How to start a painting business in Nebraska

What to do, in order

1. 1

   Register the entity with the Secretary of State

   A Certificate of Organization for an LLC is $100 filed online, $110 in office, and the filing office acts on electronic submissions within one to two business days. Nebraska identifies the form by name, not by a form number. A sole proprietor trading under anything other than their own name registers a trade name instead, at the same $100 and $110.

   Nebraska Secretary of State, forms and fee information

2. 2

   Publish the notice, which Nebraska still requires

   Nebraska is one of the few states that still makes new LLCs publish. The notice runs three successive weeks in a legal newspaper of general circulation near the designated office, and the proof of publication is then filed with the Secretary of State for $25 online or $30 in office. The newspaper sets its own rate for the notice itself. A trade name follows a different rule: published once, in the city or village where the business sits, with the proof filed free within forty-five days or the registration is cancelled.

   Neb. Rev. Stat. § 21-193, publication of notice

3. 3

   Register as a contractor and elect your option

   Painting is named as a construction service, so the Contractor Registration Act applies once you earn $5,000 a year or more from it. The fee rose to $40 on 1 August 2026 and LB847 waives it for a self employed operator paying under $3,000 a year in wages, stated under oath. You elect your sales tax contractor option on this same form. Option 2, where you pay tax at the paint store and collect nothing from the customer, is the simplest for a small crew.

   Nebraska Department of Labor, contractor registration fee effective 1 Aug 2026

4. 4

   Get EPA firm certification before touching pre-1978 housing

   The Renovation, Repair and Painting rule is enforced in Nebraska by EPA directly, because Nebraska is not an authorized RRP state. Firm certification comes from EPA. This is separate from the Nebraska DHHS programme, which licenses lead inspection, risk assessment and abatement businesses, and which is what governs paint chip sampling in this state. Two programmes, two agencies, and confusing them is the usual mistake.

   US EPA, Renovation, Repair and Painting programme firm certification

5. 5

   Get the EIN, then register for tax

   The EIN is free from the IRS and usually issued the same day online. Nebraska tax registration is the Nebraska Tax Application, Form 20, revised June 2026, and the form states no application fee. Register before the first taxable sale, and read the tax section below carefully first, because which of your services are taxable is the part of this trade people get wrong.

   Nebraska Tax Application, Form 20 (rev. June 2026)

6. 6

   Sort workers' compensation from the first hire

   The Workers' Compensation Act applies to every resident employer who employs one or more employees in the regular trade or business. That means the first hire, not the fifth. Owners are outside it unless they elect in, in writing, filed with the insurer. Willful failure is a Class I misdemeanour, carries civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation with each day counted separately, and exposes members personally. Nebraska does not require general liability insurance by statute; commercial and municipal contracts are what require it in practice.

   Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-106, employers subject to the act

7. 7

   Check the truck and trailer against 10,000 lbs, not 26,000

   Nebraska applies the federal motor carrier rules to intrastate carriers over 10,000 lbs gross combination weight, which a three-quarter ton truck and a loaded trailer will normally exceed. That means a USDOT number obtained before operations begin, the number displayed on both sides, driver qualification files, medical cards, Nebraska intrastate hours of service and annual inspections. It does not mean a CDL, which starts at 26,001 lbs, and it does not mean apportioned plates for a carrier working only in Nebraska.

   Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska Truck Information Guide 2025-2026

8. 8

   Price off the burdened rate before quoting anything

   Take a wage and add payroll tax, workers' compensation at the painting class code, insurance, the truck, the sprayer and the hours nobody pays you for. What comes out is the number every square foot price and every bid has to beat.

The pricing step is the one most people skip. The burdened-rate calculator is free, runs in your browser, and tells you the number you have to beat on every quote.

What most sources get wrong about Nebraska

These are the points where the widely repeated answer is out of date or borrowed from another state. Each one is checked against the primary source.

You could paste this page into a chat model instead

You could, and for most of what is above it would do a reasonable job. The facts on this page are public and a good model will summarise them accurately. That is not the hard part.

The hard part is that the documents have to agree with each other. The three-year financials have to price the same equipment the equipment list specifies. The org chart has to staff the roles the launch checklist hires, in the order it hires them. The rates in the pricing work have to use the burdened labor number the financials assume. Produce them one conversation at a time and they drift, and the drift is what a lender finds.

CrewPlaybook asks between 32 and 45 questions once, depending on your answers, and writes all fourteen documents from that one set of facts. A finished example, for a fictional lawn care company, is readable without an account.