Indiana law on contractor websites, phone lines and sales texts

Federal rules cover texting, email and call recording in every state. Indiana adds statutes of its own on telemarketing, home improvement contracts and plumbing advertising, and a privacy law that reaches only businesses holding data on very large numbers of people. Everything here was read in October 2026 from the Indiana Code on the General Assembly's site or from the Attorney General's pages. For the national rules, see our guides to TCPA texting rules and recording business calls, and for forming the company see starting a service business in Indiana.

Does Indiana require a license number in ads?

For plumbing contractors, yes. Indiana licenses plumbers through the Plumbing Commission at the Professional Licensing Agency. IC 25-28.5-1-35(b) says the license number of a licensed plumbing contractor must be recognizably displayed in all forms of written or printed advertising for plumbing services and on all vehicles used to provide plumbing services. Section 31(c) separately makes it unlawful to leave the contractor's name or business name off that advertising and those vehicles. The same statute requires the contractor to keep a public register of the licensed plumbers it employs.

The statute says "written or printed advertising." It does not name websites. A plumber who wants no argument should put the number in the site footer and on every service page, and in any ad copy, since a web page is written. The Commission can tell you its view if you ask.

Electricians, HVAC and general remodelers do not fall under a statewide Indiana license in the same way, and the Attorney General's storm-chaser flyer says licensing requirements vary from community to community. For those trades, the number you show on your site is whatever your city or county license says. Our Indiana contractor license guide lists who licenses what.

Can I record customer calls in Indiana?

Yes, when you are on the call. IC 35-31.5-2-176 defines interception, for the state wiretap chapter (IC 35-33.5), as intentionally recording or acquiring the contents of an electronic communication by a person other than a sender or receiver, without the consent of the sender or receiver. Unlawful interception is a Level 5 felony under IC 35-33.5-5-5. You are the receiver of your own inbound call, so recording it is lawful in Indiana.

The wrinkle is the other end of the line. A caller in Illinois or California is protected by their own state's all-party rules, and your call-recording software does not know where the caller is standing. A standing announcement ("This call may be recorded") on the main number, the voicemail and any AI receptionist costs nothing and covers both. Our call recording table shows which states are which.

How do Indiana's Do Not Call and telemarketing laws reach a contractor?

Indiana runs its own Do Not Call list, administered by the Attorney General. The list is published each quarter, and telemarketers buy it; the Attorney General's telephone solicitor page lists the fee at $750 a year for four lists. It covers residential, wireless and VOIP numbers tied to a residence, not business numbers. The statute defines a "telephone sales call" to include text and multimedia messages, so a promotional text to a number on the list is a violation, not just a call. A court can fine up to $10,000 for a first violation and up to $25,000 for each later one, according to the Attorney General's FAQ.

Two exemptions matter most to a contractor. Under IC 24-4.7-1-1, the article does not apply to a call made in response to an express request of the person called, or to a call made primarily in connection with an existing debt or contract for which payment or performance has not been completed. A text confirming tomorrow's appointment, a reply to a quote request, or a call about a signed job is outside the list. A promotion to a customer you served two summers ago is not, and IC 24-4.7-4-3 requires anyone who obtains consumer information with phone numbers to exclude the numbers on the current list. Scrub a marketing list against it before a campaign.

Sellers must also register. The Attorney General's registration page says a seller who solicits by phone registers annually, with a $50 renewal fee due before August 1, and that failing to register is a deceptive act and a Level 6 felony. IC 24-5-12-0.2 limits that: a seller does not have to register solely because the calls it makes are exempt under IC 24-4.7-1-1. A contractor that only phones people who asked for contact or who have an open contract is therefore outside the registration rule. One that cold-calls or texts promotions needs to look at it.

