Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania does not require a registered AGENTRegistered agentThe person or company an entity must continuously maintain in a state to receive service of process and official mail.Read the full entry → at all - it requires a registered OFFICE. Every business corporation (15 Pa.C.S. § 1507(a)) and every LLC (§ 8825(a)) must continuously maintain a registered office in the Commonwealth, which may but need not be its place of business - so an entity effectively acts as its own agent by listing its own Pennsylvania address. In lieu of a registered address, an entity may state the name of a Commercial Registered Office Provider (CROP) that has filed a statement with the Department of State (§ 109). Registered foreign associations have the same registered-office duty (§ 411(f)).

Consent required: no.

• 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 →. Title 15 ties administrative dissolution to the annual report, not to the registered office: the Department may administratively dissolve a domestic filing entity that does not deliver its annual report within six months after it is due (applies to reports due on or after January 4, 2027), after notice and a 60-day cure window (§ 382(b)). No administrative-dissolution ground based on failure to maintain a registered office was found.
• Revocation Foreign. The Department may terminate a registered foreign association's registration if it fails to amend its registration when required, has been dissolved in its home jurisdiction, or fails to deliver its annual report within six months after due (reports due on or after January 4, 2027); effective no less than 60 days after notice unless cured. Failure to maintain the registered office is not itself a listed ground.
• No Court Access. A foreign filing association or foreign LLP doing business in Pennsylvania without registering (registration includes the § 411(f) registered-office duty) may not maintain an action or proceeding in Pennsylvania courts until registered; failure does not impair its contracts or prevent it from defending.

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

Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations - Registration of 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 → (DSCB:54-311). Statewide since the early 1980s; no county filing

State fee

$70 (nonrefundable; veteran/reservist-owned small business fee exemption available)

Term

Perpetual - no expiration. Decennial reports were repealed by Act 122 (54 Pa.C.S. 501-506 repealed eff. Jan 3, 2023) and fictitious name registrations are EXEMPT from the new annual report requirement

Renewal

None - no renewal or periodic report for fictitious names post-Act 122

Publication

Not required. For corporate/LLC-only registrants: NO publication. 54 Pa.C.S. 311(g) advertising (newspaper of general circulation + legal journal in the county of the principal place of business, before or after filing) applies ONLY when an INDIVIDUAL is a party to the registration - pa.gov confirms 'If the registration does not list an individual, then advertising is not required.' Where it does apply, proofs of publication are NOT filed with the Department - kept with the business's permanent records

Online filing

Available

The regime

Pennsylvania's Fictitious Names Act (54 Pa.C.S. ch. 3) is a state-level regime: any entity - the act's definition of "entity" includes individuals, partnerships and corporations - conducting business in the Commonwealth under a fictitious name must register it by filing an application with the department (the Department of State) and keep the registration accurate by amendment. Voluntary registration is also allowed to create a public record of the relationship to a business.

Where it is filed

Registration is by application filed in "the department" - the Pennsylvania Department of State (the definitional section, 54 Pa.C.S. § 102, sits outside the captured chapter; see gaps). The fee schedule for the filing is administered through the Department of State's bureau under 15 Pa.C.S. § 153.

Publication

If any party to the registration is an individual, the entity must officially publish - in the county of its principal office or place of business - notice of its intention to file or of the filing of the application. The notice may run before or after the filing date and is kept with the business's permanent records (it is not filed with the state).

Term and renewal

No fixed term and no periodic renewal: the former decennial-refiling requirement (§ 321) was deleted by amendment in 2000, so a registration continues until cancelled or withdrawn under § 313, subject to the § 303(b)(1) duty to amend when information changes.

Name restrictions

A fictitious name may not contain a corporate designator ("corporation," "incorporated," "limited") unless at least one registering party is a corporation, though "company" is open to sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations alike (§ 311(b)(1)). The name must be distinguishable from names of filing entities, registered foreign associations, Commonwealth agencies and reserved names (§ 311(e)), and restricted words such as "college," "engineer," "bank," "cooperative," "architect," "credit union," insurance terms and "911" require certificates or agency approval (§ 311(f)).

Assumed names for registered entities

A foreign filing association or foreign LLP whose name does not comply with Pennsylvania's name requirements cannot register to do business until it adopts a complying alternate name; registering under that alternate name does not require a separate Fictitious Names Act filing for the alternate name. The alternate name in the foreign registration statement is treated as the association's "proper name" under the Fictitious Names Act (54 Pa.C.S. § 302, "Proper name" (9)).

Penalties

An entity that fails to register a required fictitious name may not maintain any action in a Pennsylvania tribunal until it complies (the bar also reaches successors and assignees on claims from transactions under the name). Non-registration does not void contracts and does not prevent the entity from defending suits, and the penalty does not apply where there was good-faith substantial compliance (§ 331(c)). The former civil penalty was deleted by the 2022 amendment.

Official source

www.pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/business/types-of-filings-and-registrations/fictitious-names↗ (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 →); CAR collected by PA Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations

Corporation minimum

not recorded separately

How it is computed

$0 - Pennsylvania has NO franchise tax on business entities. The PA capital stock/franchise tax was fully phased out for tax years after 2015 (formation-wave provenance note on 15 Pa.C.S. 153(a)(1)(i): 'PA has NO share-count or capital-based fee component on formation, and no franchise tax (capital stock/franchise tax fully phased out for tax years after 2015)'). No annual entity-level privilege tax exists; the only recurring DOS charges are the $7 Act 122 annual report and, for LLPs/LLLPs/restricted professional companies ONLY, the per-partner/per-member Certificate of Annual Registration (15 Pa.C.S. 8221(b): base $200 CPI-adjusted triennially rounded up to nearest $10, currently $470 per qualifying PA-resident/PA-organized general partner, no cap, due Apr 15; restricted professional companies 15 Pa.C.S. 8998(b): base $300 CPI-adjusted, currently $700 per PA-resident licensed member for 2026 filings). Corporate net income tax exists at the Dept of Revenue but is an income tax, not a franchise tax.