Business License Clarification

A while back someone was asking about setting your business up legal. Well I'm going to answer that today for you.
I done a name search with my state and luckily my name was available, so I payed the required fee and my business became legal in my state.

Here is a simple answer to your ? I serve several counties and independent cities but to make a long story short, I just pay once for the town that I reside in. It wouldn't make sense nor would it be affordable to have a business license, in every County.

One last thing, you need to make sure that you are legal with the IRS and that you have your EIN/TIN. I have my business set up quarterly.

I hope this helps. Stay safe and take care.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 05/08/2016 10:52 PM EDT

By not registarating in every county you leave your business name open for someone else to use it in the other counties.I think in ny its only like $10 per county after your original.I'm assuming your talking about a dba by the sound of it. I highly suggest a S corporation instead of a dba for protection and tax benefits. I pay myself like an employee(w2) and it's all deductible to the corp. It will save you a lot of self employment tax.

Plus the corp name will cover the entire state so no one else can use it

Kevin, I appreciate your feedback. An LLC also covers the entire state so noone can use it. As we all know .., it's all about that money (Cha-Ching -Dollars, Dollars). Let's use my home state of Virginia, as an example; after we're legal with the Government on a Federal (IRS) and State (Virginia) level. Now we have the counties/independent cities, with their hands out - digging into your pockets.
Quick look at Our Service Areas:
1. Blacksburg
2. Bland County
3. Christiansburg
4. Craig County
5. Floyd County
6. Franklin County
7. Giles County
8. Montgomery County
9. Pulaski County
10. Radford City
11. Roanoke City
12. Roanoke County
13. Salem
14. Smith Mountain Lake
15. Vinton
16. Wythe County

If I had to give each of the 16 above a percentage of what I earned, I'd be broke. This was a valuable lesson for me when I first started in 1997. I lived in Blackburg, Virginia and payed both Blackburg and the town of Christiansburg for a business license. They both are in Montgomery County and it looks like someone would've said something to keep me from paying twice.

I have learned some lessons the hard way and it has both cost me and taught me. As for the county level ... you only have to pay for a business license in the county/city that you reside in. There are 16 service areas above and only 1 will have my company paying a percentage off of how much I make.