales-tax permit; and a bundled arrangement that includes taxable tangible personal property could differ — confirm any unusual arrangement with the Mississippi DOR. Sources: DOR 'Mississippi Sales and Use Taxes,' https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/sales-use-tax/mississippi-sales-and-use-taxes; Miss. Code Ann. Title 27, Ch. 65 (§ 27-65-23 enumerated services — real-property rental and beauty services not listed).
No. SalonBoothLicense gives general information based on each state's published cosmetology/barbering and tax rules, dated to when we last verified them, and is not a guarantee of licensure. Booth/suite rules also depend on local permitting and your written rental agreement. Always confirm with your state board and local authority.
Sources: www.msbc.ms.gov. Verified 2026-08-17. General information, not legal advice and not a guarantee of licensure — confirm with your state board and local authority before you open.