How to Start a Painting Business in Florida

Starting a painting business in Florida involves choosing a business structure, understanding registration requirements, and identifying the tax and safety rules that apply to your services. This guide covers entity setup, trade names, EINs, contractor licensing, lead-safe work, taxes, banking, hiring, and startup costs.

Registration & Entity Setup

A Florida LLC or corporation is created through formation documents accepted by the Florida Division of Corporations. State formation requirements and ongoing reporting obligations depend on the entity selected.

A business operating under a name different from its legal or registered name generally needs a Florida fictitious-name registration before conducting business under that name. Before registration, the intent to register must be advertised at least once in a qualifying newspaper in the county where the principal place of business is or will be located, and the registration must certify that publication occurred. Operating under the entity’s registered legal name does not itself require a separate DBA. These requirements appear in Florida Statutes section 865.09.

Obtain an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS when you will hire employees, operate as a partnership or corporation, or otherwise need a federal tax ID; the IRS provides an online application and guidance on when an EIN is required.

Entity formation does not automatically create state tax or employer accounts. For a Florida LLC, the first annual report is due in the calendar year after formation, with a January 1 through May 1 filing window. Keep formation documents available for banking and other business needs; certified copies and certificates of status are optional purchases. See the state fees below.

Permits & Local Requirements

Ordinary painting alone does not require a Florida state construction contractor license, as explained in DBPR’s guidance on work not requiring a state construction contractor license. Additional work within a regulated trade must be evaluated separately. Section 489.117 generally prevents local governments from requiring a separate painting license, but permits certain pre-existing local licenses for rooftop painting, coating, and cleaning above three stories when imposed before January 1, 2021. Check that exception before accepting high-rise rooftop work. Building permits and zoning are separate questions.

EPA’s RRP rule generally covers paid work disturbing painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing and qualifying child-occupied facilities, including qualifying school areas—not every school. Unless an applicable exemption or accepted documentation establishes that affected paint is not lead-based, covered work requires firm certification, a certified renovator, trained workers, and lead-safe practices. Testing is optional, but any testing used to establish that affected paint is not lead-based must cover the affected surfaces and be performed by an appropriately qualified professional using EPA-accepted methods. The minor-repair exemption generally covers disturbance of no more than 6 square feet per room indoors or 20 square feet outdoors; window replacement, demolition of painted surfaces, and prohibited practices do not qualify. Do not advertise or perform covered renovation work before obtaining firm certification. See EPA’s RRP contractor guidance.

OSHA construction safety standards apply to employee painting work performed as construction or repair. Lead exposure can trigger the lead-in-construction standard, while spray operations can trigger separate ventilation, respiratory-protection, and fire-safety requirements. Maintain required employee training, respiratory protection, and hazard communication measures as applicable. Consult OSHA’s spray-operations standards for the setting and materials involved; spray-booth requirements do not automatically apply to every outdoor painting job.

Local building permits, zoning, and inspection rules vary by county and municipality. Because this is a statewide guide, check the city or county building department where you will work for location-specific permit and inspection requirements before beginning a job.

Taxes & Ongoing Compliance

For painting performed as a real-property improvement under a lump-sum, cost-plus, guaranteed-price, or time-and-materials contract, the contractor generally pays sales tax on materials and supplies rather than collecting sales tax from the property owner. Use tax may be due on taxable purchases when sales tax was not paid. Separate taxable retail sales require collection, and qualifying retail-sale-plus-installation contracts require collection on the materials’ sales price. Register for a sales-and-use-tax account when your actual transactions require it, rather than assuming every painting invoice is taxable. See the Florida Department of Revenue’s Sales and Use Tax on Building Contractors brochure for contract-specific treatment.

For an ordinary private employer, Florida reemployment-tax liability can arise from payroll of at least $1,500 in a calendar quarter, employing at least one person for part of a day in any 20 weeks of a calendar year, liability for federal unemployment tax, or acquisition of all or part of a liable business. Register the required account using Form DR-1 or DOR’s online application when a liability condition applies; hiring alone does not explain the complete test. DOR’s Business Guide explains these triggers.

Federal employer responsibilities include employer withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes, and federal unemployment tax; obtain an EIN when required and follow IRS guidance (Publication 15 and related materials) for withholding, deposit schedules, and reporting.

Entity formation filings at Sunbiz and state tax registrations are separate processes — forming a company with the Division of Corporations does not automatically enroll the business in Florida tax accounts or payroll reporting systems.

Business Banking & Funding

When opening a business bank account, be prepared to present formation documents (Sunbiz-filed articles or a certificate of status), identity documents for owners and authorized signers, and an EIN if the bank requires one for the account type you choose. Banks follow Customer Identification Program (CIP) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) procedures; FinCEN’s CDD Rule FAQs explain customer identification and beneficial-owner verification.

