Mississippi Cottage Food Law: $35,000 Cap, No Permit and What You Can Sell
Mississippi Cottage Food Law: $35,000 Cap, No Permit and What You Can Sell
This is informational content, not legal or tax advice. Rules change, and your situation may differ from the general case. Confirm every point below with the agency named, and talk to a qualified attorney or CPA before you make decisions that carry legal or tax consequences.
Mississippi lets many home cooks sell food they prepare in their own kitchens without a food permit. The authority is Miss. Code 75-29-951, administered by the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH). The exemption is narrow. It covers in-person, direct sales to consumers inside Mississippi, it carries an annual gross sales cap of $35,000, and it requires no permit, license, or routine inspection. Stay inside those lines and you can start selling with very little paperwork. Step outside them and you need a different license, and probably a commercial kitchen.
People often hear "no permit" and assume "no requirements." That is the most common mistake. The food exemption is only one piece. A sales tax registration, a city privilege license, and possibly a business name filing can still apply even when no food permit is needed.
The Short Version
- Authority: Miss. Code 75-29-951, administered by MSDH.
- Annual cap: $35,000 in gross sales.
- Sales channel: in person, direct to consumers, inside Mississippi.
- Not allowed: wholesale, shipping, and online sales under current law.
- Not required under the exemption: a permit, a license, or routine inspection.
- Often still required: a Department of Revenue sales tax registration (confirm), a city privilege license (confirm), and a Secretary of State filing if you sell under a name other than your own.
The $35,000 Annual Cap
The exemption covers up to $35,000 in annual gross sales. Gross sales is your total receipts before you subtract ingredients, packaging, booth fees, or fuel. The cap is measured on what comes in, not on what you keep.
The Legislature raised the cap from $20,000 to $35,000 through HB 326 in 2020. It has not changed since. Every bill to raise it in 2025 and 2026 died in committee or in the Senate, as the table later in this guide shows, so $35,000 still applies as of October 2026.
Track sales from your first transaction. A spreadsheet with the date, product, customer type, and amount is enough. Total it at least monthly so you can see how much room is left. Growing sellers often hit the cap faster than they expect, especially during holiday seasons. Once sales above the cap are no longer covered by the exemption, you need to move to a licensed operation. Ask MSDH what steps apply before you reach the limit, not after.
Where You Can Sell
The exemption is about the sales channel as much as the product. The table below sorts common situations.
| Sales situation | Covered by the cottage food exemption? |
|---|---|
| Face-to-face sale to a customer in Mississippi, such as at a market table or a pickup at your home | Yes, while total gross sales stay at or under $35,000 |
| Sale to a store, restaurant, café, or other reseller (wholesale) | No |
| Shipping or mailing products to a customer | No |
| Online ordering with in-person pickup | Confirm with MSDH before you do it. The exemption describes in-person direct sales, and it does not address online ordering |
| Online sales with delivery | No under current law |
| In-person sales to customers outside Mississippi | No. The exemption applies to sales inside Mississippi only |
| Total gross sales above $35,000 in a year | No |
The biggest surprise for most sellers is the wholesale line. A local coffee shop that wants to sell your jam is a wholesale account, and that account is outside the exemption even if the coffee shop is down the street.
What You Can Sell
MSDH says certain foods may be home prepared and sold without a permit. The word that matters is certain. The exemption does not cover every food you can make at home. Before you build a product line, get MSDH's current list of eligible foods and check each product against it.
Do not assume a recipe qualifies because it is shelf stable, because it sells well in another state, or because it appears in a popular cookbook. Cottage food rules in general tend to draw their hardest lines around foods that need refrigeration or temperature control to stay safe, such as cream-filled or custard-style items and cut produce. Ask MSDH how it treats those categories rather than inferring the answer.
Ask MSDH about labeling and ingredient disclosure too. Confirm what a label must say before you print a single one, because a label that is wrong is expensive to reprint and can create problems at a market or event.
Other Registrations That May Still Apply
Mississippi does not issue a general state business license. Registering an entity with the Secretary of State is a registration, not a license. The items below are the ones home sellers most often run into.
Sales Tax Registration (Department of Revenue)
Businesses making retail sales register with the Mississippi Department of Revenue (DOR) for a sales tax permit. The DOR treats this as a tax registration. There is no fee, although a bond may be required for applicants with no permanent Mississippi location. The state sales tax rate is 7%. Mississippi has no county add-on to the state rate, and city sales tax levies apply only in Jackson and Tupelo.
Whether your cottage food sales must be registered, and how the 7% applies to your particular products, is a question to confirm with the DOR. Start with the registration page at DOR sales and use tax registration information.
