How to Start a Contracting Business in Kansas

Start by accepting what Kansas does not do

Most state startup guides open with the licence, because in most states the licence is the gate: no credential, no lawful work, no company worth forming. Kansas does not work that way, and pretending otherwise will send you looking for an agency that does not exist. The Kansas Business Center, the state's own inter-agency business portal run jointly by the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor and Revenue and the Secretary of State, addresses contractor licensing in its construction starter kit in a single sentence: "In addition to the general requirements for starting a business in Kansas, cities and counties set licensing requirements for construction or contracting businesses."

That is the whole state-level answer for general contracting. There is no Kansas contractor licensing board, no state classification ladder, no statewide trade exam and no state dollar threshold below which construction work is unregulated. What the state does say is that the local rules are real and that they vary: "some cities and counties have different types of licenses based on whether the business will work in commercial or resident construction, or both", "specific licenses may also be required for electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or other construction trades", and "license applicants may be required to pass an examination to obtain or renew a license."

Read that carefully, because it cuts both ways. It does not mean Kansas contracting is unregulated. It means the licence is a city or county matter, decided by the address of the job, and that a licence held in one Kansas jurisdiction tells you nothing about the next one.

• No Kansas state general contractor licence, no state board, no statewide contractor exam.
• Contractor licensing is set by cities and counties, and differs between them.
• Commercial-only and residential-only licence types exist in some jurisdictions.
• Electrical, plumbing and HVAC may require separate local trade credentials.
• Roofing is the statewide exception: registered with the Kansas Attorney General.

Official sources: Kansas Business Center: Construction and Contracting Starter Kit; Kansas Business Center (Business One Stop); K.S.A. 50-6,123: Registration certificate required; penalties

Then check the one statewide registration people miss: roofing

If any part of your work is roofing for a fee, Kansas reaches you at state level regardless of which city you are in. The Kansas roofing registration act, K.S.A. 50-6,121 through 50-6,138, is administered by the Attorney General, and K.S.A. 50-6,123(a)(1) provides that "no person shall engage in the business of or act in the capacity of a roofing contractor within this state without having a valid registration certificate as required by this act."

The definition is broader than "roofer". K.S.A. 50-6,122(a)(1) defines a roofing contractor as any person, including a subcontractor and nonresident contractor, who in the ordinary course of business "engages in the business of commercial or residential roofing services for a fee" or "offers to engage in or solicits roofing-related services, including construction, installation, renovation, repair, maintenance, alteration and waterproofing." Offering and soliciting are in there alongside doing.

There is a small-job exemption, and it is easy to forfeit. K.S.A. 50-6,129(a)(8) exempts roofing work priced at "less than $2,000" per undertaking or project in a fiscal year, aggregating labour, materials and all other items - but the same subdivision states that the exemption "does not apply to a person who advertises or puts out any sign or card or other device which might indicate to the public that the person is a roofing contractor or that the person is qualified to engage in the business of a roofing contractor." A truck door decal ends the exemption. Note also K.S.A. 50-6,123(a)(2): an unregistered roofing contractor may not "bring or maintain any claim, action, suit, or proceeding in any court of this state related to such person's business or capacity as a roofing contractor." Unregistered means unable to sue for your money.

Official sources: K.S.A. 50-6,121: Kansas roofing registration act, citation; K.S.A. 50-6,122: Kansas roofing registration act, definitions; K.S.A. 50-6,123: Registration certificate required; penalties; K.S.A. 50-6,129: Exemptions

The state credentials that do exist, and who they catch

Kansas has no general contractor licence, but it does run several statewide programmes that reach specific construction work, and a contractor who reasons from "Kansas does not license contractors" straight to "there is nothing at state level" will walk into one of them.

Roofing is registered statewide by the Attorney General under the Kansas roofing registration act. Water well work is licensed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, whose Water Well Program describes its purpose as "the licensing and regulation of water well contractors in Kansas" and requires a completed application, "successful completion of a written exam" and fees, followed by annual renewal, well records on form WWC-5 and continuing education. Elevator work is licensed by the State Fire Marshal, which states that "all elevator contractors, elevator mechanics and elevator inspectors are required to be licensed by the state" under the Kansas Elevator Safety Act enacted in 2022.