FinCEN’s recent rulemaking changed the federal Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting landscape; U.S.-created companies and U.S. persons are not required to file BOI under the current final rule while certain foreign-formed entities remain potentially subject. Banks’ CDD obligations are separate from any FinCEN filing rules and banks may still collect beneficial-owner information when you open an account. This does not mean collection must be repeated for every additional account; the CDD FAQs describe permitted reliance on existing information and applicable exceptions.

Prepare basic financial records and a simple bookkeeping setup before seeking financing or vendor credit: formation documents, an EIN, clear business purpose, sample contracts, and basic projected income/expense figures improve credibility when applying for small business loans or trade lines.

Hiring & Labor Market

Complete Form I-9 for each new employee. The employee must complete Section 1 no later than the first day of employment. Complete Section 2 by examining acceptable documentation within three business days after that first day; if employment will last less than three business days, complete Section 2 by the first day. Follow USCIS instructions for acceptable documents and retention.

For covered non-tipped employees, Florida’s minimum wage is $14.00 per hour through September 29, 2026, increasing to $15.00 per hour on September 30, 2026. Update payroll for the effective date and display the required federal and Florida employment notices. Applicable federal overtime, recordkeeping, and other wage-and-hour requirements also apply.

For painting operations classified as construction, Florida requires workers’ compensation coverage with one or more employees, including corporate officers and LLC members unless a valid exemption applies. The general non-construction threshold is four or more employees. Confirm the classification of your actual operations before applying a threshold. An owner’s exemption does not exempt other employees, and contractors must verify that subcontractors have required coverage before work begins. See the Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation coverage requirements.

Use the BLS May 2025 state estimates, selecting Florida and occupation 47-2141, Painters, Construction and Maintenance, as a historical survey benchmark alongside current local recruiting conditions when planning pay and labor costs.

Cost of Doing Business

For a Florida LLC, budget $125 in mandatory state formation fees. The LLC annual-report fee is $138.75, with the first report due in the calendar year after formation and the filing window running January 1 through May 1. Reports received after May 1 incur an additional $400 late fee. Certified copies and certificates of status are optional purchases. These are state charges, not an all-inclusive startup budget; other entity types have different schedules. The amounts and deadlines appear in the Division of Corporations’ LLC filing instructions.

Insurance is a major operating cost: general liability is commonly recommended for painting contractors. Budget for workers’ compensation whenever the coverage triggers explained in Hiring & Labor Market apply. Obtain quotes from insurers to estimate premiums for your business.

If you perform work covered by EPA’s RRP rule, plan for firm certification, renovator training, supplies for lead-safe practices, and any training costs. Local permit, inspection, and operating costs vary by county and city — check local building departments and obtain contractor and permit cost estimates before bidding jobs.

Other ongoing costs include tools and equipment, vehicle costs, materials and supplies, bookkeeping or accounting support, and sales/use-tax bookkeeping and any collection or remittance required by your transactions; not every cost listed will apply to every painting business, so prioritize based on your planned services.

Helpful StartupWerx Resources

• Form, Manage, and Grow a Small Business
• Business Guides

References

• Articles of Organization for Florida Limited Liability Company (CR2E047) — filing instructions & fees
• Start a Business — Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) — state entity-registration information
• Fictitious Name Registration — eFile Sunbiz (Fictitious name registration FAQ)
• Florida Statutes section 865.09 — fictitious-name registration and pre-registration advertisement
• Get an employer identification number — IRS
• Florida Statutes, Chapter 489 — including section 489.117
• What types of work do not require a state construction contractor license? — DBPR
• DBPR Construction Industry Archives — local specialty licensing notices
• Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule — EPA lead program pages (RRP firm certification and renovator training)
• EPA RRP Program: Contractors — applicability, exemptions, paint testing, and certification
• OSHA Lead in Construction Standard — 29 CFR 1926.62 (lead & related requirements for painting on construction sites)
• OSHA Spray Operations — applicable standards
• Account Management and Registration — Florida Department of Revenue (registering for Florida business taxes, DR-1)
• GT-300015 Business Guide — Florida Department of Revenue (tax registration and reemployment-tax liability)
• Sales and Use Tax on Building Contractors (GT-800007) — Florida Department of Revenue
• Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide (2026) — IRS
• Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting — FinCEN (BOI landing page)
• FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business Owners — FinCEN news release (August 11, 2026)
• FinCEN CDD Rule FAQs — bank customer identification and beneficial-owner verification
• FLSA Compliance Assistance Toolkit — U.S. Department of Labor (Wage and Hour Division)
• I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification — USCIS (Form I-9 instructions)
• Florida Minimum Wage — FloridaJobs.org (state minimum wage notice and posters)
• Coverage Requirements — Division of Workers’ Compensation (Florida Department of Financial Services / MyFloridaCFO)
• BLS OEWS Tables — May 2025 state occupational employment and wage estimates
• Fees — Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) — official fee schedule (LLC, corporation, annual report fees)