Prerecorded sales messages are a separate chapter. Under IC 24-5-14, a caller may not use a device that dials numbers and plays a recorded or synthesized voice message unless the subscriber has consented or a live operator first obtains consent. The chapter exempts messages to subscribers with a current business or personal relationship, bars commercial solicitation by these devices before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m., and requires a hang-up within ten seconds. A violation is a Class C misdemeanor. If you are thinking about an AI voice agent making outbound sales calls, this is the Indiana rule that applies, so get consent first. Answering inbound calls with an AI receptionist is a different activity from soliciting, and nothing in these sections regulates it.

What must an Indiana quote or contract include?

Indiana's home improvement contract chapter, IC 24-5-11, applies to residential real property. A "real property improvement contract" is one where the price exceeds $150. Before the customer signs, you must hand over a completed contract containing, at a minimum, the consumer's name and property address, your name and address and an email address you use with consumers, a contact person with phone and email for problems, the date submitted and any acceptance deadline, a reasonably detailed description of the work, approximate start and completion dates, any contingencies that would change them, the price, whether subcontractors or other third parties will supply labor or materials, and signature lines.

Several details trip up online quoting. You must have signed the contract before the customer signs or pays any deposit (section 11). The customer gets a fully executed, dated copy right after signing (section 12). A change to the contract is not enforceable against the consumer unless it is in a writing the consumer signed (section 10(d)). A violation is a deceptive act that the Attorney General or the consumer can pursue (section 14). The Attorney General's consumer flyer also advises homeowners not to pay more than one-third of the total as a down payment.

If the work is paid by an insurance claim, section 10.5 forbids advertising or promising to pay or rebate any part of the deductible to win the job, so keep that out of ads and web copy. Sales made on an unsolicited home visit fall under IC 24-5-10 instead: for an unsolicited home visit sale of $25 or more, the consumer may cancel by the third business day, and the contract must say so.

How does Indiana sales tax show up on an invoice?

Indiana's state gross retail tax is 7% under IC 6-2.5-2-2. It applies to retail sales of tangible personal property, and a business that sells goods or parts registers with the Department of Revenue for a Registered Retail Merchant Certificate through INBiz. The definition of gross retail income in IC 6-2.5-1-5(b) excludes installation charges that are separately stated on the invoice. That is the reason to show parts, labor and installation on separate lines, in your quote tool and on any online payment page.

Which of your charges the department treats as taxable depends on the job, so ask the Department of Revenue before your first invoice and keep its answer in writing. Our state sales tax comparison puts Indiana beside the states that tax labor.

Does Indiana's consumer data privacy law apply to a small contractor?

Almost certainly not. The Indiana Consumer Data Protection Act, IC 24-15, applies to a person who does business in Indiana and, during a calendar year, controls or processes personal data of at least 100,000 Indiana consumers, or at least 25,000 consumers while deriving more than 50% of gross revenue from selling personal data. A "consumer" is an Indiana resident acting only for a personal, family or household purpose, and the term excludes anyone acting in a commercial or employment context. A contractor with a few thousand customers is far below either threshold.

Enforcement belongs exclusively to the Attorney General, who must give 30 days' written notice and a chance to cure before suing. Civil penalties can reach $7,500 per violation, and the chapter creates no private right of action. If a lead-generation vendor you use sells your customers' data at scale, it is the vendor that has to comply. The law is one more reason to own your customer list instead of renting leads, which our own your leads page explains.

Setting up your Indiana site, phone line and AI receptionist

• Website: Plumbers show the license number in the footer and on service pages. Quote pages link to a contract that has the Indiana terms and an email address for the company.
• Phone line: Record if you want, with an announcement. Keep sales texts and calls to people who asked or who have an open job, and scrub any promotional list against the state Do Not Call list.
• AI receptionist: Use it to answer inbound calls and book work. Do not use it to place recorded sales calls without consent.
• Email: Indiana's email rules are the federal CAN-SPAM Act. This page found no separate Indiana email statute for a small contractor.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, and agencies interpret them, so confirm with the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division or your licensing board before acting.

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