How do you set up a company in West Virginia.

Forming a company in West Virginia means filing with the Secretary of State and paying a formation fee of $100. Once running, the entity pays a corporate income tax of 6.5% on net income earned in the state. Neither figure changes based on company size, so a one-person operation faces the same filing step as a larger team.

Setting up a company in West Virginia starts with choosing an entity type and filing formation documents with the West Virginia Secretary of State. The state charges a formation and registration fee of $100 for this filing. You will also need a registered agent with a physical address in the state, since West Virginia requires one for service of process and official correspondence.

Once the entity exists on paper, you still need to open a business bank account, register for state tax accounts, and set up payroll withholding before you can legally pay anyone. Each of these steps takes time and paperwork, and none of them happen automatically just because the Secretary of State approved your filing.

West Virginia taxes corporate net income at 6.5%, and that applies to income the company earns within the state. You'll file a corporate income tax return annually, and you'll need proper bookkeeping in place to calculate what's owed correctly.

Beyond tax filings, an active West Virginia entity carries ongoing compliance work, things like maintaining a registered agent, keeping corporate records current, and staying on top of any state-level renewal requirements. This is the part employers underestimate when they first form an entity just to hire one or two people.

An employer of record is sometimes the better answer, not a lesser one, especially for a small or still-changing team, or when you're testing whether West Virginia is even the right market for you. Talk to a member of the team before you file anything, and if you want to see the numbers side by side, run them through the crossover calculator. Whether an entity or an EOR makes more sense depends on your headcount, your salaries, and how long you plan to stay, not on a fixed rule.

When you're ready to move from an EOR arrangement to your own legal presence, Teamed's GEMO service handles the setup itself. It sets up the entity, manages it and moves your West Virginia team across from Teamed's EOR.

A company formed in another state or another country does not need a second company to hire in West Virginia. It registers with the West Virginia Secretary of State as a foreign company before it starts doing business there, a step usually called foreign qualification.

West 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 West Virginia, the filing is an Application for Certificate of Authority. The West Virginia Secretary of State charges a corporation $100 to file it, according to its published fees. 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.

There are four routes to a company in West Virginia, and which one fits depends on whether it will have employees.

You can file the formation documents yourself with the West Virginia Secretary of State. That suits a founder with no staff and the time to work through the forms.

A formation agent is the quick, cheap way to get the company registered. It suits a company that will not employ anyone.

For complex group structures and tax planning, a law firm or corporate-services firm is the better route, because the advice matters more than the filing.

For companies that will employ people in West Virginia, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed clients get real HR and legal experts you can reach when it matters, a designated person who has done this before and Ted, Teamed's AI agent, to answer questions from your live employment data. 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 nobody will work for the company yet, go to the registry or a formation agent. It will cost you less than we would.

These figures are drawn from the West Virginia Tax Division's CIT-120 corporate net income tax instructions and the West Virginia Secretary of State.