How do you set up a company in Virginia.
To register a company in Virginia, you file formation documents with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, then register with the state as an employer when you start paying people. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) can form the company and keep it running, and Teamed's EOR can employ your first people while you wait. For companies deciding whether to form an entity in Virginia, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed’s AI agent, Ted, answers questions from your live employment data, and you get 24/5 human support with a first response within 15 minutes and service terms adjusted to suit you, within reason.
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At a glance
Virginia entity setup, the short version
Forming a Virginia entity means registering with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, paying a formation fee, and then filing corporate income tax once the business earns Virginia-sourced income. Teamed can hire your first Virginia employees under its existing entity while you weigh whether standing up your own makes sense yet.
- Corporate income tax
- 6.0%
- Formation / registration fee
- $100
The registration process
What forming an entity in Virginia actually involves
Setting up a legal entity in Virginia starts with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which handles formation for corporations and LLCs alike. You file articles of incorporation or organization, name a registered agent with a Virginia address, and pay the state's formation fee of $100. Once approved, the entity exists on paper, but that is only the start of the operational build. We could not read the state's own page directly for the $100 formation fee, so we are waiting on direct confirmation from the Virginia State Corporation Commission before we treat it as settled.
After formation, you still need a federal EIN, a Virginia withholding tax account, unemployment insurance registration, and payroll infrastructure that can run compliant Virginia payroll from day one. Most of the real work, and the real risk, sits in that operational layer rather than the initial filing itself. Teams that underestimate this step often lose weeks they didn't plan to spend.
Tax exposure
Corporate tax once the entity is live
A Virginia entity earning Virginia-sourced income owes corporate income tax at 6.0%, assessed by the Virginia Department of Taxation. That rate applies on top of any federal corporate tax obligation, and it kicks in regardless of how small the local team is. If you are only testing the Virginia market with a handful of hires, that tax exposure arrives well before the entity pays for itself.
This is the calculation worth doing early: does the commercial upside of a Virginia presence outweigh the ongoing compliance and tax overhead of maintaining one? For a lot of companies in growth mode, the honest answer is not yet.
Timing
How long the process realistically takes
Virginia's registration process itself is not the bottleneck for most companies; it is everything downstream, tax registrations, payroll setup, benefits administration, that stretches the timeline. Plan for a multi-week build rather than a same-week launch if you're doing this without outside help.
Teamed's EOR route sidesteps that build entirely for your first hires, letting you have someone legally employed in Virginia while the entity question is still open.
Already have a company elsewhere
Registering an out-of-state or foreign company in Virginia
A company formed in another state or another country does not need a second company to hire in Virginia. It registers with the Virginia State Corporation Commission as a foreign company before it starts doing business there, a step usually called foreign qualification.
Virginia law sets the test for what counts as doing business in the state, and putting employees to work there on a regular basis will usually meet it. States give the filing different names, among them a certificate of authority and an application for registration.
In Virginia, the filing is an Application for a Certificate of Authority to Transact Business in Virginia. The Virginia State Corporation Commission charges a corporation from $75 to file it, rising with the number of shares the corporation is authorised to issue, according to Virginia law. It does not cover the cost of a registered agent, or of a certificate of good standing from your home state if one is needed. An LLC formed elsewhere goes through a similar filing, and its fee can be different.
Foreign qualification does not make you an employer in the state. That is a separate registration with the state tax and unemployment insurance agencies, due by the state's own deadline, which usually falls at or soon after your first payroll there.
Your options
Who can set it up for you
You can register a company in Virginia yourself or pay someone to do it, and the right choice turns on whether the company will employ people there.
You can file the formation documents yourself with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. That suits a founder with no staff and the time to work through the forms.
A formation agent will handle the company formation quickly and cheaply. That suits a company that will have no employees.
A law firm or corporate-services firm suits complex group structures and tax planning, such as setting up a subsidiary inside a wider group, where the advice matters more than the filing.
For companies that will employ people in Virginia, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed gives you real HR and legal experts you can reach when it matters, a designated person who has done this before and one system from your first EOR hire to your own entity. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) sets up and manages entities in 100+ countries, and moves your people across from its EOR when you're ready. Teamed already owns an entity in the United States.
If you are a solo founder with no staff, you do not need Teamed for this. The registry or a formation agent is the cheaper route.
Before you commit
Sometimes an employer of record is the better fit
An employer of record is sometimes the better answer, not a lesser one, especially for a small or still-changing Virginia headcount, or while you're testing the market before committing capital to an entity. Talk to a member of the team about your specific plans, and if you want the numbers side by side, run the crossover calculator.
Contractors, employer of record and your own entity all run on one platform at Teamed, so moving between them later does not mean changing provider or re-onboarding anybody. Real HR and legal experts handle the work rather than a ticket queue.
Talk to a member of the team and we will tell you plainly which one suits where you are. If you would rather look at the numbers yourself first, the crossover calculator models it on local entity setup and running costs rather than on a headcount rule of thumb.
Who carries it
Your own entity, when it's time. We set it up, move your people across, and keep it running.
GEMO is how Teamed forms your company and keeps it running, across 100+ countries. You stay the employer. We do the work behind it.
In Virginia, GEMO covers incorporation, registrations, payroll-readiness and ongoing governance. You end up owning a clean, fully operational Virginia entity, not a shell you have to finish setting up yourself.
They set up our EU entity and moved hires across without missing a payroll.
Questions
Virginia entity setup, answered
How much does it cost to register a company in Virginia?
The Virginia State Corporation Commission charges $100 to file articles of organization for an LLC. A corporation pays a $25 filing fee plus a charter fee from $50. That covers the filing itself; ongoing costs like registered agent service, payroll setup, and tax compliance come on top of it.
What is Virginia's corporate income tax rate?
Virginia's corporate income tax rate is 6.0%, according to the Virginia Department of Taxation. It applies to income sourced to Virginia once your entity is generating revenue there.
Can I hire in Virginia without setting up an entity there?
Yes. An employer of record like Teamed can employ your Virginia-based team under its existing entity, so you can hire compliantly without filing anything with the Virginia State Corporation Commission yourself.
When does it make sense to set up my own Virginia entity instead of using an EOR?
It depends on your headcount, the entity costs, and how long you plan to keep a presence there, not on a fixed employee count. The crossover calculator walks through that math using your actual numbers rather than a rule of thumb.
Does Teamed help transition from EOR to our own Virginia entity?
Yes. Teamed's GEMO service sets up the Virginia entity, registers it with the relevant tax and payroll bodies, and migrates your employees over intact when you're ready to own the entity directly.
Where these figures come from
Sources
Figures on this page come from the Virginia Department of Taxation and the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
Looking for a job in Virginia yourself? Teamed does not hire people directly. Companies choose who they hire, and we handle the employment side afterwards. Here is why we cannot help with your search.
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