Minnesota requirements for your contractor website, calls and email

Minnesota regulates more of what a contractor says and sends than many states do. The rules sit in three places: the Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) contractor statutes, the consumer protection chapters, and the tax code. This page covers the seven areas where we found a written Minnesota rule that touches a website, a phone line or email. Federal rules apply on top, so read it with our guides to texting law and recording calls.

Must your Minnesota license number appear on your website?

Yes, if you hold a residential building contractor, residential remodeler, residential roofer or manufactured home installer license from DLI. Minn. Stat. 326B.87, subdivision 2, says the license number of a licensee must appear in any advertising by that licensee, "including but not limited to signs, vehicles, business cards, published display ads, flyers, brochures, websites, and Internet ads." The statute names websites outright, so a site without the number is out of step with the text.

The rule has two companion duties. Subdivision 1 puts the number on building permits and permit applications, and on all business cards and all contracts to perform licensed work. Subdivision 3 says contracts must state that the person is licensed and give the license number. Practical steps: put the number in the footer of every page, in your Google Business Profile description, in the header of every estimate PDF and in the signature block of the email your business email sends. Include it in paid ads too, since the statute says "any advertising."

The statute is tied to the residential contractor license types. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical contractors are licensed under other DLI programs, so check the rules for your license type with DLI. Our Minnesota contractor license guide sorts the trades.

What does Minnesota require in a written estimate or quote?

Minn. Stat. 326B.809 is the rule that most affects an online quote form. It says all agreements, "including proposals, estimates, bids, quotations, contracts, purchase orders, and change orders," between a licensee and a customer must be in writing and contain three things: a detailed summary of the services, a description of the specific materials or a list of standard features, and the total contract price or the basis on which the price will be calculated.

Before entering an agreement, the licensee must give the prospective customer written performance guidelines for the services, and those guidelines have to be included or incorporated by reference in the agreement. All agreements must be signed and dated by both the licensee and the customer. The licensee must provide the customer, at no charge, a signed and dated copy of each document at the time of signing. The statute lists agreements, performance guidelines and mechanic's lien waivers as documents.

A web form that returns an instant range by text may not satisfy this for a licensee, because a price range with no description of materials is thin. A better build is a form that collects the job details and then sends a written quote with the scope, the materials and the price basis, followed by a signature step. That is a workflow a custom CRM can run, and it leaves a dated record that matches the statute.

Can you record business calls in Minnesota?

Minnesota is a one-party consent state. Minn. Stat. 626A.02, subdivision 2(d), lets a person who is a party to a call record it, or record it where one party has consented, provided the purpose is not criminal or tortious. For an owner that settles in-state calls with a customer. Calls with someone in an all-party state are different, which is why our call recording guide recommends an announcement at the top of every recorded call. An AI receptionist that records or transcribes should say so in its first line.

What are Minnesota's limits on sales calls and recorded voices?

Minnesota's automatic dialing-announcing device statutes, sections 325E.26 to 325E.31, are older than most texting rules and still on the books. An automatic dialing-announcing device is defined as a device that selects and dials numbers and plays a prerecorded or synthesized voice message. The rules for a caller using one are:

• No use unless the subscriber knowingly requested or consented to the message, or a live operator first obtains consent before the message plays (325E.27).
• Exempt: messages to subscribers with whom the caller has a current business or personal relationship, among other narrow categories.
• The device must disconnect within ten seconds after the subscriber hangs up (325E.28).
• When a live operator introduces the message, the operator must disclose the name of the business, the purpose, the kinds of goods or services promoted and, if applicable, that the message intends to solicit payment (325E.29).
• No use of the device, and no commercial telephone solicitation, before 9:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. (325E.30).

A "commercial telephone solicitation" is an unsolicited call to a residential subscriber, with no prior business or personal relationship, to solicit a purchase. The 9 a.m. start is an hour later than the federal rule's 8 a.m. start, so a Minnesota-specific calling window is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for those calls. Violations carry the remedies in Minn. Stat. 8.31, including a private right of action, and the Attorney General can recover a civil penalty of up to $50,000 (325E.31).

The statute says "synthesized voice," which is the language a court could apply to an AI voice that places outbound calls. We found no Minnesota decision on that point. Keep AI voice to inbound calls and to callbacks that a customer asked for, and have counsel review any outbound plan.

When can a Minnesota customer cancel a home sale?

