Hi,

First I tried to order me a SSL certificate from Comodo, and they emailed me saying they need the following information:

A. Articles of Incorporation (with address)
B. Government Issued Business License (with address)

If you do not have access to the above documentation, please provide 2 of the following:
A. Copy of a recent company bank statement (you may blacken out the Account Number)
B. Copy of a recent company phone bill
C. Copy of a recent major utility bill of the company (i.e. power bill, water bill, etc.) or current lease agreement for the company


Well I know for sure I don't have the second option, as I work from home, and I don't have a company phone number yet either, nor a company bank statement.

So that only leaves the first option open I believe.

So my question is, can someone provide a easy article or web site, where I can get this done step by step easily?

As I'm new to all this.

Thanks! :)

Where do you live? This isn't usually something you can do online, you have to register yourself as a business. Go to your county clerk and register a DBA or LLC, that is if you are in the United States.

I think you may have purchased the wrong SSL certificate. The SSL cert you are getting now is doing business verification. Since you don't have Articles of Incorporation, it doesn't sound like you are an officially registered business. I would recommend getting a cheaper SSL certificate that does not require verification of anything but domain name ownership.

Where do you live? This isn't usually something you can do online, you have to register yourself as a business. Go to your county clerk and register a DBA or LLC, that is if you are in the United States.

Yeah I live in the US.

So does this cost anything, and what are usually the requirements in registering your company at the country clerk?

probably a hundred dollars or so, not sure about the states. but in Canada you may either register it as a corp or a small/personal business. Corp means you need to file a separate tax return and small/personal mean you can file the company under your person tax

Probably should not being doing business if you cannot understand that email.

If you cannot figure out how to register yourself as a business, how do you expect to run it? Business is an easy task, and requires at least some knowledge of something.

I don't know, maybe you should check out your local states website, and see if they have information on how to register, I am sure going to the local court office will atleast allow you to register a DBA, while, other more elaborate setups will probably require you to fill out applications and send them to your local state.

If you are from out of the USA, I am not sure how it would work, but getting in touch with your local city hall, or whatnot, should get you the information you require.

You do not need to register your business or incorporate or anything like it.

You are a Individual or Sole Proprieter.
It is a completely valid and legal way of doing business.

All you need to do is show them your PERSONAL bank statement or phone bill, it doesnt need to have your company name on it.

You can also go into a bank and open an account in your company name.
You do not need any documents with the company name.
You then have a account and statement with your company name, which can be useful for other things.

He needs to register himself as a Sole Proprietorship or a DBA like everyone else has said. That is if he wants to accept money legally. If you are making over $600 a year you need to do this. At least that's what it is in my state.

It really isn't expensive. It costs $10 for 5 Years in Michigan to register a Sole Proprietorship

He needs to register himself as a Sole Proprietorship or a DBA like everyone else has said. That is if he wants to accept money legally. If you are making over $600 a year you need to do this. At least that's what it is in my state.

It really isn't expensive. It costs $10 for 5 Years in Michigan to register a Sole Proprietorship

Wow thats not bad $10.00 for 5 years.

I live in Tennessee, and I looked up my county clerk online and found this:

http://www.nashville.gov/cclerk/business.htm

Comodo also contacted me back and said to get that SSL certificated I wanted, I just needed to fill this out here: http://www.dnb.com/us/


Also, you said I need to register as a Sole Proprietorship. Is it hard configuring your taxes at the end of the year? I mean, I have a billing system that tells me all that I've made, so is that all I'd really need to keep up with and make sure it's accurate?

Last thing, if I've already been making money, do I have to pay taxes on that as well, as I didn't even start to keep up on how much money I was making until April of this year, and I've been having this company for 1 year now (started in July 2006) .

Thanks

You are seriously over complicating things.

Just show comodo your personal bank statement and they will give you a cert.

You buy the cert in your personal name not company, since you dont have a company registered, but it makes no difference.

Comodo certs are not single root anyway, your better off getting a geotrust cert, they are better and there is no validation or paperwork, you buy online and get your cert instantly by email.

He's not over complicating things.

He needs to do this to have a business legally in the United States. You need to have a sole proprietorship registered if you are making a certain amount.

I could be wrong but I believe a Sole Proprietorship is going to be mixed in with your personal taxes.

Hopefully you have been recording the current profit and expenses into your personal taxes for the last year, you have to record everything you make and spend, whether you have a DBA or not. This is a part of living in the US.

I mean, you can continue to not pay taxes but your going to have the IRS knocking on your door someday to hit you up with a lot more than you would have initially owed.

He's not over complicating things.

He needs to do this to have a business legally in the United States. You need to have a sole proprietorship registered if you are making a certain amount.

I could be wrong but I believe a Sole Proprietorship is going to be mixed in with your personal taxes.

Hopefully you have been recording the current profit and expenses into your personal taxes for the last year, you have to record everything you make and spend, whether you have a DBA or not. This is a part of living in the US.

I mean, you can continue to not pay taxes but your going to have the IRS knocking on your door someday to hit you up with a lot more than you would have initially owed.

