RE: New small business question

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http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=216449#216449
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I'm in Texas as well.  Not sure where abouts you are but here are the steps apart from actually getting the domain (which you should do quickly) and finding your hosting provider.

If you are in Austin, it's easy.  You go to the SOS (secretary of state, not save our springs) office across the street from the capitol and file for a business.  You can easily get started with an LLC, which is what you will want to do, for $300.  If you want to expidite it, that will be an extra $25 bucks.  That buys you lots of time.  Instead of waiting 3-5 weeks for processing, it's done within two days.

Once you are filed and secured there, you need to go to the Comptroller's office on 6th street next to Ruth Chris.  You present your tax ID, and then they convert it to a state tax ID.  The FEIN (federal employee ident. number) is changed from 9 digits to 11, by adding a '1' at the beginning of your Texas EIN and a check digit which will be anywhere between 0-9 at the end.  So, disregard the technicalities.  But they'll explain everything about paying taxes, and how to schedule them as well - quarterly/yearly/monthly, etc.  They do have help, workshops and you can make payments online.

Any expense that you go through that you might think you can write off beforehand, well... that's tricky.  Just play it careful there and don't think you can write off the world BEFORE you get the business going with the state.  Otherwise, you'll end up with that out of your pocket and not as a write off at all.

Let me know if you have any questions.