The term “Doing Business As,” or DBA, refers to a legal name that a company can use to conduct business while being connected to the owner’s personal identity. A DBA is only good for five years in Illinois before it needs to be renewed. If a DBA is not renewed, the business may lose its legal name and be forced to register under a new name.
The most prevalent kind of business entity that uses a DBA is a sole proprietorship. The use of a DBA is not legally required for sole proprietorships in Illinois. A sole proprietorship, however, must file a DBA with the Illinois Secretary of State’s office and renew it every five years if it chooses to do so.
A business owner must additionally get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in order to register a DBA. The majority of business operations, such as employing staff and creating a business bank account, need the use of this number, which is used to identify the business entity for tax purposes.
A few procedures must be taken by the business owner in order to register a sole proprietorship online in Illinois. They must first submit an Application for Registration of Business Name to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office in order to register their company. Through the website of the Secretary of State, this form may be submitted online.
The business owner will then need to apply for an EIN with the IRS. The IRS website also offers an online option for doing this. Finally, in order to get any required state tax identification numbers, the business owner must register with the Illinois Department of Revenue.
A sole proprietorship’s legal name is the owner’s last name. However, if the company decides to use a DBA, that name will serve as the legal name of the company. The DBA name cannot contain any words that would suggest the company is a corporation, like “Inc.” or “Corp.” It is crucial to remember this.
To sum up, a DBA in Illinois does expire after five years and needs to be renewed in order to keep the business’s legal name. In spite of the fact that sole proprietorships are not required to use a DBA, if they do, they must register it with the Secretary of State’s office and apply for an EIN from the IRS. In order to create a sole proprietorship online business in Illinois, you must submit an Application for Registration of Business Name, acquire an EIN, and register for state tax identification numbers with the Department of Revenue. If a DBA is employed, the DBA name will be the legal name of the business instead of the owner’s personal name, which is the legal name of a sole proprietorship.