Opening a studio in Montana: the waiver law and the sentence it wants in bold

October 14, 2026

This is for anyone opening a Pilates, yoga, barre or boutique fitness studio in Montana. We found no health club law, and there is no state sales tax to set up. The rule that changes your paperwork is the waiver. We read Montana's contracts code to put a release of a business's own negligence against the policy of the law, with one exception: a recreation waiver that lists the activity's known inherent risks and prints one exact sentence in bold.

No health club law

We found no Montana health club law. Title 30, chapter 14 of the Montana Code is the consumer protection chapter. It has parts for telemarketing, personal solicitation sales, a no-call list and kill switches on personal property. None is for health clubs, spas or fitness contracts. We checked that chapter's list of parts, not every title of the code.

So we found no registration, no bond, no required contract notices and no escrow for money taken before you open. In Frontmat, memberships bill monthly on the member's card through Stripe. Class packs can expire after a number of days you set, or never. A membership can be sold before you open with billing starting on opening day, and founding spots can be capped. We found no Montana rule that limits any of those.

The waiver: one exception, and a sentence in bold

MCA 28-2-702 says:

Except as provided in 27-1-753, all contracts that have for their object, directly or indirectly, to exempt anyone from responsibility for the person's own fraud, for willful injury to the person or property of another, or for violation of law, whether willful or negligent, are against the policy of the law.

We read that to reach a waiver that releases your studio from its own negligence, unless the waiver fits the exception. The exception is MCA 27-1-753. It allows a written waiver signed before a “sport or recreational opportunity” for “ordinary negligence” and for risks “inherent in the sport or recreational opportunity.” It sets two conditions. The waiver must:

1. “state known inherent risks of the sport or recreational opportunity”; and
2. “contain the following statement in bold typeface”:

By signing this document you may be waiving your legal right to a jury trial to hold the provider legally responsible for any injuries or damages resulting from risks inherent in the sport or recreational opportunity or for any injuries or damages you may suffer due to the provider's ordinary negligence that are the result of the provider's failure to exercise reasonable care.

A waiver that meets both is “not prohibited by or subject to the provisions of 28-2-702.” It “may still be challenged on any legal grounds.” The statute speaks only of ordinary negligence. It defines inherent risks as dangers that “cannot be prevented by the use of reasonable care,” so a risk you could have prevented is not one of them.

One limit matters for a reformer studio. Under 27-1-753(4), these sections “do not apply to a cause of action based on the design, manufacture, provision, or maintenance of sports or recreational equipment.” We read that to mean the exception does not reach a claim that a machine was badly kept.

Does a Pilates or yoga class count?

Nobody can tell you yet. MCA 27-1-752 defines a sport or recreational opportunity as “any sporting activity” and lists baseball, swimming, skiing, hunting, horseback riding, agritourism and more, ending with “any similar recreational activity.” Pilates, yoga, barre and fitness classes are not on the list. We found no Montana decision applying the statute to a gym or a studio. If a court decides a yoga class is not a sport or recreational opportunity, the exception does not apply and 28-2-702 is what is left.

The exception is still the only route the code gives. A Montana lawyer can write your waiver to meet it and tell you how much weight to put on it.

The statute does not say whether a parent can sign for a child. We found no Montana rule either way. If you teach teens, do not count on a parent's signature.

What this means in Frontmat

In Frontmat the waiver is your own text. Members sign it once, at their first booking, with a typed name. We store the time and a fingerprint of the exact wording they signed, so a later edit never changes what an earlier member agreed to. We never supply waiver language.

The waiver is plain text, so emphasis is done in CAPITALS. Bold is not available in it. CAPITALS are not bold typeface, and the statute asks for bold. A list of known inherent risks works in plain text. The statute's bold sentence would need a waiver document the studio provides another way.

Sales tax: none, except a resort tax in ten resort areas

Montana does not have a general sales tax. Classes, packs and memberships carry no state sales tax.

Ten resort areas charge a local resort tax: Big Sky, Cooke City, Craig, Gardiner, Red Lodge, St Regis, Virginia City, West Yellowstone, Whitefish and Wolf Creek. The legal maximum is 3 percent, and all ten charge 3 percent. The Department of Revenue says it applies to lodging, restaurants, bars, “destination ski resorts or other destination recreational facilities” and to “luxuries sold in the resort area.” Each resort area writes its own list of luxuries. Big Sky's ordinance (Ordinance 98-01, as amended in 2025) taxes luxuries wherever they are sold in the district, and its list includes “all recreational activities, lessons, or guided tour services” paid for with “daily fees, season passes, limited use passes, punch-cards, or other fees or dues to participate.” On our reading that reaches drop-ins, class packs and memberships at a Big Sky studio. We did not read the other nine areas' lists. If you open in one of these towns, ask its resort tax office before you price anything.

Frontmat does not add a sales tax line to packs or memberships today. A studio that owes resort tax would build it into the price or collect it with other tools.

Workers' comp from the first employee

Montana's Workers' Compensation Act “applies to all employers and to all employees.” An employer with any employee must elect one of the state's three compensation plans. There is no head count or payroll threshold in that section. Sole proprietors, working partners and working members of a member-managed LLC are excluded themselves unless they elect coverage.

Instructors you pay as contractors need a look. Under MCA 39-71-417, a sole proprietor or working LLC member who “regularly and customarily performs services at a location other than the person's own fixed business location” must apply to the state for an independent contractor exemption certificate, unless they have elected coverage themselves. An instructor teaching in your room is working away from their own business location. A certificate holder working under it is “conclusively presumed to be that of an independent contractor.” Ask each 1099 instructor for theirs before the first class.

Before you sign anything

1. Write down the known inherent risks of each format you teach.
2. Have a Montana lawyer write the waiver to MCA 27-1-753, with the statute's sentence in bold, and ask whether your formats count as a sport or recreational opportunity.
3. Decide where members will sign a waiver that can carry that bold sentence. Frontmat's plain-text waiver cannot.
4. Keep your equipment maintained. The exception does not reach maintenance claims.
5. If you open in a resort area, ask its tax office whether the 3 percent resort tax reaches your classes.
6. Elect a workers' comp plan before your first employee's first shift.
7. Collect an independent contractor exemption certificate from each 1099 instructor.

This is our reading of the Montana Code and the Department of Revenue's pages as of October 14, 2026. It is not legal advice. Confirm the waiver with a Montana lawyer, the resort tax with the resort area, and workers' comp with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

If you are still choosing where to open, we keep the rules in every state on one page.