Sales tax in New York for med spas
New York taxes only the services listed in Tax Law §1105(c), and medical and cosmetic treatments are not on it, so injectables and laser treatments carry no sales tax anywhere in the state. New York City is the exception. Tax Law §1212-A lets the city impose its 4.5% local tax alone on beautician, hair removal, manicure, massage, tanning and weight-control services, excluding services rendered by physicians, nurses and similar licensees (massage is taxable even from a licensed therapist). In TSB-A-05(3)S the Tax Department held that laser hair removal by trained technicians at a physician-supervised clinic was “cosmetic in nature” and taxable.
Retail follows the drug-versus-cosmetic line in TB-ST-193: sunscreen, acne preparations with a recognized drug ingredient and dandruff products are exempt; moisturizers, cleansers, make-up and wrinkle preparations are taxable even with medicinal ingredients. Combined rates run from 8% in Monroe and Albany to 8.875% in New York City. Supplies used in treatment are taxed to you at purchase.
Manhattan ticket: a $600 neurotoxin treatment by an RN (no tax), a $120 moisturizer ($120 × 8.875% = $10.65), a $45 sunscreen (exempt) and $150 of laser hair removal by a technician ($150 × 4.5% = $6.75); total $932.40. Register for a Certificate of Authority through New York Business Express at least 20 days before opening. New vendors file quarterly, annual if tax is $3,000 or less, monthly at $300,000 of taxable sales in a quarter. See our med spa sales tax guide.
Who can own a med spa in New York (CPOM and supervision, summarized)
This is a summary, not legal advice. NYSED’s Office of the Professions limits licensees to practicing as a sole proprietor, professional partnership, PC, PLLC or LLP and bars a general business corporation from providing professional services or sharing profits or fees with licensees. A PLLC needs an Education Department Certificate of Authority (Form PLS709) to file. A medical PLLC or PC is physician-owned. A nurse practitioner may form a nursing professional entity, and an NP with 3,600 hours of experience needs no written practice agreement with a physician, a rule extended to July 1, 2030. RNs, estheticians and investors cannot own the treating entity.
Non-physician owners therefore use an MSO, an ordinary LLC that supplies space, equipment, staff and marketing for a fee. The New York wrinkle is §6530(19), which makes it misconduct to pay for space, equipment or personnel with an amount that is “a percentage of, or is otherwise dependent upon, the income or receipts of the licensee.” Fees are flat, fair-market amounts, booked exactly as the agreement reads.
NYSED lists “injections of any kind” among tasks unlicensed persons may never perform, so injectors are physicians, NPs, PAs or RNs under a prescriber’s patient-specific order. New York licenses no med spa facilities, and AmSpa reports laser hair removal is unregulated in the state. Confirm it all with a New York-licensed health-care attorney.
State business taxes for a New York med spa entity
New York taxes the entity whether or not it made money. An LLC or PLLC taxed as a partnership or disregarded entity pays the annual filing fee on Form IT-204-LL by prior-year New York source gross income: $25 up to $100,000, rising to $1,500 from $1 million to $5 million, due March 15 with no extension. A New York S corporation (file Form CT-6) pays a fixed dollar minimum by New York receipts: $1,000 for $1 million to $5 million, up to $4,500. A PC that never elects S status pays 6.5% on business income (7.25% above $5 million through 2026). Owners pay New York’s graduated personal income tax on their share; the pass-through entity tax (elect by March 15, 6.85% on the first $2 million) moves that deduction to the entity.
New York City adds a second layer. An LLC or partnership pays the 4% unincorporated business tax once gross income passes $95,000, after a $5,000 exemption and a credit that erases tax of $3,400 or less. The city does not recognize the S election, so an S corporation pays the General Corporation Tax at 8.85% of city net income or a higher alternative base that counts owner compensation; city-resident owners can add the 3.876% NYC PTET.
Payroll in New York for injectors and front desk
New York withholds state income tax, plus city tax for New York City and Yonkers residents, on the quarterly Form NYS-45. Unemployment liability starts the quarter you pay $300 of wages; register on Form NYS-100. The 2026 new-employer rate is 4.1% on a wage base that jumped from $12,800 to $17,600 this year, so each full-time injector costs $721.60; experienced employers pay 1.7% to 9.5%.
