What does A Trade Name (DBA) means and how to file for it?

Trade name is, a legally approved way to do your business under specific name. You use this name to file with state, county or even with local municipality. Trade name is also referred with various names as, “assumed name”, “fictitious business name”, or DBA for “doing business as”.

Being the most cost effective and easy way to operate your business, it is so flexible that it never compels you to create an altogether a new business entity. With DBA, you can very well accept all your payments, advertise for your business and can do all presenting under this name.

Who are all allowed to register a Trade name?

Any business can opt to register a Trade name, this includes general partnerships, corporations, sole proprietorship, organized and incorporated entities such as LLCs, nonprofits and limited partnerships.

An important point to keep in mind at this time is, DBA is just an alias and is not an actual business entity. Also, it must belong and needs to be associated with a specific legal entity.

Here comes the toughest part that needs a professional help. We are here to help you file the DBA easily. And, handle all the state, county, and in some cases, city requirements where you are planning to use a name in addition to the publication requirements being met for the appropriate jurisdictions.

An important point to note is that many countries  and municipal jurisdictions that register DBAs demand notarizing of DBA application with the local notary public.This process might never be so cumbersome for you as we will take care of it by preparing all the necessary applications, enclosing the payment (money order) and a stamped envelope, and will send this package to your address with all necessary instructions.

All you have to do is, approach your bank and notarise the application and seal it in an enclosed envelope with payment and drop this mail. Your package will reach the issuing office and from this stage, we will start monitoring the status and will keep on monitoring till your DBA is successfully registered.

What are the penalties which one has to incur for non-registration?

Conducting a business without Foreign Corporation Certificate of a full-fledged business can attract various penalties by the state government. Such business transactions are categorized as illegal business transactions. Few highlights of penalty on the entity are as below:

• Ineptitude to conduct any proceedings, legal suit, and any action till the completion of registration of the business entity.
• A legal constraint from the court of law for any business transaction.
• A civil penalty will be imposed which will be inclusive of all the taxes and fees which one must have incurred at the time of registration.
• If the registration has exceeded 90day’s time frame after the first business transaction it will be levied with a penalty by the Secretary of State.