Can I use a virtual address for a DBA in Texas?

Not in place of your home address if you are a sole proprietor. Texas Bus. & Com. Code 71.052 requires an individual’s certificate to state the owner’s residence address. An LLC’s assumed name certificate is different: it goes to the Secretary of State and lists the LLC’s principal office, which may be a street or mailing address.

Is a Texas DBA public record?

The county clerk keeps an alphabetical index of the assumed names filed in the county and of the people who filed them (Section 71.154), and a certified copy of a certificate is presumptive evidence of its contents in a Texas court. Treat the name and address on a sole proprietor’s certificate as information that other people can find.

Do I need a DBA in Texas if I use my own name?

Not if the business name includes your surname and doesn’t suggest other owners. “Rivera Photography” is not an assumed name for an individual under Section 71.002, so no certificate is required. A name like “Rivera & Associates” or “Rivera Company” needs one.

Where do I file a DBA in Texas as a sole proprietor?

With the county clerk in each county where you keep business premises. If you have no premises, you file in each county where you do business (Section 71.054). LLCs and corporations file with the Texas Secretary of State instead.

What happens if I move after filing a Texas DBA?

A change in your location makes the certificate materially misleading, and you have 60 days to file a new certificate in the office where the original was filed (Section 71.152). The new certificate carries your new address.

Does an LLC’s DBA in Texas show the owner’s home address?

No. An LLC’s assumed name certificate, filed on Form 503, states the LLC’s name, where it was formed, the period of use, its entity type, the street or mailing address of its principal office, and the counties where it will use the name (Section 71.102). It doesn’t ask for owners’ addresses.

Texas DBA and Your Home Address: What a Sole Proprietor’s Certificate Must Show

Short answer

If you do business in Texas as a sole proprietor under a name that doesn’t include your surname, or that suggests other owners, you file an assumed name certificate with the county clerk, and Texas law requires it to state your full name and residence address (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code 71.052). A business address or a virtual office can’t go in that line, because the statute asks where you live. The clerk indexes the certificate. There are two lawful ways to keep your home address off it: do business under a name that includes your surname and doesn’t suggest other owners (no “& Associates” or “Company”), which is not an assumed name under the statute, or form an entity such as an LLC, whose assumed name certificate goes to the Secretary of State and asks for the LLC’s principal office, not anyone’s home address. A general partnership doesn’t help, because its certificate lists each individual partner’s residence address.

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Key takeaways

A Texas sole proprietor’s assumed name certificate must state the owner’s full name and residence address. It is filed with the county clerk in each county where you keep business premises or, if you have none, where you do business.
The statute defines an address as a post office address plus a street address if the two differ, so a P.O. Box alone doesn’t satisfy the residence line.
A name that includes your surname, such as “Rivera Photography,” is not an assumed name for an individual, so no certificate is required. Words like “& Associates” or “Company” change that.
An LLC files its assumed name certificate with the Secretary of State on Form 503, and that certificate asks for the LLC’s principal office, not owners’ home addresses.
Moving triggers a new certificate within 60 days, so your next home address goes on file as well.

What the certificate has to say

Texas calls a DBA an assumed name, and the rules sit in Chapter 71 of the Business and Commerce Code. Anyone doing business in Texas under an assumed name who isn’t an LLC, corporation, or other registered entity files a certificate under Section 71.051, which covers sole proprietors and general partnerships.

The contents are set by Section 71.052. For an individual, the certificate must state the assumed name and “the individual’s full name and residence address.” It also states how long you’ll use the name, up to 10 years, and that the business is a proprietorship or another unincorporated form. There is no separate slot in the statute that lets a business address replace the residence address.

Section 71.002 then defines “address” as a post office address and a street address, if the street address is not the same as the post office address. Read together, the residence line asks where you live, and a P.O. Box by itself doesn’t answer it.

Where it gets filed, and who can see it

A sole proprietor files with the county clerk in each county where the business keeps premises, or, if it has no premises, in each county where it does business (Section 71.054). A photographer with a studio in Travis County files in Travis County. A contractor who doesn’t maintain business premises anywhere and works jobs in three counties files in all three.

