Doing business as in Arizona means filing a trade name with the Arizona Secretary of State. The filing costs $10, takes about three weeks to process, and lasts five years. Arizona doesn’t legally require you to register a trade name, but doing so creates a public record of the name and is usually necessary for practical steps like opening a business bank account or getting a local license.
Who Actually Needs to File
Whether you need a trade name depends on the name you want to use in public, not on the fact that you have a business.
Sole proprietors and general partnerships don’t register anything with the state when they start up. If you operate under your full legal name, or the partners’ full legal names, no filing is needed. If you want to use anything else, a trade name filing with the Secretary of State puts that name on record.
LLCs, corporations, and limited partnerships already registered their formal legal name with the Arizona Corporation Commission when they formed.1Arizona Corporation Commission. 10 Steps to Starting a Business in Arizona If one of these entities wants to operate publicly under a different name, it files a trade name too.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 44-1460 – Registration of Trade Name, Title or Designation The trade name doesn’t replace the formation paperwork; it sits on top of it.
Some Arizona cities and counties impose their own business licensing on top of any state filing, so a trade name registration alone may not be enough for your locality.
What Registering a Trade Name Does and Doesn’t Do
This is where most people get the wrong idea. Filing a trade name does not give you exclusive ownership of the name. The Secretary of State’s office states that registering a name “does not grant rights or interests in that name” and cannot guarantee your chosen name won’t conflict with someone else’s.3Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Name and Trademark Handbook
What it does do is narrower. The Secretary of State will refuse to file any trade name that isn’t distinguishable from names already on record with that office or from corporate names on file with the Corporation Commission.4Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 44-1460.01 – Issuance of Certificate; Restrictions So you get a first-in-time advantage on the Secretary of State’s own record, not a trademark-style monopoly. If you want stronger name protection, a trademark is the separate tool for that.
Searching the Name Before You File
Search the Secretary of State’s online database first. It cross-references trade names on file with the Secretary of State and entity names registered with the Corporation Commission. The office “strongly suggests that customers perform extensive, independent research before registering a trade name,” which in practice means also checking federal trademark records and doing a general web search for similar Arizona businesses.5Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Names and Trademarks
A few naming rules matter before you settle on anything:
- You can’t include corporate designators like “LLC,” “Inc.,” “Corp.,” “Ltd.,” or “Limited Partnership” unless your business is actually that type of entity with the Corporation Commission.
- The name can’t falsely imply a connection to a federal, state, or local government body.
- The name has to be distinguishable from every trade name already on file with the Secretary of State and every entity name on file with the Corporation Commission.
Endings like “Company” or “Incorporated” are ignored when the office decides whether two names are distinguishable, so tacking “Co.” onto an otherwise identical name won’t get it through.3Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Name and Trademark Handbook
How to File and What It Costs
The application is best submitted online through the Secretary of State’s website. It asks for the proposed trade name, the legal name of the owner (individual or entity), the business address, a description of your business and its goods or services, how long you’ve used the name in Arizona, and a statement that you’ve searched and found the name distinguishable from existing filings.2Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 44-1460 – Registration of Trade Name, Title or Designation
The filing fee is $10. Expedited processing costs an additional $25.3Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Name and Trademark Handbook Electronic filings satisfy signature and verification requirements the same way paper filings do. If you mail in a paper application, it doesn’t need to be notarized. Notarization is only required for cancellations and assignments.
Standard applications take up to three weeks to review.6Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Name and Trademark Popular Questions The $25 expedited option speeds that up, though the office doesn’t publish a guaranteed turnaround. Once approved, you get a Certificate of Registration listing your business name, address, the trade name, the date you first used it, and the registration date. The registration lasts five years from when the Secretary of State receives the application.5Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Names and Trademarks
Renewing, Amending, and Canceling
Renewal
Your trade name expires five years after the Secretary of State receives it. You have a six-month window before expiration to renew. Miss it and the name drops off the record; anyone else can then register it.5Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Names and Trademarks The owner name on the renewal has to exactly match what the office has on file. You cannot change the owner through a renewal; a mismatched renewal will be returned.
Amendments
If your address, phone number, email, business description, or legal name (sole proprietors only) changes, you can file a Trade Name Amendment for $3.3Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Name and Trademark Handbook An amendment can’t change the trade name itself and can’t transfer ownership to a different person or entity.
Cancellations and Assignments
Canceling a trade name or transferring it to a new owner requires a paper filing. Print, sign, date, and notarize the document, then mail it to the Secretary of State at 1700 W. Washington St., Floor 7, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2808. There is no online option for these.6Arizona Secretary of State. Trade Name and Trademark Popular Questions
What a Trade Name Filing Does Not Cover
A trade name is a name filing, nothing else. Two things it does not handle:
EIN. You don’t need a new Employer Identification Number because you filed a trade name. The IRS says changing your business name does not require a new EIN, whether you’re a sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, or corporation.7Internal Revenue Service. When to Get a New EIN Keep your existing EIN and use the trade name for public-facing operations.
Transaction Privilege Tax license. If your business sells products or provides taxable services in Arizona, you separately need a TPT license from the Arizona Department of Revenue. The TPT is often called a sales tax but is technically a tax on the business for the privilege of operating in the state.8Arizona Department of Revenue. Transaction Privilege Tax The state license is $12 per location, and cities may require their own TPT license on top of it. Registration goes through AZTaxes.gov.