Sales tax in Texas for med spas
Texas taxes only the services listed in Tax Code §151.0101, and medical and cosmetic services are not on it: injectables, laser, microneedling, facials and body contouring are not taxed. The one trap is massage, taxable from a “massage parlor” but not from a licensed massage therapist. Tanning is not listed either.
Retail is where the tax lives: 6.25% state plus up to 2% local, so most metro Texas med spas collect the 8.25% maximum on serums, devices and cosmetics. The Texas quirk is the over-the-counter drug exemption: a product carrying an FDA Drug Facts panel — most sunscreens, acne treatments and topical lidocaine — is exempt, while a medical-grade vitamin C serum without one is taxable. Flag it item by item in your POS.
On supplies the practice is the consumer: you pay tax on gloves, cleaning products and equipment, and owe use tax on a laser bought out of state tax-free. Prescription drugs and medical syringes and needles are exempt at purchase; fillers are devices, so check how your distributor treats Texas tax.
Worked example at Austin’s 8.25% rate: a $650 filler treatment, a $95 serum (no Drug Facts panel) and a $40 sunscreen (Drug Facts panel) on one ticket. Only the serum is taxed: $95 × 8.25% = $7.84; ticket total $792.84. Register through the Comptroller’s online application (no fee); returns are due the 20th, with a 0.5% discount for filing on time. Our med spa sales tax guide covers bundled packages.
Who can own a med spa in Texas (CPOM and supervision, summarized)
Texas is one of the strictest corporate-practice-of-medicine states; this is a summary, not legal advice. The Medical Practice Act bars lay entities from employing a physician to practice medicine. In January 2025 the Texas Medical Board moved its med spa rule from 22 TAC §193.17 into Chapter 169, where §169.25 says injecting substances or using a prescription medical device for cosmetic purposes is the practice of medicine. Under Business Organizations Code Chapter 301 the professional entity providing that care must be physician-owned (a physician assistant may hold a minority interest).
So Texas med spas owned by nurse practitioners, RNs, estheticians or investors use the MSO structure: the owner’s ordinary LLC supplies space, equipment, staff and marketing to a physician-owned entity under a management services agreement. AmSpa’s Texas CPOM summary notes that courts and the Board weigh flow of funds, fee setting and control over clinical decisions, so a Texas health-care attorney designs the fee and we book it exactly as written.
On supervision, the TMB’s med spa FAQ says a physician may delegate to trained individuals if a physician, PA or APRN is on site or immediately available; §§169.26–169.28 add a practitioner-patient relationship, written orders, posted physician names and credential badges. The TMB registers no med spa facilities; HB 3749 governs elective IV therapy from September 1, 2025. Confirm all of it with a health-care attorney licensed in Texas.
State business taxes for a Texas med spa entity
Texas has no personal or corporate income tax, so there is no state return behind your 1040 or K-1. What it has is the franchise tax, a tax on “margin” owed by every LLC, PLLC, professional association, corporation and limited partnership in the state. Only sole proprietorships and general partnerships owned directly by individuals escape it, and an S election does not help.
For reports due May 15, 2026, the no-tax-due threshold is $2,650,000 of total revenue. Below it you owe nothing but still file the Public Information Report (Form 05-102) by May 15 (the No Tax Due Report ended in 2024), and the late penalty is $50 even with no tax due. Above it, margin is the lowest of 70% of revenue, revenue minus cost of goods sold, revenue minus compensation (capped at $480,000 per person) or revenue minus $1 million, taxed at 0.75% for a service business (0.375% is for retail and wholesale only). Entities under $20 million of revenue may instead use the EZ computation, 0.331% of total revenue with no deductions, often cheaper for a labor-heavy practice.
In an MSO structure both entities file; if the same people own more than half of each, combined-reporting rules may apply, which we check at onboarding.
