Arkansas

Arkansas governs registered agents across entity typesEntity typesLLC (limited liability company), corporation (for-profit; 'profit corporation' in some states' vocabulary), nonprofit corporation, LP (limited partnership), LLP (limited liability partnership), LLLP (limited liability limited partnership),Read the full entry → through the cross-entity Model Registered Agents Act (Ark. Code Ann. Title 4, ch. 20). The agent is either a listed 'commercial registered agent' or a 'noncommercial registered agent' - an individual or a domestic or foreign 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 → that serves in this state. Filings must state an actual street address or rural route box number in Arkansas. The LLC act adds that the agent must have a place of business in this state (4-38-115(c)). No individual-residency requirement appears in the captured text.

Consent required: yes.

The Model Registered Agents Act fallback is NOT service on the Secretary of State: if an entity has no registered agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, service is made by registered or certified mail addressed to one or more of the entity's governors by name at its principal office; failing that, by handing a copy to the person in charge of any regular place of business (4-20-113(c)). The Secretary of State becomes an entity's agent for service only on revocation of a foreign corporation's certificate of authorityCertificate of authorityPermission for an entity formed in one state to do business in another - the 'foreign' registration.Read the full entry → (4-27-1531(d)).

• Administrative DissolutionRevocation / administrative dissolutionThe state involuntarily ending an entity's authority to do business - for missed annual reports, a lapsed registered agent, or unpaid fees.Read the full entry →. The Secretary of State may administratively dissolve a corporation that is without a registered agent for 60 days or more or that fails to report an agent change or resignation within 60 days (60-day cure window after notice, 4-27-1421(b)); an LLC may be administratively dissolved if it does not have a registered agent for 60 consecutive days (4-38-708(a)(3)).
• ReinstatementReinstatementRestoring an entity the state revoked or administratively dissolved for missed filings - typically back-filing reports, paying accrued fees and penalties, and filing an application.Read the full entry → Fee. Reinstatement must be sought within two years of administrative dissolution for both corporations and LLCs; an LLC must pay all fees, taxes, interest and penalties that were due and that would have accrued during dissolution, and a corporation's application must include state tax-clearance certificates (4-27-1422(a)(4)).
• Other. Name loss: on dissolution (administrative or otherwise) an LLC's name becomes available to other companies, and the dissolved company must use a new name on reinstatement if the prior name was taken.
• Revocation Foreign. The Secretary of State may revoke a foreign corporation's certificate of authority if it is without a registered agent for 60 days or more or fails to file notice of an agent change or resignation within 60 days; on revocation the Secretary of State becomes the corporation's agent for service (4-27-1531(d)). A registered foreign LLC's registration may be terminated if it does not have a registered agent as required by 4-38-115 or fails to file a statement of change within 30 days (4-38-910(a)(3)-(4)).

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

Arkansas Secretary of State - Business & Commercial Services (fictitious 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 → for corporations, LLCs, LPs, etc.); county clerk only for sole proprietors/general partnerships (A.C.A. 4-70-203)

State fee

$25 paper / $22.50 online per fictitious name (form DN-18, same fee for domestic corporations and LLCs); cancellation (form CFN) $25 paper only

Term

Perpetual - no expiration or renewal; remains until cancelled or transferred

Renewal

None required; cancellation/transfer filings are $25 each (paper only)

Publication

Not required. None

Online filing

Available

The regime

Arkansas splits by entity type. Individuals and unregistered firms doing business under an assumed name must file a certificate with the county clerk of every county where they do business (§ 4-70-203). Registered corporations, LPs, and LLCs are expressly exempt from that subchapter (§ 4-70-201) and instead use entity-side fictitious-name filings - corporations file with the Secretary of State (and the county clerk of the registered-office county unless in Pulaski County) under § 4-26-405.

Where it is filed

General act: the county clerk of each county in which the person conducts, transacts, or intends to conduct the business. Corporate fictitious names: the Secretary of State, plus (for domestic corporations) the county clerk of the county of the registered office unless it is in Pulaski County.

Publication

No newspaper publicationPublication 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 → requirement appears anywhere in the assumed-name subchapter (§§ 4-70-201 to 4-70-206) or in § 4-26-405.

Term and renewal

No fixed term or expiration is prescribed for the county assumed-name certificate; it remains on file. On any change of ownership, each person withdrawing or disposing of an interest must file a certificate of withdrawal with the county clerk of each county where the business is conducted. Corporate fictitious-name filings under § 4-26-405 likewise carry no stated term but must be cancelled when the corporation dissolves, forfeits its rights, or ceases using the name.

Name restrictions

The county-level general act contains no name-screening standard. On the entity side, the Secretary of State must refuse a corporate fictitious-name filing if the proposed name is not distinguishable from, or is confusingly similar to, existing domestic or admitted foreign corporate names or names reserved or registered under §§ 4-26-402 and 4-26-403.

Assumed names for registered entities

Corporations (domestic or admitted foreign) file corporate fictitious names with the Secretary of State on an approved form in duplicate - the fictitious name, character of business, and corporate identity - with a duplicate then filed with the county clerk of the registered-office county unless in Pulaski County. No exclusive rights are created, cancellation must be filed when use ceases, and an assumed name adequately tied to the true corporate name in an instrument is not a 'fictitious name' under the section (§ 4-26-405(h)). related entity name mechanisms (4-27-404 is the 1987 Business Corporation Act corporate fictitious-name section; 4-42-707 covers registered LLPs) are cross-referenced at §§ 4-27-404, 4-38-122, and 4-42-707 but were not extracted.

Penalties

Failure to comply with the assumed-name subchapter is a violation punishable by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $100, and each day of violation is a separate offense.
A corporation that contracts exclusively under an unregistered fictitious name can be sued on the instrument, but cannot enforce its own rights under it in Arkansas courts until it complies with § 4-26-405 and pays a $300 civil penalty to the Treasurer of State.

Official source

www.sos.arkansas.gov/business-commercial-services-bcs/forms-fees/corporations↗ (opens the official source)

What it is called

not captured

Administering agency

Arkansas Secretary of State, Business & Commercial Services (BCS); portal sos-franchise.ark.org

Corporation minimum

not recorded separately

How it is computed

AR annual franchise 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 →, A.C.A. 26-54-104 (Act 459 of 2023 text read verbatim), administered by the SOS BCS and reported on the May-1 annual franchise tax report. LLC (incl. PLLC; 'corporation' defined to include LLCs, 26-54-102(a)): FLAT $150. Corporation WITH authorized capital stock: 0.3% x [par value of ISSUED AND OUTSTANDING capital stock x (Arkansas real + personal property / total real + personal property)], MINIMUM $150, NO maximum cap; no-par shares valued at $25 per share. Corporation WITHOUT authorized capital stock: FLAT $300. Special classes: insurance $300/$400 by size; legal reserve mutual $300/$400; mortgage loan 0.3% loans-apportioned, min $300. Exempt: federally tax-exempt nonprofits (26-54-102), LPs (4-47 entities), partnerships/LLPs (4-46 entities). Late: $25 flat penalty + interest 0.000274/day (~10%/yr) on (tax + penalty) after May 1 (26-54-107, 26-54-114). Delinquency: Nov 1 revocation-warning notice, charter/authority REVOKED by proclamation on or before Jan 31 (26-54-111); tax keeps accruing on revoked entities until formally dissolved/withdrawn; reinstatement within 5 years, retroactive (26-54-112); 26-54-114 bars all SOS filings by the entity AND 'substantially connected' persons while past-due taxes are owed.