Business filing services in Irvine, California

Irvine businesses skew professional — consultancies, software and technology companies, medical and dental practices, e-commerce operations run out of the Spectrum-area office parks. Two questions come up here more than anywhere else in Orange County: whether to form a corporation instead of an LLC, and whether to elect S-Corporation tax treatment.

Both are worth taking seriously. A corporation makes sense when you are issuing stock to partners or investors; the S-Corp election can change the self-employment tax picture once your profit reaches a certain level. We prepare either one, and we will tell you to run the numbers with a CPA before you commit, because whether the election helps depends entirely on your figures.

What a Irvine business usually needs

• A City of Irvine business license — nearly every city in Orange County requires one, including for home-based businesses
• A California entity (LLC or corporation) or a fictitious business name, depending on how you are set up
• A federal EIN — required for a business bank account, employees and most license applications
• A fictitious business name statement filed with the Orange County Clerk-Recorder, plus the four weeks of newspaper publication California requires
• A California seller's permit through the CDTFA if you sell tangible goods
• An Orange County health permit if you prepare, serve or sell food

Filing a DBA from Irvine

Orange County fictitious business name statements are filed with the Orange County Clerk-Recorder in Santa Ana — a few blocks from our office. That is the first half of the job.

The second half is the part most people miss. California requires the statement to be published once a week for four consecutive weeks in an adjudicated newspaper of general circulation in Orange County, within 30 days of filing, with a proof of publication filed back with the county afterward. Skip it and the registration is never properly complete. We arrange the publication and file the proof as part of the same job.

Working with us from Irvine

Irvine is about eight miles from our Santa Ana office, straight up the 55 or Main Street. Many Irvine clients never come in at all and handle the whole filing by email — that works fine too.