Alabama

An individual Alabama resident, or a domestic entityDomestic / foreignRelative to one state's records: an entity is domestic in the state that formed it and foreign everywhere else it registers to do business.Read the full entry → or foreign entity registered to transact business in Alabama, may serve. The agent must maintain a business office at the same street address as the registered office, and (per Act 2026-495, effective 2026-08-01) may not perform its duties solely through a virtual office or a mail forwarding service. The registered office must be an in-state street address where the agent can be personally served and may not be solely a mailbox service or telephone answering service.

Consent required: no.

If an entity fails to designate and maintain a registered agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the entity may be served under the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure. Alabama has no Secretary-of-State-as-agent mechanism for registered entities; the fallback is the civil procedure rules (and 10A-1-5.36 makes the statutory methods non-exclusive).

• Revocation Foreign. The Secretary of State may revoke a foreign entity's registration if it is without a registered agent or registered office for 60 days or more, or fails to file a statement of change within 60 days; authority to transact business ceases on the date shown on the certificate of revocation (10A-1-7.13(c)).
• No Court Access. A foreign filing entity that fails to register (the same sentence pairs this with failure to appoint and maintain a registered agent) cannot maintain any action or proceeding in Alabama courts until it registers; validity of contracts and the right to defend are unaffected.

Filing officeFiling officeThe agency that keeps the business register.Read the full entry →

Alabama Secretary of State - Lands and Trademarks Division (trade nameDBA / fictitious nameA name a business operates under that is not its legal name - 'doing business as.' Also: assumed name, trade name, fictitious business name.Read the full entry → registration, administered like a mark)

State fee

$30 registration fee per name per class (Application to Register or Renew Trademark, Service Mark or Trade Name, form LAT-1; additional $30 per extra class)

Term

5 years

Renewal

Renewable for successive 5-year periods; renewal application may be filed up to 6 months before expiration with 1 specimen; renewal fee $30 per the LAT application fee (registration instructions state $30 filing fee; confirm renewal amount with SOS at 334-242-5325)

Publication

Not required. None

Online filing

Available

The regime

Alabama has no mandatory statewide DBA/assumed-name filing act in the captured corpus. What exists is a voluntary registration system: a 'trade name' is a species of 'mark' under the trademark article, and any person who adopts and uses one may (not must) register it with the Secretary of State.

Where it is filed

Voluntary trade-name (mark) registrations are filed in the office of the Secretary of State, which keeps a public record of registered and renewed marks.

Publication

No newspaper-publication requirementPublication requirementA few states require newly formed or registered entities to publish a notice in designated newspapers (New York's LLC publication is the expensive example) - a real cost of formation that fee tables usually omit.Read the full entry → appears in the general mark/trade-name registration article. (A separate, industry-specific publication rule in § 8-12-20 applies only to bottlers' names and marks on beverage containers.)

Term and renewal

Five years from the date of registration, renewable for successive five-year terms.

Name restrictions

A mark (including a trade name) cannot be registered if it is immoral, deceptive, or scandalous; disparaging; consists of government insignia; uses a living person's name or portrait without consent; is merely descriptive, geographically misdescriptive, or primarily a surname (absent acquired distinctiveness); or is confusingly similar to a mark registered or previously used in Alabama and not abandoned.

Assumed names for registered entities

Under the Alabama Business and Nonprofit Entities Code, a foreign entity whose name does not satisfy the Article 5 name requirements may, among listed cures (adding an entity designator), adopt a fictitious name for use in Alabama by filing a certified resolution of its governing authority with the Secretary of State. A fictitious name for a foreign entity whose name is unavailable may also be reserved.

Penalties

There is no penalty for not registering (registration is voluntary), but a person who procures a filing or registration by false or fraudulent representation is liable for all damages sustained in consequence.

Official source

www.sos.alabama.gov/administrative-services/trademarks↗ (opens the official source)

What it is called

not captured

Administering agency

Alabama Department of Revenue (ALDOR), not the Secretary of State. Portal: My Alabama Taxes, myalabamataxes.alabama.gov.

Corporation minimum

not recorded separately

How it is computed

Alabama Business Privilege TaxFranchise taxA recurring tax on the privilege of existing as an entity in a state - not a tax on franchising a business.Read the full entry → (the franchise-tax analog), Ala. Code sec. 40-14A-22 as amended by Act 2022-252. Tax = Taxable Alabama Net Worth x rate, where the rate is set by federal taxable income apportioned to Alabama: less than $1 = $0.25 per $1,000 of net worth; $1 to less than $200,000 = $1.00 per $1,000; $200,000 to less than $500,000 = $1.25 per $1,000; $500,000 to less than $2,500,000 = $1.50 per $1,000; $2,500,000 or more = $1.75 per $1,000. For taxable years beginning after 12/31/2023 there is a FULL exemption (no tax and no return) when the computed tax is $100 or less - so the effective minimum is $0 (the old $100 minimum is gone). Caps: $15,000 general maximum; $3,000,000 for financial institution groups and insurance companies subject to insurance premium tax; $500 for an electing family limited liability entity (Schedule BPT-E). Applies to LLCs, corporations, LPs, LLPs; 501(a)-exempt nonprofits are exempt (Ala. Code sec. 40-14A-43). Return: Form CPT (C corps) / Form PPT (pass-throughs incl. S corps, LLCs, LPs, LLPs); initial-year Form BPT-IN due 2.5 months after formation/qualification.