What permits do you need to open a salon or barber in Montgomery County?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 6 records listed for a salon or barber in Montgomery County, TX, 3 apply to every business of this type and 3 are conditional. Adding every fee on the page together would overstate what most operators pay, because it would include permits they never need.

Of the 3 that always apply, 2 carry a flat fee, coming to $78.00. That is a floor, not a total. 2 of the 6 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 0 have no fee published at all. The ones that vary:

Floodplain Development Permit: $0–$1,600 per permit, by scope

Commercial Structure Permit: $250–$1,600 per permit, by floor area and floodplain status

Permits for a salon or barber in Montgomery County, TX come from 4 separate offices: Montgomery County Permitting Department, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Texas Secretary of State, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

A floodplain determination itself is free, which makes it the first thing to ask for on any site near a watercourse — it settles whether the rest applies. If it does, the premium runs through everything: $300 rather than $250 for non-structure work, and $600 to $1,600 rather than $500 to $1,500 for a new commercial structure. Non-compliance is $200 per incident. Montgomery County took severe flooding in 2016 and 2017, which is the context for a schedule that prices floodplain work separately at every line.

Banded on floor area: a new structure under 5,000 square feet is $500, then $750 to 9,999, $1,000 to 14,999 and $1,500 to 20,000. Inside the floodplain the same bands cost $600, $850, $1,100 and $1,600 — about 20 per cent more, and the schedule stops at 20,000 square feet, so anything larger needs a conversation rather than a lookup. Non-structure work such as demolition, a driveway or disturbed area is $250, or $300 in the floodplain. Two provisions to watch: non-compliance is $200 per violation, and letting a permit lapse costs half the original fee to recertify. This applies in the UNINCORPORATED county; inside a city, the city permits.

Establishment licences are valid for two years from the date of issue, so the $78 is a two-year cost rather than an annual one — worth halving before you compare it with a yearly permit elsewhere. The fee applies to standard and specialty establishments; a mini-establishment licence is $70. It covers full-service, mobile and specialty establishments, and applies to licences expiring on or after 1 September 2023. Individual practitioners are licensed separately from the establishment, so a salon needs both its own licence and a licence for each operator working in it.

Required to form an LLC or corporation, not to trade as a sole proprietor. Texas has no statewide general business licence, so for many businesses this filing plus a sales and use tax permit is the entire state-level obligation.

Only needed if you trade under a name different from the one on your formation filing. The certificate is effective for a term not exceeding ten years from the date of filing and does not roll over by itself — it must be actively renewed, and a new certificate can be filed within six months of the original expiring. The $25 is the Secretary of State fee; sole proprietors and general partnerships file with the county clerk instead, at county rates.

There is no fee for this permit — the Comptroller says so directly, which is worth stating because a blank fee reads as though nobody knows. It does not expire on a date, but it is not permanent either: it is valid only while you are actively engaged in business as a seller, and the Comptroller's office may cancel it on finding that you are not. Filing obligations keep it alive, so a return must be filed for every period even when there were no taxable sales or purchases to report. Apply through Comptroller eSystems and allow two to three weeks.