Wisconsin contractor license requirements
What you need before your first paid job in Wisconsin, one page for each trade. The license, the least insurance you must carry, whether the state asks for a bond, when you charge sales tax, and the deadlines that protect your right to be paid.
Plumbing in Wisconsin
- License you need
- Plumbing ApprenticeRenews annual
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimumcustomers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Required
- A master plumber's license renewal, at $500 every 4 years, is the single highest trades renewal fee DSPS publishes for any of the three trades.
- Advertising as a master plumber or plumbing contractor without putting the master plumber's license number in the ad is a fine of $100 to $500 a day, and can mean 30 days in jail.
HVAC in Wisconsin
- License you need
- HVAC Contractor (business registration)Renews every 4 years
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimumcustomers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Required
- Wisconsin has no individual journeyman or master HVAC license. Instead a business registers as an HVAC Contractor, and one HVAC Qualifier's certification lets that whole business work statewide.
- Once a business has a certified HVAC Qualifier, state law says it may not be made to get a separate local HVAC certification, license or approval anywhere in Wisconsin.
Electrical in Wisconsin
- License you need
- Electrical Apprentice (also Industrial and Residential versions)Renews annual
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimumcustomers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Required
- Wisconsin barred every county and city from licensing electricians on their own from April 1, 2014, so the state's DSPS license is the only one that counts anywhere in the state.
- A Journeyman or apprentice electrician may work under a Residential Master Electrician, but only on dwellings and the garages, carports and pools that serve them; anything else still needs a full Master Electrician's supervision.
Across states
Can you charge sales tax on labor? The rule in 25 states. Which states tax the work itself, which tax only the parts, and how a repair differs from a new install.