Alberta Sole Proprietorships are governed by the Partnership Act (Alberta). An Alberta Sole Proprietorship is sometimes called an Alberta Trade Name.
Buy NowStatute Requirements for Registering an Alberta Sole Proprietorship
The statute says that each person who:
(1) is engaged in business for trading, manufacturing, contracting or mining purposes,
(2) is not associated in partnership with any other person or persons and uses as the person’s business name some name or designation other than the person’s own, or the person’s own name with the addition of “and company” or some other word or phrase indicating a plurality of members in a firm
shall file with the Alberta Registrar a declaration in writing of the fact.
This means if you are using a name other than your own and you are not in partnership with anyone else, you must register a Declaration of Trade Name in order to carry on business in Alberta as a sole proprietorship.
A Declaration of Trade Name for a sole proprietorship must be filed within six months of commencing business under a name other than your own.
Is an Alberta Nuans Name Search Required to Register an Alberta Sole Proprietorship
You are not required to provide a Nuans name search report to register an Alberta Sole Proprietorship. The Partnership Act (Alberta) has no requirement for a trade/partnership name to be unique. Any company, sole proprietorship or partnership can register the same business name at the same time in Alberta. This does not mean that you should just go ahead and register any name you wish. It is important that you make all attempts to have a distinct name that is very different from all names out there. The best way to ensure this is to do a preliminary name search before you register your sole proprietorship. If you just wish to find out if your name is available you can purchase a preliminary name search however if you purchase a sole proprietorship registration from us we will check as many names as you wish for free.
Just to clarify, Alberta company names are unique and no one can register a company with the exact same name as another company. It is only where a company carries on business under a business name that there is no protection for the name. Partnership names, business names and sole proprietorship names are not protected in Alberta.
How to Register an Alberta Sole Proprietorship
The information you will need to provide to the provider is your full name, your residence address, a description of the business you will be conducting, the city in which the business will be conducted, the name of the business, the date of the business first commenced, your occupation and a form of identification. You will be required to provide a driver’s licence no., a birth certificate no., a passport no. or a health card no. The form does not have to be originally signed. The identification provides the government with your true identity.
The form is called a Declaration of Trade Name pursuant to the Partnership Act (Alberta).
How to Maintain an Alberta Sole Proprietorship
If the residential address of the sole proprietor changes the sole proprietor has 30 days in which to change his address. He or she must file an Alberta Declaration of Address Change showing the new address.
How to Dissolve an Alberta Sole Proprietorship
If you wish to terminate your Alberta sole proprietorship, you must file a Declaration of Ceasing to Carry on Business under a Trade Name.
Changing the Name of an Alberta Sole Proprietorship
You cannot change the name of a sole proprietorship. If you wish you can dissolve an existing sole proprietorship and register a new Alberta sole proprietorship under the new name. You would transfer the assets from one to the other. However, it is not considered a name change. You would be registering a new Alberta sole proprietorship.
Federal Business Number for a Sole Proprietorship
Sole proprietorships are issued Federal Business Numbers by the federal government. The numbers have extension numbers on them for adding the GST number, Import / Export number and the Payroll number. If you do not have employees you do not need the payroll number. If you do not import / export then you do not need that number. If you are not making more than $30,000 you do not require a GST number although you can register voluntarily.
If you own more than one Alberta sole proprietorship the federal government will issue you one Business Number for both proprietorships. All you need to do is let the government know about any additional proprietorships that you register. If you wish you can have a separate GST extension number, separate Payroll extension number and/or a separate import / export extension number for each sole proprietorship so you can track these items separately for both businesses. You might have one number for one and not for the other. You can track GST for both sole proprietorships under one GST extension number if you wish. You just need to provide the federal government with this information. For instance you might want to track GST separately for both proprietorships so you would have a separate number for each.
Order an Alberta sole proprietorship and Federal Business Number (including GST number, payroll number or import/export number if needed and an unlimited number of preliminary name searches until you find the right name.
Registering in Another Province
Every province and territory has its own statute that governs carrying on business in that province. You need to review that statute to see what that province or territory has defined as carrying on business. If you are conducting that type of business then you must register. It is a good idea to get advice from a solicitor about this since sometimes it might appear as if you need to be registered but you actually may not need to. If your conducting business in a number of provinces and territories it can become extremely expensive to register and maintain those registrations so you want to know in advance whether it is absolutely necessary.
Do You Have Further Questions
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