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Home > Legal Issues > Legal Entities > Sole Proprietors

Overview

In general, sole proprietorships in Virginia can be formed with no formalities. However, it will generally be necessary to obtain one or more local business licenses form the cities or counties in which you operate and, in some cases, state licenses as well. Additionally, there may be a requirement to register your business with the Clerk of the Court in the city or county in which you operate if you are conduction business under a fictitious name (Doing Business As (DBA)). No separate tax form filing is required, generally, for a sole proprietorship, under the Virginia income tax law. Instead, as with the Schedule C on your federal Form 1040, you simply report the net income or loss from your sole proprietorship on your state personal income tax return.