Two employee-funded programs ride on payroll: Paid Family Leave, deducted at 0.432% of wages in 2026 and capped at $411.91 a year, and mandatory disability benefits (DBL) coverage from a carrier, with the employee share at most 60 cents a week. Downstate employers with more than $312,500 of quarterly payroll also owe the MCTMT, starting at 0.055%.
The 2026 minimum wage is $17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.00 elsewhere; a salaried front-desk manager is exempt only above $1,275 a week downstate ($1,199.10 upstate); and a workday spanning more than ten hours owes an extra hour at minimum wage. Injectors are W-2 under the IRS common-law test, and a 1099 RN loses DBL and PFL coverage. See how we structure injector pay.
Registrations, filings and deadlines checklist for a New York med spa
Fees checked in October 2026; licensing rows summarize, not advise.
| Item | Where | Fee / due date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form the entities (MSO LLC; physician-owned PLLC or PC) | NY Department of State; PLLC also files NYSED Form PLS709 | $200 articles; $9 biennial statement; six weeks of newspaper publication, $50 certificate within 120 days | DOS |
| Certificate of Authority (sales tax) | New York Business Express | 20 days before the first sale; quarterly returns 20 days after quarter-end | TB-ST-360 |
| Unemployment, withholding, DBL and PFL | NYS DOL (Form NYS-100) and a DBL carrier | At $300 of quarterly wages; 4.1% on first $17,600 (2026); DBL and PFL coverage required | NYS DOL, WCB |
| Annual filing fee or fixed dollar minimum | Tax Department, IT-204-LL or CT-3-S | March 15; $25–$4,500 by receipts; no extension for IT-204-LL | Tax Department |
| New York City business taxes | NYC Department of Finance | UBT or GCT return April 15; commercial rent tax return at $200,000 of Manhattan rent south of 96th Street | NYC Finance |
| Med spa facility license | None; individual licenses and NYSED delegation rules apply | Laser hair removal unregulated per AmSpa | NYSED, AmSpa |
Federal items are in our opening checklist.
How we work with New York med spas from Tampa
Onboarding is remote: a 20-minute fit call, then read-only access to your bank, processor and POS. We pull exports from Boulevard, Zenoti, Aesthetic Record, Vagaro, Mindbody, Nextech or PatientNow into QuickBooks Online, split revenue by service line and retail, tag Schedule N services for the sales tax return, and close the books by the tenth business day. Tampa and New York share the Eastern time zone.
We file the quarterly sales tax returns, IT-204-LL or CT-3-S, PTET elections and estimates, NYS-45 payroll returns and the city UBT or GCT returns for both entities in an MSO structure. You keep the local pieces: the New York health-care attorney, the NYSED certificate and newspaper publication, the DBL/PFL carrier, and signing what we prepare. Monthly engagements start at $1,500; see pricing, the med spa service page or request a fit call.
A New York example
Illustrative only: a single-location Manhattan practice — a physician-owned PLLC taxed as a New York S corporation plus an owner-run MSO LLC — with $1,500,000 of combined revenue.
- Sales tax. Taxable skincare $120,000 × 8.875% = $10,650; $20,000 of sunscreen is exempt. Laser hair removal by a technician, $60,000 × 4.5% = $2,700 city-only. Treatments by the NP and RNs, $1,300,000: $0.
- Entity taxes. The PLLC, with $1,500,000 of New York receipts, owes the $1,000 S corporation fixed dollar minimum plus city General Corporation Tax on its net income. The MSO LLC’s flat $400,000 management fee sets its IT-204-LL fee at $175; on $80,000 of net income its UBT is ($80,000 − $5,000) × 4% = $3,000, erased by the credit because it is under $3,400.
- Unemployment tax. The first injector, paid $90,000, costs 4.1% × $17,600 = $721.60 of state unemployment tax plus $42 of FUTA; her paycheck carries $388.80 of PFL.