Hi All,

I've recently started a new business with a partner, business is LLC and we are pretty much all set and good to go. We were looking into also having a dba name for our company.

Every place we've looked we just got something like this:
Pay us $300, we'll file ur dba for u, if its taken… too bad for u.



I doubt that this is the only way to go.. my question is a 2 part question:
1. Is there a way to check for DBA name availability in ny ? (manhattan) and if so how and where ?
2. What's the best way of doing it ? with whom ? any recommendations ?

Thanks a lot,
Tomer

I got a DBA for myself at the County Clerks office. You can check the name availability there. I would bring a list of names you had in mind. Keep in mind also if you have a name that is an acronym each letter has to stand for something. If it doesn't or is a fictious word you have can't use this for your name.

Oh yeh...and it was like 30$

Hope this helps
Justyn

First of all - thank you for the info.

Second, i run a search for "County Clerks office" in ny, and the one i got is listed under "Registring your business" is this the one i need ? cuz all i can see there is info about corping... etc..:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/sbs/nycbiz/html/st...gistering.shtml

Third: $30 ??? u sure ? everywhere i looked i saw something like $150 just state fees..

Tomer,

Keep in mind when you are looking for your answers on the internet. Your going to come up with 1000 sites of people offering a "service" for what you are looking for. Thats why its so expensive.

It cost me 30$ and some change or something around that. Was definatly not 100$ ....thats crazy. All you need to do is go there and fill out some forms. The person beind the counter can instantly check to see if the business name is taken in there computer system. Once its all taken care of they will stamp the back of a form you filled out and sign it. And your good to go. You will receive the EIN info in the mail a few weeks later.

I live in Syracuse, NY. The clerks office was in the court house building.
You live in manhattan? I found this place... probably the one you found.

60 Centre St., Room.103B, New York, NY 10007

Call 646-386-5955 .....and tell them you want to file for a DBA and they should be able to help you. They will probably tell you to come down there to fill out the forms. They should give you the cost over the phone. It might vary from Syracuse's pricing but should be less than having someone do it for you.

Hope this helps
Justyn

My experience is the same as Justyn's. Went down to the county clerks office and filed for a dba. All it cost was the filing fee ($30 sounds about right). I'm confused, though. You've already gotten your LLC, but not your dba? That sounds backwards to me.

Also, a correction to Justyn's post. The IRS gives out EINs, not the county clerks office. Unless the Syracuse county clerk helped Justyn apply for that, but that isn't really commonplace. Getting an EIN is very easy. Call the IRS, answer a few questions and they'll give you one over the phone. But again, you've got an LLC? You should already have an EIN assigned then.

Purple Kitty is correct. I filled for both at the same time. My mistake. I agree with Purple kitty as well on the LLC / DBA ....if you are already an LLC do you really need a DBA. If you are already an LLC you would be Doing Business As the LLC you signed up for.

Well... when we filled for the LLC we had to give few names we would like, surprisingly the short name (the real name we wanted) was taken so our LLC name is kinda long. We want the DBA so we can also do business under our short name, like accepting checks… etc, the DBA really is all the initials of the full name.


As for the EIN we've got this one already.. took maybe 5 minutes to get from the IRS site.

Btw, any chance I can also get a reseller permit at the same office or this is a different story ?

Oh, I see what you mean about the dba. Why would you want to do business under a name other than your LLC which is the legal name of your business? In other words, what are you going to do with the other name?

You mean the thing that allows you to collect sales tax? That's given out at the state level.
http://www.tax.state.ny.us/pdf/2006/fillin...606_fill_in.pdf

Yeh I agree with Purple kitty again. It doesn't make any sense to get a DBA if you already have a Legal LLC name. I may be wrong on this, but if the name you want is already taken as an LLC then it should already be taken as a DBA. Does that sound right Purplekitty? Because if you get a DBA they still are going to check to see if the name is taken. You might want to give the county clerks office a call and see if thats even possible.

Possibly. The dba check is done at the county level I think and the llc check is done at the state level. So you may be able to get a dba in one county and someone else may be able to get the dba in another county, but I don't understand the need for that if one already has a legal name.

BTW, I do business under the name PurpleKittyYarns.com but have never legally obtained a dba for that name. All business related paperwork and financial matters, however, use the name Purple Kitty LLC. So, if you want to use a name on your website that is other than your legal name, you can probably do that (obviously depending on what the name is). I still need to know why another dba would be necessary to offer any other opinion on it.

And I should probably state that I am an accountant, not a lawyer, so take my advice for what it is. Friendly merchant advice from one to another.

Yeh we do the same. We are Syracuse Crank & Machine Inc. although our website is agkits.com

We actually have a website that answers your DBA question step-by-step (with all the county clercks addresses)

http://www.guideye.com/soleproprietorship

http://www.guideye.com/Formingpartnership

Hope this helps

__________________
Guideye.com is an online resource for starting, operating and financing a small business in New York. Visit us at http://www.guideye.com

The idea for the dba we want is pretty simple, other then online services we provide face-to-face services, for some of them we bill and customers rather send us checks then use a credit card.

The LLC name is kinda long, so we want the dba so we'll be able to accept checks under the short name we use when we answer the phone / on the web site... etc.. but after reading everything u wrote i understand that i have no problem answering the phone or using a logo on the web site while not having it as a registered dba.. fine by me.

Thank you guys so much for the info.

About the reseller permit, its exacly what u said, to be able to charge tax for sales within ny and so we can not pay tax when we buy whole sale products.. etc.

As a general rule, I've found that my bank will cash checks and deposit them into my llc account regardless of how the name appears on the check. I have had people make my checks out to PurpleKittyYarns.com and they've been cashed/deposited just fine.

really ?? what if ppl would send u checks for PKY ? would the bank cash it too ?

I'm working with bank of america and they refused depositing one of the checks I got cuz the customer didn’t specify the full company name.. for some reason he wrote 2 out of 3 words.. and gave me this whole bs about if i want to accept the check like this i need to show them that i have a dba for this name.. bla bla bla.......

I know that bank of America is becoming a real pain in the ass for me lately.. every little thing I do takes ages, took me over a month to get a freaking checking card! They blamed it on the mail..

Yeah right, like I don’t get shit from u almost every single day regarding some bs.

Well, no one has written me a check for PKY, but I'm pretty sure they'd cash it.

Sounds like you need a new bank.

The more I think about it, I'm sure they'd cash it. My bank account is in my name with my original dba name which was Purple Kitty Yarns & Needleworks. NO ONE uses that name since that isn't how I refer to my company anymore since I got my LLC. They once cashed a check that was made out to Purple Kitten or Purple Cat or something like that. But, I always go to the same branch and they know who I am, too. You might want to work on a personal relationship with a bank.

I'm working with this bank for over a year now, i think every1 there knows me pretty well and i am very friendly with all of them.. yet this bank is a pain.

I was thinking about changing banks but not sure which one.. any recommendations ?