How big a deposit can you legally take?

Pick your state, type the contract amount, and get the largest upfront deposit the law lets you collect — with the exact statute quote and the official source printed beside the answer, so you can show a customer where the number comes from.

Where is the job?

The state the work is performed in, not where your company is registered.

Contract amount

The total price of the job, before any deposit.

Why some states get a number and some do not

This tool is built on a state-by-state verification pass in which every figure is marked either verified against a live official source with a verbatim quote, or explicitly not verified with the reason recorded. It only calculates from the verified half. Where a figure is unverified, you get the blocker and the official source instead of a number — because an unverified figure does not mean no rule applies, and a confident wrong answer on deposit law is worse than no answer.

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states return a real answer

Verified statute, verbatim quote, official source, and a calculated limit for the amount you typed.

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states are blocked, honestly

In the research set, but the deposit figure could not be confirmed against a live official source. You get the blocker and the source, never a guess.

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states are not researched yet

Outside the verification set. You get that state's official starting point rather than a number we cannot stand behind.

Educational self-help information, not legal advice, and not reviewed by an attorney. Deposit caps, cancellation windows, and lien deadlines routinely turn on project type (residential vs. commercial), who you are in the chain (prime vs. sub vs. supplier), and how the job was sold (at the customer's door vs. at your office). Confirm which branch applies to your specific contract with the responsible state agency or your own attorney before you collect money.