Where a Kerr County DBA Actually Gets Filed

If you're opening a shop in Kerrville or Ingram under a name that isn't your own legal name (say 'Hill Country Hardware' instead of 'Jane Smith'), that's a DBA, an assumed-name certificate. Where you file it depends entirely on how the business is built. A sole proprietorship, a general partnership, or an estate files with the Kerr County Clerk at 700 Main Street; the fee runs about $29 if the clerk notarizes your signature, $23 if you bring it already notarized. You can start the certificate online at txkerr.fidlar.com, but you still sign in person with photo ID.

An LLC, a corporation, or an LLP does not file with the county at all. Since a 2019 change in the law, those registered entities file their assumed names only with the Texas Secretary of State in Austin, and the old requirement to file in every county where you did business is gone. People trip on this constantly, paying the county for a filing the state won't recognize, or skipping the state filing thinking the county covered it.

Either way, a DBA only registers the name. It doesn't get you a sales-tax permit, a TABC license, a health permit, or anything to do with zoning. Those are separate doors to knock on before you open.