Orlando, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)

Orlando's Business Tax Receipt (BTR) enumeration in Section 36.35 lists 'MASSAGE THERAPIST' as its own licensed classification, and the entry is explicit about sequencing: 'A CERTIFICATE FROM STATE OF FLORIDA IS REQUIRED BEFORE A BUSINESS TAX RECEIPT MAY BE ISSUED.' That means a massage therapist cannot get an Orlando BTR, the local occupational license every business needs to operate, until they already hold the Florida Department of Health massage therapist license required under Chapter 480, Florida Statutes. The tax amount itself is set using the Number of Workers Scale in Section 36.36(1), so larger massage practices with more employees pay a higher receipt fee than a solo practitioner.

Zoning adds a second, separate restriction that operates independently of the BTR rule. Section 58.913, in the list of accessory service uses, states that 'Massage Establishments' are among the uses 'hereby prohibited as accessory service uses' throughout the city, alongside adult entertainment venues, tattoo parlors, pawn shops and body-scrub facilities. That means a massage business cannot be squeezed into another primary business's building as a secondary, accessory operation; it must instead be established and zoned as its own principal use in a district where the use is separately permitted under the code's zoning use tables. Together, the two rules mean an Orlando massage business needs both a stand-alone zoning approval as a principal use and a state-licensed BTR before it can lawfully open its doors.