Does Tennessee recognize spousal sole proprietorships? Thank you.

Not to my knowledge.

What's a "spousal sole proprietorship"?

Supposedly there are states that will recognize both the husband and the wife as the sole proprietor. I've not worked in one of those states. A sole proprietorship is only one person doing business as, thus the word "sole", but I have heard of married couples claiming that both are the sole proprietor, just becasue they are married.

That is what I thought. It would be a general partnership in TN.

See page 7:

http://www.tn.gov/ecd/bero/pdf/SGB_smart_guide2011.pdf

We have this situation come up a lot in Tennessee.

Part of the problem lies with the local governments and offices. Business licenses for sole proprietorships are commonly issued with husband and wife names on them.

Another problem source are CPAs.

We have CPAs who set up husbands and wives to file their taxes as Qualified Joint Venture Sole Proprietorships. Ugh!


It can be a battle, but we refer people to the guide that rlcarey references above (which is a life saver) and only permit one person to open a sole proprietorship account.


Election for Husband and Wife Unincorporated Businesses

Can a Husband and Wife Operate a Business as a Sole Prop...

Thanks everyone. This was very helpful information.