City Privilege License (Miss. Code 27-17)
Mississippi has no statewide license, but local government does. Every city, town, and village issues its own privilege license under Miss. Code 27-17. Counties license only businesses located outside municipalities. If you live inside city limits, the city clerk is the office to call. If you live outside any municipality, ask your county.
Do not assume the cottage food exemption also waives a local privilege license. Ask the city or county whether a home food seller needs one, and get the answer in writing if you can.
Business Name Filing (Secretary of State)
If you sell under your own legal name, you do not need to file anything for the name itself. If you sell under a different name, that name is a fictitious (assumed) business name. You register it with the Secretary of State's Business Services Division, not with the county, using the Fictitious Business Name Registration (Form F0070). The fee is $25. Start at Mississippi Secretary of State Business Services.
LLC (Optional)
You do not have to form an LLC to sell cottage food. Some sellers choose one for liability separation or because they expect to grow. If you do, here is what the state requires:
- Certificate of Formation (Form F0100): $50 filing fee. Filings paid for online are normally approved immediately, and filings that need staff review are normally returned within 24 hours.
- Name: must include the words limited liability company, or LLC or L.L.C.
- Annual report (Form F0108): due April 15 each year. You may file on or after January 1. It must be filed online, and the state fee is $0. Failure to file can lead to administrative dissolution.
- Franchise tax: an LLC taxed as a partnership does not pay it. Corporations do, and so does an LLC taxed as a corporation. For tax year 2026 the rate is $0.50 per $1,000 of capital above $100,000, with a $25 minimum. It is scheduled for repeal effective January 1, 2028, so confirm the current status with the DOR.
An LLC is a legal structure, and the tax treatment depends on how it is classified. For that choice, talk to a CPA or attorney rather than relying on a general guide.
Hiring Help
Mississippi has no state minimum wage law. Federal wage and hour rules still apply to anyone you hire, so check those before you bring on a helper.
Pending Bills: Why $35,000 Still Applies
Several bills have tried to change the cap or the sales rules. None became law. Here is the record as of October 2026:
| Bill | What it proposed | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 SB 2265 | Raise the cap to $59,000 | Died in committee on February 4, 2025 |
| 2026 HB 1108 | Raise the cap to $200,000 | Died in committee on February 3, 2026 |
| 2026 SB 2394 | Raise the cap to $120,000 | Died in committee on February 3, 2026 |
| 2026 HB 910 | Remove the cap and allow online sales | Passed the House 109 to 6 on February 10, 2026, then died in Senate committee on March 3, 2026 |
A bill that passes one chamber is not law. Check the status of any proposed change before you plan around it, and expect that new bills may be filed in future sessions.
Records to Keep
The cap is a gross sales number, so your records need to show it. Keep a sales log with dates, products, customer type, and amounts. Keep receipts and an ingredient list for each product. If you register for sales tax, keep the sales tax records the DOR requires. Ask the DOR how long those records must be kept, since the answer is set by the agency rather than by this guide.
When Home Sales Stop Being Enough
Several changes take you out of the exemption, and each one changes the answer to the questions above:
- Your gross sales are approaching $35,000.
- You want to sell to stores, restaurants, or other resellers.
- You want to ship products or sell them online with delivery.
- You want a product that is not on MSDH's eligible list.
- You want to open a storefront or sell from a location other than your home.
Each of these leads to a licensed operation, usually with a commercial kitchen. Plan for that step early. The Mississippi Small Business Development Center Network, with its lead center at the University of Mississippi and 19 locations statewide, can help you think through the next step at mississippisbdc.org.
Questions to Confirm Before You Sell
Put these in writing before your first sale. Each one goes to a different office.
- MSDH: Is each product on the eligible list? What must the label say? Does online ordering with in-person pickup fit the exemption?
- Department of Revenue: Do your sales require a sales tax registration? How does the 7% state rate apply to your products?
- Your city clerk, or your county if you live outside city limits: Does a privilege license apply to a home food seller?
- Secretary of State: If you sell under a name other than your own, have you filed the $25 Fictitious Business Name Registration?
- An attorney or CPA: Should you form an LLC, and how will it be taxed?
Mississippi's cottage food exemption is one of the simplest ways to start a food business in the state. It is also one of the easiest to misread. Read the limits as carefully as the permissions, track your sales from the first day, and confirm the open questions with the agency that owns each one.
This guide is informational only and is not legal or tax advice. Verify current requirements with the Mississippi State Department of Health, the Mississippi Department of Revenue, the Mississippi Secretary of State, and your local government before you sell.