Contractor licensing · MO

Contractor licensing in Missouri

The agencies that license the work, set the workers compensation trigger and register the business, with a link to each one.

Checked 2026-07-28

An Arkansas contractor taking work in Missouri deals with the same four questions everywhere: who licenses the trade, when a licence is actually required, when workers compensation kicks in, and where the business registers. Below is Missouri's answer to each, with the agency's own link.

Licensing

No statewide general contractor licensing; local rules apply. Missouri Division of Professional Registration handles state-licensed occupations

No statewide general contractor license; cities and counties license contractors and most construction trades locally. The Division of Professional Registration offers a voluntary statewide electrical contractor license.

https://pr.mo.gov/

Workers compensation

Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Workers' Compensation

Required with five or more employees; construction-industry employers must carry coverage with one or more employees.

https://labor.mo.gov/dwc/employers

Business registration

Missouri Secretary of State, Corporations Division

https://www.sos.mo.gov/business/corporations

Tax registration

Missouri Department of Revenue

https://dor.mo.gov/register-business/

New hire reporting

Most states require newly hired employees to be reported within a short window of their start date.

https://www.missouriemployer.dss.mo.gov/NewHireInfo.aspx

Still to confirm. Voluntary statewide electrical license verified only from the pr.mo.gov homepage; program subpages intermittently blocked. Online entity filings via bsd.sos.mo.gov; sales/withholding registration at mytax.mo.gov.
These are pointers to each state's own agencies, checked on the date shown, not legal advice and not a substitute for asking the board directly. Rules change and thresholds move. The agency link is always the authority.

Mississippi · All fifty states · Montana

Starting or running the business itself is covered in the contractor business guide. Arkansas licence records for Benton and Washington counties are in the contractor directory.

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