How to Register a Contracting Company in Montana

Step one: create the entity with the Secretary of State

Montana runs entity filings through the Secretary of State's Business Filing Portal, and the office publishes a full fee schedule rather than making you ask. For a domestic limited liability company, Articles of Organization are $35.00, plus $50.00 for each series member named in a series LLC. A profit corporation's Articles of Incorporation are also $35.00. If you will operate under a name other than the entity's registered name, Registration of an Assumed Business Name is $20.00, and if you are not ready to file yet, a Name Reservation is $10.00.

Coming in from another state changes the numbers. A foreign LLC's Certificate of Authority is $70.00, again plus $50.00 for each named series member, and an Amended Certificate of Authority is $15.00 on the same basis. Registration of Name for a foreign entity is $10.00 per year, renewable at the same rate.

Two structural details are worth knowing now rather than later. Several filings that sound expensive are free: the fee schedule lists Articles of Dissolution, Articles of Termination, Certificate of Withdrawal, Transfer or Cancellation of Name Reservation, and a Statement of Change of registered office or agent as NO FEE. And letting the entity lapse is what costs real money, because Reinstatement for an LLC is $35.00 "plus an additional fee of $35.00/year for each year of delinquent annual reports".

• Domestic LLC Articles of Organization: $35.00, plus $50.00 per named series member.
• Profit corporation Articles of Incorporation: $35.00.
• Assumed Business Name registration: $20.00. Renewal: $20.00.
• Name reservation: $10.00. Transfer or cancellation of a reservation: no fee.
• Foreign LLC Certificate of Authority: $70.00.
• Registered agent or office change: no fee.

Official sources: Montana Secretary of State: Business Services Filing Fees

Step two: apply to DLI for the contractor licence

This is the record most people mean when they say they are registering a contracting company, and since January 1, 2026 it is a licence rather than a registration. DLI states that the transition began that day, that existing registrations "will be converted to licenses", and that "Contractors should continue to apply using the current application process" until the new database and public portal are ready.

The application asks for a specific set of things and rejects incomplete packets. DLI lists them as a completed CR application, "Proof of Montana workers' compensation coverage on employees", "A completed ICEC application or proof of workers' compensation for all listed individuals" unless those individuals are corporate officers, and "A non-refundable $70 application fee." The form requires your business structure selection to match your Secretary of State registration and asks you to list every owner, partner, member, manager or corporate officer, with the percentage owned and whether each works on a jobsite, in an office, or not at all.

The statute now sets out what the licence record must contain. Under MCA 37-45-201(1), the licence must include the applicant's social security number, proof of compliance with workers' compensation laws, the internal revenue service employer identification number if any, and the name and address of each partner, the owner, the corporate officers and registered agent, or the manager of a manager-managed limited liability company or the members of a member-managed one plus the registered agent, depending on structure. Subsection (2) applies 37-1-137 to all of those listed people.

One quirk of Montana law is worth knowing if you work in a partnership or a joint venture. MCA 37-45-205 provides that "A partnership or joint venture is considered registered under this chapter if one of the general partners or venturers whose name under which the partnership or venture does business is registered." That is a narrow rule with a specific condition, not a general permission to trade on somebody else's credential.

Official sources: Montana DLI: Construction Contractor Registration; Montana DLI: Application for Construction Contractor Registration, DLI-ERD-WCR001 (PDF); Montana Code Annotated 37-45-201, Construction contractor license required; Montana Code Annotated 37-45-205, When partnership or joint venture considered registered

Step three: sort out the exemption certificate for the owners

Montana treats owners who swing hammers as a separate problem from employees, and it solves it with the Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate. DLI states that a person "who regularly and customarily performs services at a location other than the person's own fixed business location must obtain an independent contractor exemption certificate unless the person has self-elected workers' compensation insurance coverage", and defines "person" for that purpose as a sole proprietor, a working member of a partnership, a working member of a limited liability partnership, a working member of a member-managed limited liability company, or "a manager of a manager-managed limited liability company that is engaged in the work of the construction industry as defined in 39-71-116, MCA."