So what if I started my company a year ago, but only started to track my income this year (April). Can I start there with tracking my income, or do I have to find some way of tracking EVERYTHING I ever made with this company?

Thanks

You are seriously over complicating things.

Just show comodo your personal bank statement and they will give you a cert.

You buy the cert in your personal name not company, since you dont have a company registered, but it makes no difference.

Comodo certs are not single root anyway, your better off getting a geotrust cert, they are better and there is no validation or paperwork, you buy online and get your cert instantly by email.

I think it's the other way around, but registering a business (my business at that) is something I do not want to half step do.

Comodo is only one thing I was looking into, as I liked their site seal corner of trust etc..

But the main topic here is on how to register my company, so thats why I'm trying to get somewhat a little base knowledge on what is needed from everyones experience before I actually go in to see my county clerk which I wiill do this week.

Thanks for your suggestion though. :)

Well, you would only have to track it for this year as your taxes for last year should already have been paid.

If you did not pay the taxes last year for what you made with this business that could be a problem in the future, but if it was only a small amount of profit you shouldn't have to worry about it now.

Just make sure you track everything for future and pay your taxes. I've seen with experience with doing books for companies what happens to people who don't pay taxes and it definitely doesn't pay! (People end up having to pay 3-4X as much as they would have)

www.legalzoom.com

I and other people I know have used them.

They are NOT a lawyer. You enter the information they ask for. You pay them the state fee + their application fee and they will fill out your paperwork for you.

Once this is done, they'll email you it in PDF format. From there, you sign it (with notary public) and MAIL (not fax) it back to legalzoom.

Legalzoom then files your business with the proper people and you receive the filed paperwork in the mail as a physical copy.

For a DBA in the State of Texas, I paid $130 total (including shipping charges)

You can file it on your own, of course, and only pay the state fee. However, I think it is best to have someone who knows what they are doing fill out the paperwork.

Why not save yourself $120 and drive to the county clerk office. It takes literally 5 minutes once your in there.

As I said, I don't believe in filling out my own paperwork. I leave that to others.

The same goes for almost any other piece of paperwork (non business even).

Hi, I tried to read through most of the posts but just wanted to say what I think:

1) If you want a SSL try using RapidSSL.com you will find them easier to get the SSL from and at a good price. You can enter your company name in but do not require any business info to be added.

2) I forgot what country you are from, but I am sure where ever you are from you can register as a soletrader... The paper work is nothing much you just have to do tax, well thats what it is like in the UK.

Hope I have helped and sorry if this has already been talked about :)

I just contacted my Department of Revenue and they said Web Hosting is not taxable in the state of Tennessee (where I live). :O

I think they mean no sales tax, which is correct, there isn't usually sales tax on services.

That doesn't mean you don't have to pay taxes on your money your bringing in. You still live in America.

So do I still need to get a DBA (Buisness License) or just report my income on my personnel tax form?

And I see on your site you have "DBA" at the bottom. Like is all your work and management of your servers done online, or do you have a small business office in some building you rent out and etc..?

Because I can pretty much mange my site/company from any computer that has internet access, so it's not really home based, but I guess you can call it that.

And on the Application for a New Business Tax License, it has Sales Tax Number:

But the Department of Revenue said I don't need one because there is no sales tax on web hosting...

I still highly suggest you get a DBA. This way you can run your business under a business name instead of your personal name.

They aren't very expensive and you really should have it if you are accepting money as a business.

Right, and they said it's a business tax on that, and I just come in and report all my income I made for that year and they'll just tax me off that.

But I'll call them right now to see will they still give me the DBA if I can't get a Sales Tax Number since the Department of Revenue does not tax Web Hosting.

I added you to msn also.

I have a home-based office and I also have people work for me online. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything with a DBA. As I said before, a DBA just means "doing business as". If you don't have a LLC or Corporation behind the DBA, then the tax identification number would be your social security number and it would be filed under your personal taxes.

Just go to your County Clerk, it takes 5 minutes to fill out the form and they can answer your questions for you.

Yeah thats what I have scheduled for tomorrow. They said just cross out the Sales Tax Number spot since I don't need it.

Thanks for your help, really appreciate it.

No problem, good luck with your hosting venture.

Your guys are luck, here from FRANCE, we have tons of papers to fill...

You really should go see a CPA.
Usually the cpa will save you way more in taxes then you will pay for their service.

I actually called a CPA and they said they charge $150 a hour. They did give me some useful information over the phone, but they really do not deal with that type of thing (online types of business). So yes, I did take your advice and check with them.

I've been calling all over the place today :)

If the CPA you called doesn't deal with this, then he's an idiot. Find someone else. No offense, but I can't believe you have been calling "all over the place" and there's not one accountant in your area that is competent. Let me know what city/state you're in and I'll find someone. You're frustrating me beyond reason.

--Tina

If the CPA you called doesn't deal with this, then he's an idiot. Find someone else. No offense, but I can't believe you have been calling "all over the place" and there's not one accountant in your area that is competent. Let me know what city/state you're in and I'll find someone. You're frustrating me beyond reason.

--Tina

Thanks for your support, but I wish not to frustrate you. So this topic can be closed now.

Thanks