Minn. Stat. 325G.07 gives a buyer in a home solicitation sale until midnight of the third business day after the sale to cancel. A home solicitation sale is one for more than $25, of goods, services or improvements to real property bought mainly for household purposes, where the seller personally solicits the sale and the buyer's agreement is made somewhere other than the seller's place of business (325G.06).

The exclusions are what make this workable for contractors. A sale is not covered when the buyer initiated the contact and specifically asked the seller to visit the home to repair or maintain the buyer's property. If during that visit you sell additional services or goods beyond the repair parts, the additional sale does not fall within the exclusion. A second exclusion covers a buyer who initiated contact by phone, in person or in writing and asked you to visit to negotiate a specific product or service, but only if the buyer gives you a separate, dated, handwritten statement waiving the cancellation right. Emergency work has its own exclusion with a similar signed statement.

When the right applies, you must tell the buyer orally, and furnish a contract with a ten-point boldface statement near the signature line and a detachable notice of cancellation in duplicate (325G.08). If the buyer cancels, you return payments within ten days, and a seller that performed services before cancellation is entitled to no compensation (325G.09). A door-knocking sales crew or a storm-season canvass that signs contracts on the porch is the typical covered case. Put the notice into the contract template your reps use.

Is a credit card surcharge legal in Minnesota?

Yes, with conditions. Minn. Stat. 325G.051 lets a seller add a surcharge when a customer chooses a credit or charge card instead of cash, check or similar means. Four conditions apply: for in-person sales you tell the customer orally at the time of sale and post a conspicuous sign; for website or mobile sales you post a conspicuous notice during the sale, at the point of sale, on the order summary or on the checkout page; for phone sales you tell the customer orally; and the surcharge cannot exceed 5% of the purchase price.

A seller with its own store credit card may not surcharge that card. A discount for paying by cash or check is not a surcharge if it is offered to all prospective customers and clearly disclosed. The penalty is a civil penalty of up to $500, and the seller must refund the surcharge to each buyer (subdivision 2). Card network rules and your processor's terms can be stricter than the statute, so read both. A Minnesota company that takes payment by phone should add the oral disclosure to the call script, and the AI receptionist's payment step too.

Which of your services are taxable in Minnesota?

The Department of Revenue lists building cleaning and maintenance as taxable, including interior and exterior cleaning of homes, with window washing, carpet cleaning, pressure washing a building, junk removal and pest control named. Its landscape maintenance guide says lawn services are taxable even when sold as part of a maintenance contract, and it covers mowing, aerating, fertilizing and weed control. Not taxable: snow plowing and shoveling, sprinkler installation and repair, planting trees and shrubs, and initial seeding or sod as part of a landscaping project. Applying ice melt or sand is not taxable as a service, though the provider owes tax on the materials.

You must register for a Minnesota Tax ID Number and a sales and use tax account before your first taxable sale. For a website, that means a recurring-plan checkout has to calculate tax on the mowing line and not on the plowing line. The mix matters for a business that sells both. See our sales tax on services guide for the basics and the Minnesota licensing guide for the license side.

Does Minnesota's privacy law apply to a small contractor?

Probably not in full. The Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act, effective July 31, 2025, applies to legal entities doing business in Minnesota that, in a calendar year, control or process personal data of 100,000 consumers or more (excluding data used only to complete a payment), or that earn over 25% of gross revenue from selling personal data and process data of 25,000 consumers or more (325M.12). The law also excludes a small business as defined by the U.S. Small Business Administration, with one exception: a small business may not sell a consumer's sensitive data without the consumer's prior consent (325M.17). SBA size standards vary by industry code, so check yours. Keep your forms and CRM from passing customer data to anyone for money.

Setting up your site, phones and inbox for Minnesota

• Website: license number in the footer of every page, if you hold a residential license; online quotes that produce a written, signed estimate with scope, materials and price basis; a surcharge notice on the checkout page if you add one; tax set per service.
• Phone line: a recording announcement, a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. window for any outbound sales calls, and no prerecorded or synthesized outbound sales messages to people who have not agreed.
• AI receptionist: inbound and requested callbacks only, with the recording notice first and the surcharge notice in any payment step.
• Email: CAN-SPAM governs. Put your license number in the signature block and keep customer lists out of any sale of data.

Treat this page as general information and not legal advice. Statutes get amended, so confirm the current text with DLI, the Attorney General and the Department of Revenue. Our Minnesota startup page covers formation, assumed names and workers' compensation.

Frequently asked questions