Each county clerk keeps an alphabetical index of the assumed names filed with it and of the people who filed them (Section 71.154). Whether the index can be searched online depends on the county. Once your certificate is in the index, your name and the address on it are part of a county record, and a certified copy counts as presumptive evidence of those facts in a Texas court.

Who is filing	Where	What the statute asks for
Sole proprietor	County clerk, in each county under Section 71.054	The owner’s full name and residence address (71.052)
General partnership	County clerk, in each county under Section 71.054	The partnership’s office address, plus each individual general partner’s residence address (71.052)
LLC, corporation, or limited partnership	Texas Secretary of State, on Form 503 (71.103)	The street or mailing address of the entity’s principal office (71.102). No owner addresses

Texas Business and Commerce Code Chapter 71, read September 26, 2026.

Two lawful ways to keep your home address off the certificate

The question people usually bring to this is how to register a DBA without their house showing up on it. As a sole proprietor, you can’t do that on the certificate itself. You can change whether you need the certificate, or who files it.

Use a name that includes your surname. For an individual, an assumed name is a name that does not include the individual’s surname (Section 71.002). “Rivera Photography” includes the surname, so it is not an assumed name and no certificate is required. The exception is a name that suggests other owners, with words such as “Company,” “& Associates,” “& Sons,” or “Brothers.” “Rivera & Associates” needs a certificate.
Form an LLC and let it file. An LLC that uses a name other than its legal name files its assumed name certificate with the Secretary of State on Form 503 (Section 71.103). That certificate asks for the LLC’s principal office, and the statute accepts a street or mailing address (Section 71.102). The LLC’s own formation and annual filings ask for other addresses, which we cover in our guide to the Texas Public Information Report and address privacy. A corporation or limited partnership files the same way. Our guide to converting a sole proprietorship to an LLC covers the switch itself.

Bringing in a partner doesn’t solve it. A general partnership files at the county too, and its certificate lists the partnership’s office address plus each individual general partner’s residence address.

Don’t put a business address in the residence line

Section 71.203 makes it an offense to knowingly present a certificate under Chapter 71 that contains a material false statement, punishable as tampering with a governmental record. As we read it, knowingly listing a virtual office or mail drop as the place you live is the kind of material false statement that section describes.

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Skipping the filing isn’t a way around it

Not filing doesn’t void your contracts, but it has consequences. Under Section 71.201, you can’t bring a lawsuit in a Texas court arising out of a contract or act where you used the assumed name until the certificate is filed, and a court can make you pay the other side’s costs of locating and serving you. Under Section 71.202, doing business under an assumed name while intentionally violating the chapter is a Class A misdemeanor.

What happens to the address after you file

The address doesn’t get filed once and then fade. Three later events can put an address back in front of the clerk, and for a sole proprietor that is usually your residence:

You move. A change in the registrant’s location is one of the events that make a certificate materially misleading, and you have 60 days to file a new certificate (Section 71.152). The new certificate carries the new address.
You stop using the name. A statement of abandonment is optional, but if you file one, it states your name and your residence or office address (Section 71.153).
You renew. A certificate lasts up to 10 years, and a new certificate carries a current address.

If you already filed a sole proprietor’s certificate with your home address and later move the business into an LLC, the LLC files its own Form 503 with the Secretary of State. The old county filing is still a record the clerk has already indexed. Filing a statement of abandonment tells the county you’ve stopped using the name, but it doesn’t erase the original certificate.

Not legal advice

This guide summarizes Texas Business and Commerce Code Chapter 71 as read on September 26, 2026. County clerks use their own forms and fees, so check your county clerk’s current form before filing, and talk to a Texas lawyer if your situation involves a partnership or several counties.

Where a business address does fit

A business address has a place in this picture, just not on a sole proprietor’s residence line. It can be the mailing address given for the principal office on an LLC’s Form 503, the address on your invoices and website, and the mailing address you give customers. Our state-by-state DBA comparison shows how California, New York, Florida, and Delaware handle their DBA filings. Before you put any address on a form, you can check how it is classified with our free address checker.