How do you set upa company in Virginia.
Teamed hires your Virginia team under its own entity today, so you skip incorporation and back-office setup while you decide if forming one makes sense.
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.
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.
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 salaries and employer costs rather than on a headcount rule of thumb.
Who carries it
Your own entity, when it's time. We set it up, migrate you in, and hand it back intact.
Global Entity and Employment Operations, which we call GEMO, is how Teamed forms your company, registers it for tax and payroll, runs it month to month and keeps its filings current, across 100+ countries. You stay the employer. We do the work behind it.
For Virginia specifically, that means Teamed handles the Corporation Commission filing, the tax registrations, and the payroll build, then transfers your employees from Teamed's EOR contracts to your own entity's contracts without a gap in employment or benefits. 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 a formation fee of $100 to register a corporation or LLC. 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, salary levels, 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.
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