Virginia Corporation

Corporations have an annual report due on the anniversary month they initially filed in, by the last day of that month. Corporations have a minimum $25.00 filing fee, but can be way more depending on the amount of shares it is authorized to issue.

The Virginia Corporate net income tax rate is 6%.

The Virginia personal net income tax rates are:

The average Virginia sales tax rate is 5%.

To form a Virginia Corporation, you file Virginia articles of incorporation. The Virginia articles of incorporation cost $25.00 plus $50.00 for each 25,000 shares or fraction thereof (more than 1 million shares - $2,500.00) with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. These can be basic or complicated. We custom draft your Virginia articles of incorporation when you hire Northwest to form your Virginia business. The basic requirements are:

• The Virginia Corporation must have a corporate ending such as INC, Incorporated, Corporation or a different variety.
• The Virginia corporation name must be different than already registered Virginia corporations.
• The number of shares the Virginia Corporation is authorized to issue.
• The name and office address of the registered agent in Virginia.
• The name and address of the directors of the Virginia Corporation.
• The Virginia incorporator must sign and date the articles of incorporation.
• The contact phone number.

Virginia requires original signatures on filings. The original will come back to the Virginia Corporate agent or the return address on the envelope.

1. You file the articles of incorporation for a Virginia Corporation with the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
2. You obtain a federal tax ID number with the IRS after you have confirmation from Virginia that the articles are completely filed.
3. You should be able to open a business banking account with these two items.
4. You register your Virginia business with the Virginia department of revenue if you're going to have employees or need to withhold sales tax.
5. You obtain a trade license if you actually need one. (Most businesses don't.)
6. You obtain a local City or County general license if you need one.
7. You obtain a local trade license if the City or County you're going to be working in requires it.
8. If you're going to have an office or shop you might need an approval from the City zoning for your type of business in that location.

NOW!! I always give out horrible advice at this point, and please don't take it as legal advice. It would be considered totally wrong and horrible legal advice. BUT… I always tell people, you could spend months worrying about getting your Virginia business off the ground and registering with every Virginia State agency you need to. At the end of the day, you need to pull the money in! That means, your idea, or your new service needs to get out there and get the sales, customers, or clients you need to get the money in the bank, and keep your business going. At the end of the day, Money in the bank trumps fines with some Virginia government agency that you overlooked paying some silly fee to. The government is always going to be broke and always looking for the next way to make us pay a fee or tax. We unfortunately see Virginia corporations every year that just shut down 6 to 7 months after they hired us to incorporate their Virginia Corporation for them, because they never got the idea off the ground. I always say, pull the money in first, deal with a Virginia State agency second. If you have to pay some late fees or fines, but you landed that first big client that gets your business off of the idea you have on that paper notebook, I say more power to you. Pay the late fee or fine with joy. You've done the REAL first step to starting your Virginia business. Get out there and pull the money in! If some Virginia State agency finds you're in some violation, they will send you a letter, and you can pay whatever they are asking for. It's a never-ending phone call or email I get hearing about all the effort someone's put into their website, into their letterhead, into their marketing, into their planning, and they haven't even figured out how they are realistically going to get and collect their first sale. Don't let over-planning stop your business from getting off the ground. Paying a Virginia incorporation service like us to do the initial paperwork is a great way to keep your brain moving on the important items like pulling in the money and getting it into your new business bank account.

We pay taxes in Virginia. We operate a corporation in Virginia. We're not an incorporation website. We're an incorporation and registered agent Virginia business. There's lots of websites out there that are just websites with generic domain names and smart programmers that can make them rank in Google.

Anyone could throw up a website, hire sales people to answer the phones with scripts, and pay a document filer $10.00 an hour to file the Virginia articles of incorporation with the State for you. If you've found this page by searching online, most the other sites you'll find don't operate in Virginia, don't pay taxes in Virginia, and generally speaking, don't have any idea what it's like in Virginia. The only people here helping you form a Virginia corporation are the owner, our in-house, non-practicing attorney, and our paralegal. This is all we do, and when you hire us and pay us $100.00 to form a Virginia Corporation, the owner pays Virginia tax at the end of the year off that $100.00, and the $125.00 Virginia registered agent corporation service fees.

