Sell your gas station in Indiana

Selling in Indiana: regulators, tanks & licenses

Indiana has its own rulebook for a station sale. None of it is a reason not to sell — but each item below has a lead time, and the deals that close smoothly are the ones that start these early.

Tanks: IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management)

Underground storage tanks in Indiana are regulated by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) — its Petroleum Branch and Office of Land Quality — under Indiana Code Title 13, Article 23 and the tank rules at 329 IAC 9. (Indiana runs its tank program through its environmental agency.)

What that means for your sale:

• Your tanks must be registered with IDEM, and the fees have to be paid. Registration is $90 per tank per year for petroleum tanks ($245 for tanks holding other regulated substances), under IC 13-23-12-1. Buyers and lenders ask for the registration and facility records early in due diligence, and IDEM’s records are public — assume the buyer’s consultant will pull them.
• The new owner notifies IDEM within 30 days of the transfer. Under 329 IAC 9-2-2, the buyer files the UST notification form (State Form 45223) registering the change of owner, operator and financial responsibility within 30 days of becoming the owner. We put it in the closing checklist so it never slips — IDEM enforces this one, and a missed notification is a common violation letter.
• IDEM inspects, and non-compliance can stop your fuel. IDEM inspects tank facilities, and a facility that is out of compliance can be placed under delivery prohibition — no fuel deliveries until it’s fixed. A station that can’t take fuel can’t trade, so open violations need to be dealt with before they become the buyer’s problem at your price.
• If there has ever been a release, paper beats promises. Leaks are handled in IDEM’s Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) program, and a finished cleanup ends with a No Further Action (NFA) letter from IDEM. A closed release with its NFA letter in hand sells very differently from an open one. And a warning every Indiana owner should hear: a suspected release has to be reported to IDEM within 24 hours — cleanup costs incurred before the report are not reimbursable by the state fund below.

The cleanup fund: ELTF (Excess Liability Trust Fund)

Indiana’s Excess Liability Trust Fund (ELTF), administered by IDEM under IC 13-23-7 and 13-23-8, is the state fund most Indiana station owners use to meet the financial-responsibility rule — $1 million of coverage for owners of 1 to 100 tank systems, $2 million above that. Eligible owners hold a certificate of financial assurance from IDEM showing the ELTF stands behind them.

For a seller, four practical points:

• Your fee history is part of your ELTF standing. Eligibility rides on your tanks being registered and your annual fees paid. Unpaid fees don’t vanish at closing — they are added into the deductible picture and have to be cured, so a lapse discovered in due diligence becomes a price chip or a closing delay.
• Know the deductible. For releases under the current rules, the ELTF deductible is a flat $15,000; after the deductible, the Fund reimburses 100% of eligible cleanup costs, up to $2.5 million per incident. What a knowledgeable buyer prices is your position going in: fees current, no unreported releases, no open incidents.
• The Fund pays for cleanups, not upgrades or tank removal. It is cleanup coverage, not a maintenance plan — budget tank work separately, and price the station knowing that.
• One Indiana bright spot for old tanks: since 2023 the state has also used the ELTF to reimburse 50% of approved costs to close, remove or replace aging tanks for eligible owners, funded at $20 million a year. An old tank farm is not automatically the deal-killer it is in other states — ask us how it applies to your site.

Alcohol: Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission (ATC)

Indiana c-stores sell carryout beer and wine — not liquor — and the permits are state-issued, quota-limited and transfer-approved, not closing-table signatures.

• Carryout at a gas station or grocery runs on dealer permits from the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission: a beer dealer permit, or a beer and wine dealer permit for stores selling both. (Liquor dealer permits belong to package liquor stores — Indiana stations don’t sell spirits.)
• Dealer permits are capped by a population quota that scales with the size of the city or town. In many Indiana communities the quota is already full, so in a station sale the buyer normally transfers the seller’s existing permits rather than applying fresh. An operating permit in hand is a real asset in the deal, and we value it that way.
• A transfer is an ATC approval process with a local step. The buyer applies to transfer the permits; the application goes through the county’s local alcoholic beverage board — with public notice and a hearing where neighbors can object — before the Commission acts. Expect weeks to a few months, and start it as soon as the offer is signed. There is no separate Sunday permit in Indiana; Sunday carryout runs on the dealer permits.
• Tax standing can stop a transfer cold. The Commission won’t issue, renew or transfer a permit for an applicant on the state’s tax warrant list or owing delinquent taxes, and permit deals are normally structured with the permit money held in escrow until the ATC approves. We check standing at the start, not the end.

Lottery, tobacco and fuel

• Hoosier Lottery: the retailer contract does not transfer with the business. The buyer starts a new retailer request with the Lottery’s licensing team, which runs background and tax-standing checks before issuing a contract for the location. Have the buyer file as soon as the purchase contract is signed, so the terminal isn’t dark at the changeover.
• Tobacco: the buyer needs their own tobacco sales certificate from the ATC — $200 for three years, per location — and Indiana cigarettes may only be bought from licensed distributors and wholesalers, stamped tax-paid. Quick, but it has to be on the checklist.
• Sales tax: the buyer also takes out their own Registered Retail Merchant Certificate from the Department of Revenue — merchant certificates never transfer; a change of ownership always means a new one.
• Fuel: selling fuel itself isn’t a separate state license for a retail station — what transfers is commercial: your fuel supply agreement (term, gallons owed, assignment consent from the supplier) and the IDEM tank registration above. Supplier consent is usually the longest pole after the alcohol permits, which is why we open that conversation as soon as you have a signed offer.

Two Indiana closing wrinkles

• The 45-day bulk-transfer tax notice — Indiana’s successor liability rule. Since 2024, Indiana law (IC 6-8.1-10-9.5) works like this: when a buyer takes more than half of a business’s tangible personal property — fixtures, equipment and inventory — the buyer can inherit the seller’s unpaid sales, use, county innkeeper’s and food and beverage taxes, up to the purchase price. The protection is a Notice of Transfer in Bulk filed with the Department of Revenue at least 45 days before the buyer takes possession or pays. The Department answers within 20 days, either with a summary of what’s owed (which the buyer withholds from the price and remits) or a tax clearance letter — valid for 60 days — confirming the seller is clean. This sets a floor under an Indiana closing timeline and has to be filed the week the contract is signed, not the week of closing. We build it into the deal from day one.
• No real estate transfer tax. If the real estate is in the sale, Indiana charges no transfer tax at all — a genuine saving next to Pennsylvania or Ohio. What the county takes instead is small and flat: a sales disclosure form (State Form 46021) with a $10 filing fee, the auditor’s transfer charge and a flat deed recording fee. Indiana property taxes are paid in arrears, so the real property conversation is the proration split, not a tax — settle it in the contract before you accept an offer, not after.