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Indiana's online front door is INBiz, the Secretary of State's business portal. The portal lays out a two step path, and the second step is where most tax and payroll setup happens. If your trade needs a license, that sits with a separate agency.
What are the two steps?
Step one is filing with the Secretary of State. For an LLC that means articles of organization, covered on the Indiana LLC page. The statutory fee is $75 online or $100 on paper.
Step two is registering with the Department of Revenue and the Department of Workforce Development. INBiz says you can do it once you have an INBiz account and a Secretary of State filing, "if necessary." It also says that the state and local municipalities have different resources and filing requirements, depending on the business type.
Which tax accounts does the Department of Revenue set up?
The INBiz page says you will likely need to register with the Department, which administers sales and withholding taxes. With INBiz you can manage those two taxes plus food and beverage taxes, county innkeeper's tax, tire and safety fees and other business taxes. You will usually need a federal EIN for the application. Our EIN guide shows how to get one.
The Department's business tax page adds two rules to know before your first filing. All businesses must file and pay sales and withholding taxes electronically. And a registered business that had no revenue or activity must still file a $0 return, or face a penalty of up to 20 percent with a $5 minimum on late returns. That page was saved earlier than our other sources, so confirm the current wording on the live page. The menu also lists a Register a Business item, a New and Small Business Center and a Business Owner's Guide.
What about employees?
Skip this part if you work alone and hire no one. INBiz sends you to the Department of Workforce Development when you have employees, even temporary ones. That department handles employee reporting, new hire reporting, unemployment insurance and wage reporting. You register through the same INBiz account, using the Register Now or Login buttons on the step two page.
Where do trade and professional licenses come from?
The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency runs them. Its home page has links to apply, renew and verify a license. The pages we read give no fee table, so we quote no amounts. Check the page for your profession.
To check a license, use the state's web lookup and verification. You can search by profession, with choices such as accountancy, cosmetology and barber, plumbing and real estate. The page says to enter whatever data you have, and that a star after partial data works as a wildcard. The Department of Revenue site also lists a Tax-Delinquent Businesses Look-Up under its online services, which we did not run.
How do I keep the company in good standing?
File the Business Entity Report every other year. The fee is $32 on INBiz or $50 by paper. There is no late fee, but a company that ignores notices can be dissolved. This is an entity duty, not a license. Our Indiana business search guide explains how to read the record.
What is not on this page?
County and city permits, local taxes and the cost of any trade license are outside it, because we did not read those pages. A trade name filing has its own rules, covered in the Indiana DBA section. Compare Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky if you work across state lines. This is general information, not legal advice.