Texas Retail Hemp Registration

You're listening to HempDash Academy — practical compliance education for hemp retailers. Today's lesson: Texas Retail Hemp Registration. What the DSHS Retail Hemp Registration costs, who needs one, how to apply and renew it, and what happens if you sell without one. In this lesson, you will learn: Know what the Retail Hemp Registration costs and that it's per location, per year. Know who must register — and the narrow exceptions. Walk through the application: what DSHS asks for and how long processing takes. Understand renewal timing, the late fee, and the display requirement. Know the consequences of selling without a valid registration. The short answer: $5,000 per location, every year. If you sell consumable hemp products at retail in Texas, you need a DSHS Retail Hemp Registration for each location — and the registration or renewal fee is $5,000 for each location, due before you sell (25 TAC §300.502(g)(1)). DSHS describes the fee as annual, plus the applicable Texas Online (TOL) processing fee — its licensing page currently quotes the all-in total as $5,150 per location including that fee. Fees are not prorated: opening in month eleven costs the same as opening in month one. The registration is valid for one year from the date displayed on it and must be renewed annually. An expired registration is not current or valid — and the rule is blunt: you must not sell, or even offer to sell, a consumable hemp product without a valid registration (25 TAC §300.502(c)). Who must register — and who doesn't. The rule requires a person to register each location with DSHS before selling consumable hemp products at retail — including any location owned, operated, or controlled by that person where consumable hemp products are sold (25 TAC §300.501(b)). Three stores means three registrations and three fees. Two groups don't need their own registration: employees of a registrant, and independent contractors of a registrant who sell the registrant's products at retail (§300.501(c)). Your budtender doesn't register — your store does. The chapter as a whole doesn't apply to low-THC cannabis regulated under the Compassionate Use Program (HSC Chapter 487) or to FDA-approved / GRAS-recognized products (§300.501(a)). The rule text speaks in terms of registering each 'location' where products are sold. DSHS's current licensing guidance answers part of the e-commerce question directly: a Retail Hemp Registration is required for sellers who retail consumable hemp products online without a storefront and don't make any changes to the product or its packaging. What remains unaddressed is marketplaces, out-of-state fulfillment, and other unusual business models — for those, get an answer from DSHS or your attorney before you sell. How age verification must work for remote fulfillment is also its own open question. How to apply, and what DSHS asks for. Applications go in electronically through Texas.gov, in the manner DSHS prescribes, with all fees submitted with the application (§300.502(a), (f), (g)). The application itself is short: The name under which the business is operated. The business mailing address, plus the street address of each location. The primary business phone number, plus a phone number for each location. The primary business email address. Written consent for DSHS, the Department of Public Safety, TABC, and other state or local law enforcement to enter all premises where consumable hemp is sold or delivered, for inspection (from the property owner if that isn't you). Processing clocks — and your refund right. DSHS works on defined timelines (§300.502(d)): 45 calendar days from a completed application to confirm completeness (or notify you what's missing), another 45 calendar days to issue the registration or propose denial, and 135 calendar days for you to cure an incomplete application before it's treated as withdrawn. If DSHS misses its own deadlines, you can request full reimbursement of the fee in writing within 30 business days after the second period ends; if the department can't show good cause for the delay, the refund must be approved (§300.502(h)). Practical takeaway: apply well before opening day — the clocks assume a complete application. Renewal, late fees, and changes. Renewal is annual. File before the expiration date on the registration: filing a renewal after expiration adds a $1,000 delinquency fee on top of the $5,000 (§300.502(g)(2)) — and remember, an expired registration means you must stop selling until it's valid again. Minor changes during the registration period — change of location, name, or address — take a $125 amendment fee (§300.502(g)(3)). Once registered, proof of registration must be prominently displayed in a conspicuous location visible to the public (§300.502(e)). Frame it and put it where customers can see it, like a food-handler permit. Selling without registration: what actually happens. Selling consumable hemp products at retail without the required registration is a violation — and each day it continues counts as a separate violation when DSHS calculates an administrative penalty (25 TAC §300.601(a)(2), (b)). A quarter of unregistered selling isn't one violation; it's ninety. The rule sets the penalty process, not a dollar schedule: DSHS must notify a retailer of a potential violation and give the registrant a chance to resolve unintentional or negligent violations; penalties are assessed on seriousness, history, deterrence, and correction efforts; you get 20 business days to accept or request a hearing at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (§300.606). Beyond penalties, product that is adulterated or misbranded — the rule's detention triggers — can be detained or embargoed, and DSHS can seek court-ordered destruction at your cost — with possible referral to law enforcement where THC content meets the definition of a controlled substance (§§300.603–300.604). And the registration itself is at stake for age violations: selling to a minor — anyone under 21 — is grounds for revocation of the registration after a hearing, unless the minor presented an apparently valid ID (§§300.701–300.702). Age verification isn't a separate compliance topic from registration; it's a condition of keeping it. Rule requires vs. good practice. The rule requires: registration per location before selling, $5,000 per location with the application, annual renewal, the $1,000 delinquency fee if late, public display of the registration, consent to inspection, and 21+ age verification on every sale. Good practice — not in the rule, but what keeps operators out of trouble: calendar the renewal 90 days before the date displayed on the registration; keep a copy of each location's registration in your compliance binder alongside COAs; brief every employee that inspectors from DSHS, DPS, or TABC may enter, and that impeding an inspection is itself a prohibited act (§300.602); and re-check the current fee on the DSHS Consumable Hemp Program page before budgeting — fee levels have moved before. Here is a real-world example. An operator with two Dallas storefronts and a third opening in Austin budgets $5,000 for 'the hemp license.' The real number is $15,000 — the registration is per location — plus the Texas Online processing fee on each, and the Austin store can't legally sell a single gummy until its own registration is valid. When store two's renewal slips three weeks past the expiration date, the operator owes the $5,000 renewal plus a $1,000 delinquency fee, and every sales day in those three weeks was a separate violation on the books if DSHS pursues it. The lesson: registration is per location, the clock is per registration, and 'we filed for the first store' protects exactly one address. Key takeaways. Retail Hemp Registration: $5,000 per location, annual, paid with the application, not prorated — plus the Texas Online fee. Register every location you own, operate, or control before selling; employees and a registrant's contractors don't register separately. Apply through Texas.gov; DSHS runs 45/45/135-day processing clocks and owes you a refund if it blows them without good cause. Late renewal costs $1,000 extra — and an expired registration means stop selling until it's valid. Selling without registration is a violation for every single day it continues, and selling to anyone under 21 can cost you the registration itself. And finally, the checklist: Registration checklist. Every selling location has its own current Retail Hemp Registration. Registration displayed prominently, visible to the public, at each location. Renewal calendared ahead of the date displayed on each registration. $5,000 per location (plus TOL fee) budgeted for each renewal — no proration. Application details current — $125 amendment filed for any name/address/location change. Staff briefed on inspection consent: DSHS, DPS, and TABC may enter; never impede an inspection. Age-verification process enforced at every sale — registration revocation is on the line. Marketplace or out-of-state fulfillment model? Written answer from DSHS or your attorney on file. You've completed this HempDash Academy lesson. Test what you learned below, or see how HempDash can help put it into practice. This recording is educational information, not legal advice — rules change, so verify current requirements with DSHS and your attorney.