When we form a Virginia Corporation, we'll be your Virginia corporation agent. That means our Virginia office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and we have a physical presence in Virginia, so we have to pay income tax off the money we derive from doing business in Virginia. It's called "Nexus." If you're shopping around for a Virginia incorporation service, we would challenge you to call one of our competitors and ask the person that answers the phone if they have nexus in Virginia. If they don't, or don't have any idea what that word even means, that would be kind of like hiring a real estate agent in Cincinnati, Ohio to sell your home in Charlottesville, Virginia. Just doesn't sound right does it? If they do have nexus in Virginia, then that's Great… At least you're then comparing us with another company that should know what they are doing, and you've ultimately done yourself a favor. While you're on the phone comparing apples to apples, you should ask the company what the name and address will be of the registered agent in Virginia, and how much the renewal bill will be. If they can't tell you the name, the town the office will be in, and if it's not their own name, it means you're ultimately signing up with someone you don't know.

We've seen other sites with packages that include Virginia Corporation agent service, or offer it free for 6 months or a year, or it's just built into a "Package." But you're paying a website, and they then list another company as your agent. Then you get a bill at the end of the 6 months or year from some random company you've never heard of for a lot of money. Our Virginia registered agent corporation service is $125.00 a year, has no hidden weird fees, and the first year is included in our service to incorporate your Virginia Corporation.

• 1 year of service from the time of hire.
• Annual report reminders.
• Annual report calendar in your online account to track your due dates.
• Online account for contact info, corporate documents, documents we receive on your behalf, annual report dates, calendar, and end of service dates.
• Any lawsuits or service of process are uploaded to your account immediately, in full, for your viewing. We can notify your attorney at the same time if you would like. We can notify up to 5 different people and your attorney of your lawsuit instantly.
• Added privacy and identity protection.
• All junk mail is shredded
• Same day complete scan of received documents. (Other registered agents forward items received locally to their National headquarters by mail, and then scan them. You get everything the same day with us.)
• No cancellation fees
• No forwarding fees
• We don't keep your credit card on file and automatically charge you for anything.

The requirements of a registered agent are being open during normal business hours for someone (A process server or Sheriff) to walk in and hand deliver a document or notification to you. Assigning someone, or a website you don't know to this role means that if you get a notification by mail or someone delivers a letter or a lawsuit to that person or business, its legal proof that you've been notified, regardless of if it actually gets to you. There are only 5 national registered agents, and there's thousands of Virginia incorporating websites, so the odds are that if you pay one of the thousands of Virginia incorporation websites, they've got a discounted referral fee plan to dump you on one of the national agents to collect a referral fee, and you'll be taking a big chance that the agent they list will get the documents they receive for you to the incorporation website, and then the incorporation website you hire will get it to you. Worse yet is if you're continually being billed from a national incorporation website you signed up with and they aren't the actual business or person that is listed as your registered agent. With us, you know who you're counting on from day one. As far as we know we are the only service that uploads complete documents instantly, from our local location to your account.

We will form a Virginia corporation for you right away. No weird Virginia corporation expedite packages. No weird tables with checkmarks showing what's included and what you're missing. Our sign up form is one page. After filling it out, our owner, our non-practicing attorney, or our paralegal will call you right away, go over everything with you, and we'll get your new Virginia Company formed right away. We'll be listed as your Virginia registered agent, not some random company you don't know. Most States have a change of agent fee, so not only could you be connected with a company you don't really know, it will cost you to get rid of them after you get a crazy renewal bill you weren't expecting. We make our living by keeping your business in compliance with Virginia, year after year. Not off weird misleading one time package fees and up-sells.

Shouldn't you trust a Virginia business that actually operates and pays taxes in Virginia instead of a website with a 500 filing backlog that you have to upgrade a package with to get some quick attention?

If you want to form a Virginia corporation yourself, you can just hire us as your Virginia registered agent, and you'll instantly have the Virginia forms to file and filing instructions on the quickest, cheapest, and most efficient way to incorporate a Virginia Corporation. We also will look over your filing for free if you would like us to. You'll get the ongoing support of our online tools, reminders and the support of a professional Virginia Corporation Agent service.