Minnesota Landscaping License: What Applies and What Does Not
What Minnesota requires of a landscaping business in 2026, what the LLC has to file first, and where the license and the entity are two separate steps.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 2026
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Minnesota landscaping licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Through contractor licensing |
| What they are called | Residential Building Contractor License, Residential Remodeler License |
| Who issues it | Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | Yes |
| Applies once yearly receipts for this work reach | $15,000 |
Does a landscaping business need a license in Minnesota?
Minnesota issues no license of its own for landscapers. Its contractor licensing reaches this work through the Residential Building Contractor License and the Residential Remodeler License once the business takes $15,000 or more in a year for this work.
Minnesota issues no landscaping license. The Department of Labor and Industry licenses residential building contractors and residential remodelers, defined by providing two or more of eight special skills that include excavation, grading, and masonry and concrete but not planting or lawn care, so grading and hardscape work on residential real estate is inside the license. Minn. Stat. 326B.805, subd. 6 exempts a person whose total gross annual receipts for the licensable skills do not exceed $15,000, which is an annual receipts test rather than a contract value, and separately exempts a specialty contractor providing only one special skill; Minn. Stat. 326B.805, subd. 4 has the licensee designate a qualifying person who for a limited liability company must be a chief manager or managing employee.
The landscaping business itself must be licensed or registered, not only the people doing the work.
This records what Minnesota publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.
Source: Minnesota Statutes 326B.805, Licensing Requirements. Verified 2026-09-03.
What the LLC has to do first
Pesticide and herbicide application is licensed separately from landscaping itself in most states, and that license is usually the one a general landscaping business actually needs.
The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In Minnesota it is made with the Minnesota Secretary of State. File directly with the state here. The order matters wherever the license is issued to the company rather than to a person: the entity has to exist before an application can name it.
Forming an LLC as a landscaping business in Minnesota covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance Minnesota landscapers are asked to show
Landscaping work damages what it is next to: irrigation lines, fences, windows and parked cars. General liability is the cover for that, and commercial clients ask for the certificate before the first visit.
We do not publish Minnesota premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for landscapers covers what each policy does and does not pay for.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state licensing board publishes for this trade, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own work needs a licence: that turns on the scope of the job, the value of the contract, and the city or county you work in, which commonly adds its own registration on top of the state's. Confirm your own position with the board named on this page and with your local building or business licensing office before you bid or start work.
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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.