The certificate is $125, non-refundable, and the Commissioner's notice states it is valid for two years from the date of issuance. It is not a licence and there is no test. What it requires instead is documentary proof that you really run your own business: the department requires photocopies sufficient "to score 15 points for each trade, occupation, profession, or business listed on your application", and explains that the review "allows the department to verify that those applying for an independent contractor exemption certificate are truly engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business."

Understand what you are signing. DLI states that the certificate "allows an independent contractor to waive all their rights and benefits that would otherwise be provided by a workers' compensation insurance policy", and that if the holder is injured on the job "they would not be eligible for workers' compensation benefits." The department also tells applicants to complete the forms "only if you fully understand and agree to waive all your rights and benefits". Self-elected workers' compensation coverage is the alternative that keeps those benefits, and DLI states it "provides wage-loss and medical benefits to an independent contractor should a work-related injury or occupational disease occur."

Budget time, not just money. DLI states that processing "typically takes about 10-15 business days, sometimes longer", that approval or denial "can take up to 30 days", that you have 30 days from the first department notice to complete a deficient application before it is denied, and that after denial you have up to six months from the original receipt date to supply the missing information, "otherwise, you must reapply and pay the $125 non-refundable application fee."

One caution about the forms themselves, and it is a contradiction on a single official page rather than our reading of it. The ICEC page currently carries a banner stating "A notary is not required on the Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate application", while the step-by-step instructions further down the same page still say to "Sign the forms in front of a notary and have the forms notarized." Both sentences are live. Call DLI at the number it publishes, (406) 444-7734, and ask which applies to the form you are holding.

Official sources: Montana DLI: Independent Contractor Exemption Certificates; Montana DLI Commissioner: ICEC and Contractor Licence Online Portal notice (PDF)

Step four: open the tax and payroll accounts

Montana has no general sales tax, so there is no seller's permit step here. The Department of Revenue states directly that "Montana does not have a general-use sales tax." What replaces it for contractors is a narrower obligation on public work: the department states that "All contractors and subcontractors must pay a 1% tax on all public construction contracts over $80,000", usually collected by the awarding public entity, which registers the contract "within 10 days after the contract is awarded" and remits "within 30 days after the date of a payment to a contractor". If you will never bid public work, that tax will never touch you.

If you will pay anyone, two accounts follow. The Department of Revenue states that you need a withholding account if you issue Montana wages, issue Forms W-2 with or without withholding, or issue Forms 1099 with withholding, and that you register either online through the TransAction Portal or by mail on Form GenReg. Your filing frequency is set by size: up to $1,199 files annually with payment due January 31, $1,200 to $11,999 files monthly on the 15th of the following month, and $12,000 or more moves to the accelerated schedule aligned to federal deposit timing. The annual reconciliation on Form MW-3 is due January 31.

The unemployment insurance account sits with a different DLI division. The Employer Handbook sets quarterly report and payment deadlines at April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31, with the next business day applying when a due date falls on a weekend or holiday, and states that a late report draws "a late filing penalty of $25" plus interest at "1.5% per month or any portion of the month, 18% per annum". DLI also states that under ARM 24.40.1609(7) "all employer quarterly Unemployment Insurance (UI) reports must be filed electronically", with a possible $25 late fee for failing to do so. A new employer, which DLI defines as one that "has been employing in Montana for less than three complete federal fiscal years", is rated at the average for its industry rather than on its own history.