Lead work is the one that surprises remodellers. KDHE's Residential Lead Hazard Prevention Program regulates lead abatement, lead inspections, risk assessments, lead abatement project design and renovation activities "when performed in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities", requires individuals performing those activities to be certified, and requires any firm holding itself out as able to perform them to "be licensed as a Lead Activity Firm or Lead Renovation Firm". If your remodelling work touches painted surfaces in older Kansas housing, read that page before you quote.

Official sources: K.S.A. 50-6,121: Kansas roofing registration act, citation; KDHE: Water Well Program; Kansas State Fire Marshal: Elevator Safety Program; KDHE: Residential Lead Hazard Prevention Program licensing

Build the company: entity first, then tax, then insurance

Decide the legal owner before anything else, because it determines whether you have a filing to maintain at all. The Secretary of State states that all corporations, limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships "must register with the Kansas Secretary of State", citing K.S.A. 17-7901 and 17-7932, that general partnerships "are not required to register with the Kansas Secretary of State but may file a Statement of Partnership Authority", and that "sole proprietors do not register with the Kansas Secretary of State."

If you form an LLC, the mechanics and the price are published on the Secretary of State's own Articles of Organization form. The filing fee is "$85" online and "$90" on paper, the name must contain a word of formation which K.S.A. 17-7920 limits to L.L.C., L.C., LLC, LC, LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY or LIMITED COMPANY, and you must name a resident agent and a registered office that is "an address in Kansas where the resident agent may be regularly present" and that "can't be a PO box". If your chosen name is already in use, the form directs you to submit a Consent to Use of Similar Business Name under K.S.A. 17-7918. A for-profit corporation is the same money: the Articles of Incorporation form publishes "$85" online and "$90" on paper.

Then register with the Department of Revenue, and keep the Secretary of State record alive afterwards. The Secretary of State states that it has "only two requirements applicable to all registered entities": keep the resident agent and registered office current, and "file an information report at regular intervals after registering." That report is biennial, not annual, and for-profit entities are due by April 15 of their odd or even year depending on the year they formed.

• Kansas LLC Articles of Organization: $85 online, $90 paper (Secretary of State Form DL).
• Kansas for-profit Articles of Incorporation: $85 online, $90 paper (Form AI).
• Registered office must be a Kansas street address, not a PO box.
• Sole proprietors and general partnerships have no mandatory Secretary of State filing.
• Information reports are biennial; for-profit entities are due April 15 of their year.

Official sources: Kansas Secretary of State: Register a Business; Kansas Secretary of State Form DL: Articles of Organization (LLC); Kansas Secretary of State Form AI: Articles of Incorporation; Kansas Secretary of State: Information Reports

Register with the Department of Revenue, and know which registration you actually need

The Department of Revenue directs new businesses to set up an account in its Customer Service Center, and states that once registered and logged in you "fill out our questionnaire that will tell you what business taxes you need to register for." The same page notes that you may also need to register with the Secretary of State and with the Kansas Department of Labor for unemployment taxes, and warns that "if you have any filing period in which there is no business activity to report you still need to file a return for that period."

Whether you need a Kansas sales tax number at all depends on the work you sell, and Pub. KS-1525 is unusually direct about it. It states that "contractors, subcontractors, and repairmen who perform taxable labor services in Kansas must obtain a Kansas sales tax number to report and remit the sales tax collected on taxable labor services from their customers", and then flags in bold that "contractors or subcontractors that perform only original construction or residential labor services, as defined herein, are not required to register to collect sales tax, so no tax number is needed to report/remit the tax on the nontaxable labor". A pure residential remodeller and a commercial tenant-finish contractor are therefore in genuinely different positions.

Contractor-retailers are a third case. Pub. KS-1525 defines a contractor-retailer as a business that "acts as a contractor when it performs construction contracts and as a retailer when it sells tangible personal property at retail", and states that "all contractor-retailers must be registered to collect sales tax from their retail customers on the sale of tangible personal property as well as the tax on their taxable labor services." If you run a showroom or hold untaxed resale inventory, you are in this category and you register regardless.

