Colorado

Unified rule for ALL Colorado 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 → (Title 7, Article 90, Part 7): the registered agent must be (a) an individual 18 or older whose primary residence or usual place of business is in Colorado (from July 1, 2025, residency must be shown by a Colorado driver's license/ID or otherwise verified with the secretary of state), (b) a domestic entity in good standing with a usual place of business in Colorado, or (c) a foreign entity authorized and in good standing with a usual place of business in Colorado. An entity in good standing with a usual place of business in the state may serve as its own registered agent (7-90-701(2)).

Consent required: yes.

No service on the secretary of state. If the entity has no registered agent, or the agent is not at the registered agent address or cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the entity may be served directly by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, at its principal address; service is perfected at the earliest of actual receipt, the signed return-receipt date, or five days after mailing.

• Other. Declaration of delinquency: an entity that does not comply with Part 7 (registered agents and service of process) may be declared delinquent by the secretary of state; the entity becomes delinquent 60 days after the secretary's determination unless it cures.
• No Court Access. A delinquent entity cannot maintain a court proceeding in Colorado to collect its debts until it cures the delinquency; courts may stay proceedings while delinquency is determined.
• 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 →. A domestic entity delinquent for three years or more may be dissolved under § 7-90-908 (a manager files a statement of dissolution of delinquent entity after 30 days' notice to owners); the dissolved entity continues only to wind up. Note: Colorado's entity existence otherwise continues despite delinquency (7-90-903(4)).
• Revocation Foreign. Colorado repealed formal revocation of foreign authority (§ 7-90-808 '(Repealed)'); a foreign entity that fails to maintain a registered agent is instead declared delinquent on the same Part 7 ground, with cure available by compliance or by filing a statement of foreign entity withdrawal (7-90-904(2)).

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

Colorado Secretary of State - Statement of 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 →, filed ONLINE ONLY (no paper option)

State fee

$20 (Statement of Trade Name, online)

Term

For reporting entities (corps/LLCs): effective as long as the entity stays in Good Standing/Non-compliant status (survives 1 year into Delinquency/Dissolution, then expires unless cured). For individuals/general partnerships/non-reporting: 1 year from filing, expiring first day after the anniversary month

Renewal

Reporting entities: no separate trade name renewal - it rides on the entity's periodic (annual) report compliance. Individuals/non-reporting: $5 annual Statement of Trade Name Renewal, filable in the 3 months before expiration; an expired trade name cannot be renewed (must re-file new $20 statement)

Publication

Not required. 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 in Colorado

Online filing

Available

The regime

Colorado requires any person transacting business under a name other than the person's true name (or, for a general partnership that is not an LLP, other than the true name of each general partner) to have an effective statement of trade name on file in the records of the Secretary of State.

Where it is filed

Statements of trade name are delivered to the Colorado Secretary of State for filing under the filing procedures of part 3 of article 90 of title 7. This is a statewide registry; there is no county clerk trade name filing (a separate optional county-recorded affidavit exists only for real property title purposes, § 7-71-108).

Publication

Article 71 contains no newspaper-publication requirement; the filing obligations run entirely through the Secretary of State's records (with an optional county clerk and recorder affidavit only for real property title purposes under § 7-71-108).

Term and renewal

For reporting entities, a filed statement of trade name remains effective in perpetuity (unless withdrawn, or limited by delinquency or dissolution). For persons other than reporting entities (sole proprietors, general partnerships), it remains effective only through the last day of the twelfth calendar month following the calendar month in which it becomes effective.

Assumed names for registered entities

A foreign entity whose true name is not permitted for use in Colorado under the entity-name standards of § 7-90-601 must adopt an assumed entity name that complies with § 7-90-601 in order to obtain authority to transact business in the state. Reporting entities adopting trade names use the same article 71 statement of trade name, effective in perpetuity.

Penalties

A person transacting business under an unregistered trade name may not maintain a Colorado court proceeding to collect a debt arising from business transacted under that name until an effective statement of trade name is on file; the violation does not, however, impair the validity of the person's acts or prevent the person from defending a proceeding.
Transacting business in violation of § 7-71-101 carries a civil penalty of up to $500, recoverable in an action brought by the attorney general in Denver district court.
In addition to or instead of the civil penalty, the court may enjoin further transaction of business under the violating name until the person complies with the article.

Official source

www.coloradosos.gov/pubs/business/FAQs/tradeNames.html↗ (opens the official source)

What it is called

not captured

Administering agency

n/a (no 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 →; Periodic Report is Colorado Secretary of State, Business Division)

Corporation minimum

not recorded separately

How it is computed

NONE / $0. Colorado imposes no franchise, privilege, or entity-level maintenance tax at the SOS or otherwise evidenced in this corpus - the only recurring state-mandated cost of existence is the $25 annual Periodic Report (fee administrative under C.R.S. 24-21-104(3), no statutory dollar amount). CORPUS-ONLY CAVEAT: this is an inference from silence - none of the 9 research waves has a franchise-tax datum for CO, and the corpus holds only Title 7 (entity law) and Title 4 (UCCUCCThe Uniform Commercial Code - the law behind lien filings (UCC-1 financing statements) that lenders record against a debtor's assets, usually filed at the same office that keeps the business register.Read the full entry →), not Title 39 (revenue). Colorado income tax on entities is a separate revenue-code matter outside this corpus.