7 items, in order: articles of organization (llc) and the annual registration fee, assumed or fictitious name certificate, employer identification number (ein), business registration: retail sales and use tax, employer withholding, business, professional and occupational license (bpol) and zoning approval and certificate of occupancy, and 1 more.
How to open a business in Virginia
7 licenses, permits and registrations, in the order to get them, each with the agency, the fee and the official page.
What licenses do you need to open a business in Virginia? 7, in the order to get them
These are the steps every business in Virginia takes. A license specific to your kind of business comes from the agency that regulates it; if one of the twenty named businesses is close to yours, its page lists those too.
Every row checked against its agency’s page; the latest on Oct 21, 2026.
Step 1 of 4Set up the business. Now: Articles of organization (LLC) and the annual registration fee
0 of 7 items done. Each step opens when the one before it is complete. Progress stays on this device. Log in to save it to your account and pick it up anywhere.
Set up the business0 of 3
File through the Clerk’s Information System. The articles name a registered agent with a Virginia address. The annual fee is a flat payment, not a report, and a late payment adds a $25 penalty before the LLC is cancelled.
- Fee
- Premium only
- Renewal
- Premium only
- Official page
- scc.virginia.gov
Checked Oct 21, 2026
Register for taxOpens after step 1
Approve the spaceOpens after step 2
Before the first hireOpens after step 3
Then pick the place
- The free location checkWho lives and works around an address, the businesses already there and the traffic on its road, from public records.
- The full reportWhether the rules allow a business at that address, the rent it supports, what has opened and closed nearby, and the questions to settle before signing.
Have an address in mind?
Check the address freeNo account. The business check reads public records at the address itself.
Sources and dates
State Corporation Commission LLC pages and fee schedule (Code of Virginia 13.1-1005); State Corporation Commission fictitious name pages (Code of Virginia 59.1-69); IRS EIN page; Department of Taxation business registration pages (form R-1); Code of Virginia 58.1-3700 and following; locality BPOL ordinances; Department of Housing and Community Development building code pages; locality ordinances; Virginia Employment Commission employer pages; Workers’ Compensation Commission employer information sheet. Fees are as published by each agency on the date checked; cities add their own.