DBA , Fictitious, Assumed, or Trade DBA

Your personal, legal name is your first and last name.

A corporation's legal name is the one appearing on the face of the registered, stamped state corporate, Limited Liability Company or Ltd Partnership Document.

Thus, if your name is John Doe and you are doing business as as a sole proprietor with the DBA "John's Plumbing," you are required to register a DBA , DBA statement.

On the DBA Document / statement, you will be the registrant, John Doe, doing business as the DBA name "John's Plumbing".

If you have registered a corporation, or Limited Liability Company with that name (i.e., "John's Plumbing") you don't need to file a DBA with the same name (i.e., with "John's Plumbing" DBA ).

However, if you have filed "John's Plumbing" corporation, or Limited Liability Company and you decide you also want to do business as a corporation but with a different than the corporation's name. For instance, you want to do business with the DBA "Plumber 4 You," you need to register a DBA under "John's Plumbing" corporation (in such case, "John's Plumbing" corporation will be the registrant of the DBA "Plumber 4 You".

Why is it called a "" DBA , assumed name or a trade name?

It is called a "" name, mainly because it is not the "legal name" of the owner.

An individual has a legal name because he or she has a birth Document and or a social security number.

A corporation has a legal name because it has a corporate Document filed with the state as well as a federal Tax Id Number.

Thus, a person with a legal name, doing business as a name other than its legal name, has to file a DBA of the name he is doing business as...

A DBA , an assumed name or a trade name, is simply a company's DBA , when the DBA is not the same as the owner's name of the business.

For example, the DBA of a sole proprietorship is "Joan's Burger Queen". If the DBA was the name of the owner of the business, "Joan Doe," the first and last name of the owner, it would not be a "" DBA.

Likewise if the owner of the business is a corporation, as for example, IBM corporation, doing business as the DBA "Computers to Go," "Computers to Go" would be a DBA for IBM corporation because the name is not the corporation / owner's name (namely, the name is not " IBM corporation").

DBA , Fictitious, Assumed, or Trade DBA

(Required for all business types - including eBay, Online and home businesses - Requires Registering of a DBA if DBA is not the owner's own personal or Legal name (i.e., personal name being the first and last name for individuals and the legal corporate name for corporations)). Note that alternatively you can file a corporation to register your business name if the DBA and the corporation name are exactly the same.
- Recommended: Most small business advisors recommend that you file a Doing Business As (DBA ) business name instead of using your first and last name to do business. To whose name would you rather write a check to? A business or an individual. Obviously, you would prefer to write a check or pay a registered business instead of paying an individual. Can you imagine Microsoft having the DBA "Bill Gates Software".

Business/Legal Name -- The exact Legal Name of the business. For a corporation, the legal name will appear on the Document of incorporation. For a business not incorporated, the legal name is the name in which the business owns property or acquires debt. If the business is a partnership, use the names of the partners, if a sole proprietor, use the legal name of the individual owner of the business.

Trade name or DBA -- Enter the trade name, doing-business-as name or assumed name if different from the legal name. For a corporation, enter the name that you want to use as the corporation's DBA name. For a business that is not incorporated, enter the DBA name you want to register.