Louisiana

For domestic corporations (Business Corporation Act of 2015), the registered agent may be an individual who resides in Louisiana, or a domestic or foreign corporation or other eligible entity that continuously maintains a Louisiana office, is authorized to transact business (if foreign), files with the Secretary of State the names of at least two individuals at its Louisiana address authorized to receive process, and is authorized by its organizational documents to act as agent for service of process. For LLCs the rule is narrower: a citizen of the state who resides in Louisiana, or a law-licensed partnership or professional law corporation, or a domestic/foreign corporation or LLC authorized to transact business whose organic documents authorize agent service and which has the two-individuals certificate on file (La. R.S. 12:1308(A)(2)). Foreign corporations remain governed by the pre-2015 law, La. R.S. 12:308(A)(1), which also allows an individual resident whose business office is identical with the registered office, or an individual attorney or law partnership.

Consent required: yes.

For domestic corporations, if the corporation has no registered agent or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the corporation may be served by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the secretary of the corporation at its principal office; service is perfected on receipt, the return-receipt date, or 5 days after mailing. For LLCs and foreign corporations, if the registered office is vacated for 30 days without a statement of change, the office of the Secretary of State may be treated as the registered office (12:1308(F); 12:308(E)).

• 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 shall administratively terminate the existence of a domestic corporation that has failed for 90 consecutive days to maintain a registered office and registered agent (or to file its annual report), after at least 30 days written notice and an opportunity to cure.
• Other. For a domestic LLC, if the registered office is vacated and no statement of change is filed within 30 days, the office of the Secretary of State may be treated as the LLC's registered office by any person other than the LLC itself.
• Revocation Foreign. 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 → may be revoked by the Secretary of State for failure to maintain a registered agent or registered office in Louisiana, after not less than 60 days written notice and failure to cure. Upon revocation the authority to transact business ceases, but the registered agent's authority to accept service continues.
• Revocation Foreign. A foreign LLC's certificate of authority may likewise be revoked (or suspended) for failure to maintain a registered agent or registered office in Louisiana, after 60 days notice and failure to cure.
• No Court Access. A foreign corporation or foreign LLC transacting business in Louisiana without authority may not present any judicial demand before any Louisiana court; the burden is on the entity to prove it is authorized.
• Civil Penalty. The Secretary of State may impose a penalty of up to $1,000 per violation on a foreign corporation or foreign LLC transacting business without a valid certificate of authority, plus back fees and taxes recoverable by the attorney general (12:314(C), 12:1354(C)).
• 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. A corporation terminated administratively may be reinstated within 5 years by filing articles of reinstatement and an annual report (with the registered agent's written consent to appointment) and paying the annual-report filing fee for each year between the last annual report and reinstatement. LLCs revoked for annual-report failure have a 3-year reinstatement window and must pay the reinstatement fee authorized by R.S. 12:1364(A)(1) (amount set in R.S. 49:222, outside this corpus).

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

Louisiana Secretary of State, Commercial Division (geauxBIZ)

State fee

$75 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 (Form 309) - INCREASES TO $95 effective 10/1/2026 (Act 921, 2026 Reg. Sess.); name reservationName reservationHolding an entity name with the state before forming - typically 30 to 120 days for a small fee, renewable in some states.Read the full entry → $25; assignment $75 (rising to $95); cancellation $75 (rising to $95)

Term

10 years from date of registration (R.S. 51:216)

Renewal

Renewable for successive 10-year periods; renewal application within 6 months prior to expiration with proof of continued use; SOS sends notice in the year before expiration

Publication

Not required. None for the state trade name registration

Online filing

Available

The regime

Louisiana requires any person transacting business under an assumed name (any name other than the real name of the individual conducting the business) to file a notarized certificate at the parish level - with the clerk of court of each parish where the business is or will be conducted, or with the register of conveyances in the city of New Orleans. The certificate is also a condition precedent to obtaining an occupational license receipt. Corporations organized or lawfully doing business in Louisiana are exempt, as are partnerships whose name includes the real name of at least one partner. This parish-level mandatory filing is separate from Louisiana's voluntary trade-name registration with the Secretary of State under R.S. 51:211 et seq.

Where it is filed

Filing is at the parish level: the clerk of court of the parish or parishes where the business is conducted or will be conducted, except in the city of New Orleans, where the filing is with the register of conveyances. The certificate must be executed and acknowledged before a notary public.

Name restrictions

An assumed name may be in any language but must be expressed in English letters or characters for filing; it may not imply the business is a government agency, may not deceptively or falsely suggest the business is a corporate entity, and may not contain words required by law in a corporate name. A separate section bars use of the name of any public park, playground, or other public facility without written governmental consent (enforceable by civil suit with damages and destruction of infringing items).

Assumed names for registered entities

Louisiana's Business Corporation Act expressly leaves assumed / fictitious / trade names outside the corporate-name chapter (R.S. 12:1-401(E)), and corporations are exempt from the parish assumed-name certificate (R.S. 51:283). The name-conflict mechanism for a foreign corporation whose corporate name is unavailable is the fictitious-name reservation: it may reserve the exclusive filing use of a fictitious name with the Secretary of State. Separately, trade names may be registered with the Secretary of State under the voluntary regime of R.S. 51:211 et seq., and a registered trade name is among the names against which corporate names must be distinguishable (R.S. 12:1-401(B)(6)).

Penalties

Violation is punishable by a fine of $25 to $100, or imprisonment of 10 to 60 days, or both, and each day of continued violation is a separate offense.
License collectors may not issue an occupational-license receipt without presentation of the assumed-name certificate showing compliance.
A licensing official who issues a license without the required compliance is punishable under existing laws for that offense.

Official source

www.sos.la.gov/business-services/forms-fee-schedule↗ (opens the official source)

What it is called

Corporation 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 → (REPEALED eff. 2026-01-01)

Administering agency

Louisiana Department of Revenue

Corporation minimum

$0

How it is computed

NONE for franchise tax periods beginning on or after 2026-01-01: the Louisiana Corporation Franchise Tax (LSA-R.S. 47:601 et seq., Title 47 Ch. 5) was REPEALED by Acts 2024, 3rd Ex. Sess., No. 6, sec. 3, eff. Jan. 1, 2026 (legis.la.gov repeal note on R.S. 47:601; LDR FAQ confirms). Trailing exposure only: the final franchise period began in 2025, taxed at a single rate of $2.75 per $1,000 (or major fraction) of capital employed in Louisiana IN EXCESS of $300,000 (Act 389 of 2021 RS, effective 2023+ periods; combined return CIFT-620 due 15th day of 5th month of the accounting year - final calendar-year return was due 2026-05-15, already past). LLCs: never subject before 2017; 2017-2025 subject ONLY if federally taxed as a C-corporation (LLCs eligible for a federal S election were statutorily exempt), so most LLCs never owed it; zero from 2026. No state gross-receipts tax, privilege tax, or general state business license replaces it - the flat 5.5% corporation income tax (2025+ periods) is a net-income tax, and occupational license taxes are municipal/parish-level only. Only recurring state-level entity charge is the SOS annual report fee (see fees block).