Payroll in Texas for injectors and front desk
With no state income tax there is no Texas withholding or state W-4; the state payroll obligation is unemployment insurance through the Texas Workforce Commission. You become liable once you pay $1,500 of gross wages in a calendar quarter or have an employee in 20 different weeks of the year, and must register with TWC within ten days. For 2026 the new-employer rate is 2.70% on a $9,000 taxable wage base per employee; experience-rated employers fall between 0.32% and 6.32%. A full-time injector therefore costs $243 of state unemployment tax a year.
Texas has no paid-leave, disability or family-leave payroll program and no local payroll taxes, and overtime follows the federal FLSA, so commission-plus-hourly injector plans need only the federal regular-rate calculation. Workers’ compensation is optional for most private employers; a “nonsubscriber” must report that status and lost-time injuries to the state.
Injectors are almost always W-2 under the IRS common-law test — the practice controls schedule, protocols, products and pricing. Paying an RN injector on a 1099 to skip the 2.7% is the most expensive $243 a Texas med spa can save. See how we structure injector pay.
Registrations, filings and deadlines checklist for a Texas med spa
What a Texas med spa registers for, in the usual order; fees checked on agency sites in October 2026. Licensing rows summarize, not advise.
| Item | Where | Fee / due date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form the entities (owner’s MSO LLC; physician-owned PLLC or PA) | Texas Secretary of State (SOSDirect) | LLC or PLLC $300; professional association $750 | SOS Form 806 |
| Franchise tax report and Public Information Report, each entity | Comptroller Webfile | May 15; no tax under $2,650,000 revenue (2026); $50 late penalty | Comptroller |
| Sales tax permit (retail) | Comptroller online registration | No fee; returns due the 20th | Comptroller |
| Unemployment tax account | TWC | Within 10 days of liability; 2.70% on first $9,000 (2026) | TWC |
| Workers’ compensation | TDI, Division of Workers’ Compensation | Optional; nonsubscribers report status to the state | TDI |
| Laser hair removal facility registration | TDLR | $900, two years, consulting-physician agreement; physician-owned practices exempt | TDLR |
| Med spa facility license | Texas Medical Board | None exists; 22 TAC Ch. 169 Subch. E delegation, signage and badge rules apply | TMB FAQ 312–313 |
Estheticians and individual laser hair removal operators hold their own TDLR licenses. The federal side (EIN, Form 2553, medical-director 1099s) is in our opening checklist.
How we work with Texas 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 Drug Facts items for the sales tax return, and close the books by the tenth business day. Tampa is an hour ahead of Texas, so our mornings overlap your full day.
We file the Comptroller sales tax returns, the May 15 franchise tax reports and PIRs, TWC quarterly wage reports and federal returns for both entities in an MSO structure. You keep the local pieces: the Texas health-care attorney who drafts the management agreement, TDLR and TMB compliance, the workers’ comp decision, and signing what we prepare. Monthly engagements start at $1,500; see pricing, the med spa service page or request a fit call.
A Texas example
Illustrative only: a single-location Austin practice — a physician-owned PLLC plus an owner-run MSO — with $1,800,000 of combined revenue and five employees.
- Sales tax. Retail is $150,000: $120,000 of taxable skincare and $30,000 of Drug Facts-labeled sunscreen and acne product. Tax collected at Austin’s 8.25% rate: $120,000 × 8.25% = $9,900 for the year. Tax on $1,650,000 of treatments: $0.
- Franchise tax. Neither entity reaches $2,650,000 of total revenue, so no 2026 tax is due; each files a Public Information Report by May 15. If the PLLC grew to $3,000,000 with $1,200,000 of compensation, the margin method gives ($3,000,000 − $1,200,000) × 0.75% = $13,500 and the EZ computation gives $3,000,000 × 0.331% = $9,930 — EZ saves $3,570.
- Unemployment tax. The first injector, paid $85,000, costs 2.70% × $9,000 = $243 of Texas unemployment tax plus $42 of federal FUTA (0.6% × $7,000). All five employees: $1,215 of state tax.