Official sources: Kansas Department of Revenue: Business Registration; KDOR Pub. KS-1525: Business Taxes for Contractors, Subcontractors, and Repairmen

Before your first hire: comp, new-hire reporting and withholding

Workers' compensation in Kansas is decided by payroll, not headcount. K.S.A. 44-505(a) applies the act to "all employments wherein employers employ employees within this state" and then excepts agricultural pursuits and an employer whose "total gross annual payroll for the preceding calendar year of not more than $20,000 for all employees" who also reasonably estimates it will stay under $20,000 for the current year, with wages paid to a family member by marriage or consanguinity excluded from that calculation. One full-time employee will normally take a contracting business past $20,000 within a year, so treat coverage as a when, not an if. K.S.A. 44-505(b) lets an employer that falls outside the act elect to come within it by joining a qualified group-funded pool or filing a written statement of election with the director.

New-hire reporting is a separate duty with its own clock. K.S.A. 75-5743(a) requires all employers doing business in Kansas to report each new employee to the secretary of labor "within 20 business days of the hiring, rehiring or return to work of the newly hired employee or within 20 business days from the date the newly hired employee first receives wages", reporting the employee's name, address, social security number and the date services for remuneration were first performed, together with the employer's name, address and federal tax identification number. Subsection (b) defines a newly hired employee as one not previously employed by you, or previously employed but "separated from such prior employment for at least 60 consecutive days" - which means a seasonal crew member you take back in spring is usually a new hire again.

One caution on that deadline. The statute says 20 business days. This project's own source note for the Kansas Department of Labor employers page records the same duty as 20 days. Those are not the same deadline, dol.ks.gov was returning HTTP 403 to us when this guide was written so the agency wording could not be re-read, and we are not going to pick a winner between an official statute and an official agency page. Work to the shorter of the two until the Department of Labor confirms in writing which applies to you.

Withholding registration comes from the Department of Revenue. Its withholding page states that "an employer must withhold Kansas tax if the employee is a resident of Kansas, performing services inside or outside of Kansas, or a nonresident of Kansas, performing services in Kansas", and that any employer who must withhold federal income tax from non-wage payments to Kansas residents "must also withhold Kansas Tax."

Official sources: K.S.A. 44-505: Workers compensation act, application; K.S.A. 75-5743: New hire reporting, duty to submit information; Kansas Department of Revenue: Withholding

How to find the rule that actually applies to your address

Because Kansas licenses locally, the only correct answer to "what licence do I need" is the one attached to the job address. The State of Kansas publishes the starting point itself: the Kansas Business Center construction starter kit carries a list headed "City and County Contractor Licensing" naming roughly thirty jurisdictions that publish contractor licensing information, among them Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas City and Wyandotte County, Johnson County, Topeka, Lawrence, Salina, Manhattan and Hutchinson.

If your city or county is not on that list, the same page tells you where to go next: "if the city or county you are looking for is not listed, please refer to the city or county website links below", and links a County Websites index and a "City Websites - League of Kansas Municipalities" index. Kansas is telling you plainly that the list is not exhaustive and that the absence of your town from it means nothing about whether that town licenses contractors.

Contractor Lane does not publish any Kansas city or county fee, insurance minimum, exam requirement or renewal date, and that is deliberate rather than an omission. Municipal rules in Kansas are set independently by each jurisdiction, they change on each jurisdiction's own schedule, and a figure copied from one Kansas city is evidence of nothing about the next one. Call the building department for the address you are actually working at, ask what class of licence the scope of work falls into, and ask whether a licence held in a neighbouring jurisdiction counts for anything there. Do that before you bid, because the answer can change what the job is worth.

Official sources: Kansas Business Center: Construction and Contracting Starter Kit; Kansas Business Center (Business One Stop)

Check the official page yourself before you file, bid or sign

Kansas spreads contractor rules across more agencies than most states, and no single page carries all of it: the Secretary of State for the entity, the Department of Revenue for tax registration and returns, the Attorney General for roofing registration, KDHE for water wells and lead, the State Fire Marshal for elevators, the Department of Labor for employer obligations, and then your own city or county for the licence itself. Each one changes on its own schedule.

Two Kansas agency sites were returning HTTP 403 to us when this guide was written: ag.ks.gov and dol.ks.gov. Nothing published by either is quoted here, which is why you will find no Attorney General roofing fee figure and no Kansas unemployment tax rate anywhere on this page. The statutory fee caps are stated because the statutes are readable on ksrevisor.gov; the actual current fees are set by the Attorney General and you have to get those from the Attorney General. Open the agency page yourself, keep a dated copy of what you read, and call before you pay anything non-refundable.

Official sources: K.S.A. 50-6,128: Fees; roofing contractor registration fund; Kansas Business Center (Business One Stop)