Official sources: Montana Department of Revenue: General Sales Tax; Montana Department of Revenue: Contractor's Gross Receipts Tax; Montana Department of Revenue: Withholding Tax Accounts; Montana Department of Revenue: Wage Withholding Returns and Payments; Montana DLI Unemployment Insurance: Employer Resources; Montana Unemployment Insurance Employer Handbook (PDF)

Keep the records in step with each other

The four records are linked, and changing one without the others is how contractors end up unable to prove compliance mid-job. DLI states that there is no additional application fee to change an existing contractor record, and lists what triggers what: a phone number, mailing address or business name change must be requested in writing by mail, email or fax, while a change of business structure "from a manager-managed limited liability company or corporation to a sole proprietor, partnership, or member-managed limited liability company and vice versa" means the business must reapply. So does an ownership change: DLI states that if ownership completely changes, "the business must reapply for the CR."

Succession is narrower than people assume. DLI states that a spouse or child can take over a contractor registration only "if the spouse or child was already listed on the CR application", and for the exemption certificate the answer is a flat no, because the certificate "is issued to the person whose name is on the certificate and cannot be transferred."

Renewals are mailed rather than remembered for you, at least until the online system lands. DLI states that it mails a renewal application "approximately 60 days before your CR expires to the last known address on file", preprinted with the information you last supplied, and that the application fee is "$70 non-refundable". The exemption certificate works the same way, with a preprinted renewal application mailed approximately 60 days before expiry. Both of those notices go to the last address you gave the department, which is the practical reason the address-change rule matters.

Official sources: Montana DLI: Construction Contractor Registration; Montana DLI: Independent Contractor Exemption Certificates

Read Montana pages with the January 2026 change in mind

Montana rewrote this area of law in 2025 and the agency web pages are catching up unevenly. The clearest example: DLI's contractor page still defines the regulated activity by citing "(39-9-102, MCA)". Open that section on the Legislature's own site and it reads "Repealed. Sec. 14, Ch. 481, L. 2025. (Repealer effective January 1, 2026.)" The operative definition has been 37-45-102 since January 1, 2026. The substance is close, but the citation you would copy into a contract or a bid is dead.

The Commissioner's own HB 239 notice does the same thing in the other direction, telling readers that the exemptions are "currently found in MCA 39-9-211" when they now sit at 37-45-104. And DLI's Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate page still carries the sentence "Montana state government does not license construction contractors", which was true before January 1, 2026 and is contradicted by 37-45-201 and by the Commissioner's notice after it.

None of this means the department pages are useless. The fee, the two-year term, the documents to attach and the process are all published there and nowhere else. It means you should take procedure from DLI and take law from the Montana Code Annotated, and never assume a page you found through a search engine has been updated since the change.

Official sources: Montana DLI: Construction Contractor Registration; Montana Code Annotated 39-9-102, Repealed effective January 1, 2026; Montana Code Annotated 37-45-102, Definitions; Montana DLI Commissioner: HB 239 Notice to Construction Contractors (PDF); Montana Code Annotated 37-45-104, Exemptions; Montana DLI: Independent Contractor Exemption Certificates; Montana Code Annotated 37-45-201, Construction contractor license required

Check the official page yourself before you file or sign

Montana splits contractor rules across at least four places: the Employment Relations Division of DLI for the contractor licence and the exemption certificate, the Business Standards Division for the electrical, plumbing, elevator, fire protection and home inspector credentials, the Secretary of State for the entity and the annual report, and the Department of Revenue for withholding and the contractor's gross receipts tax. No single page carries all of it.

Two more moving parts make a fresh check worth the ten minutes. The Commissioner has announced that "Starting mid-August 2026, both processes will move fully online", that "paper applications and renewals will be discontinued once the new system launches", and that applicants should "discard any old forms, as they will no longer be accepted." And DLI's own website and lookup tools were scheduled for an August update at the same time. If you are reading this after mid-August 2026, the form you downloaded may already be void.

DLI publishes a single number for both the contractor and the exemption certificate programmes, (406) 444-7734. Call it before you post a cheque, and keep a dated copy of whatever page you relied on.

Official sources: Montana DLI Commissioner: ICEC and Contractor Licence Online Portal notice (PDF); Montana DLI: Construction Contractor Registration; Montana DLI: Independent Contractor Exemption Certificates