Texas Contract Templates

Texas Independent Contractor Agreement

Worker-classification test

Direction-or-control test: services for wages are employment unless the worker is shown to be free from control under the contract and in fact. The Texas Workforce Commission applies an adapted IRS 20-factor test.

Written contract required?

Not required by state law, but the agreement alone does not decide status; the TWC looks at actual control, and the contract's label is not decisive.

Misclassification penalties

$200 per misclassified worker for contractors and subcontractors on service contracts with governmental entities. Other businesses face back unemployment taxes after a TWC audit.

Texas Non-Compete Agreement

Updated for Bus. & Com. § 15.50

Are employee non-competes enforceable?

Yes, if ancillary to or part of an otherwise enforceable agreement and reasonable in time, geographic area and scope of activity.

Governing law

Covenants Not to Compete Act, Tex. Bus. & Com. Code §§ 15.50–15.52, which displaces other law on enforceability. § 15.50(b) (physicians) and § 15.501 (other health care practitioners) add rules.

Salary or wage threshold

None. Instead, health care practitioner covenants must offer a buyout capped at the practitioner's total annual salary and wages.

Texas Employment Offer Letter

Updated for Texas Payday Law

At-will employment

Yes, by common law. The main exception bars firing an employee solely for refusing to perform an illegal act.

Pay-range disclosure

No statewide pay-range law, and state law limits cities from adding hiring-practice rules of their own.

Salary-history ban

No. Texas does not restrict private employers from asking about or relying on an applicant's salary history.

Texas Residential Lease Agreement

Updated for Prop. Code ch. 92

Security deposit cap

No statewide cap. Texas law regulates how deposits are refunded and itemized, not how much a landlord may charge.

Deposit return deadline

30 days after the tenant surrenders the unit, with a written description and itemized list of all deductions. No itemization is needed if the only deduction is undisputed unpaid rent.

Required disclosures

Separate written flood notices (floodplain status and five-year flood history) at or before signing; repair-remedies language in bold or underline; early-termination rights statement (family violence, military); an emergency repair phone number.

Texas LLC Operating Agreement

Updated for Texas BOC

Governing statute

Texas Business Organizations Code, Title 3, Chapter 101 (Limited Liability Companies), plus the Code's general provisions in Title 1.

Operating agreement required?

Not required. Texas calls it a company agreement, and it may be written, implied or oral. A single-member agreement is still enforceable.

Filing fee to form the LLC

$300 for a Certificate of Formation (Form 205), filed with the Secretary of State.