Roanoke, VA Business Licensing & Operations: Massage Establishments (2026)
Key Facts
- Annual license tax
- $5,000, due each January
- Transferable/prorated
- No, neither transferable nor prorated
- Prerequisite permits
- Massage parlor permit plus technician health cards
- Unlicensed operation penalty
- Class 1 misdemeanor, separate offense per day
- Late penalty
- 10% of tax due after 1 month
- Enforcing office
- Commissioner of Revenue
Summary
Every massage parlor doing business in Roanoke must hold a $5,000 annual license under City Code § 19-74.1, due each January and non-transferable; the Commissioner of Revenue will not issue it without a valid massage parlor permit and a health card for each technician.
(a)Effective January 1, 1982, there is hereby imposed upon every person doing business in this city or holding himself out as doing business in this city as a massage parlor as such term is defined in section 21-135 of this Code, a license tax of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) per year which shall be due and payable during the month of January of each license year. Such license shall not be proratable or transferable.(b)The commissioner of revenue shall not issue the license required by this section until presented with a valid nonsuspended massage parlor permit issued pursuant to section 21-156 of this Code and a massage technician permit and massage technician health card, issued pursuant to sections 21-175 and 21-191, respectively, of this code, for each massage technician employed by a massage parlor.(c)If any person shall commence to do business in this city as a massage parlor...without first obtaining the license required by this section, such person shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Each day's operation without a license shall constitute a separate offense.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 94 Update 1).
Full Breakdown
Roanoke taxes massage parlors separately from other personal-service businesses. Effective January 1, 1982, Sec. 1(a) imposes a flat $5,000 annual license tax, due and payable every January, and the license cannot be prorated for a partial year or transferred to a new owner. Before the Commissioner of Revenue will issue the license, Sec. 1(b) requires the operator to already hold a valid, nonsuspended massage parlor permit issued under Sec. 21-156, plus, for every massage technician on staff, both a massage technician permit under Sec. 21-175 and a massage technician health card under Sec.
21-191. "Massage parlor" carries the definition set in Sec. 21-135, so a business operating under that definition, or merely advertising itself as one in the city, triggers the tax whether or not it has filed for a license. Sec. 2 gives the Commissioner of Revenue, or a designee, police powers to identify unlicensed operators, summon them to the general district court, and collect the tax, running alongside any criminal case the police department separately brings. The high flat fee, compared with the 36-cent-per-$100 rate covering most personal-service businesses under Sec. 19-45(b)(4), reflects the city's separate regulatory track tied to the permit and health-card system in Chapter 21.
Violations & Fines
Operating, or advertising, as a massage parlor in Roanoke without the Sec. 19-74.1 license is a Class 1 misdemeanor, with each day of operation a separate offense; conviction does not excuse the tax owed. A violation lasting a month or longer also draws a 10 percent penalty on the tax due at the start of that year, on top of the $5,000 tax, and the city may separately seek an injunction in equity.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & Official References
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