Texas

One unified rule for all filing entities and foreign filing entities (BOC ch. 5 applies code-wide): the registered agent may be a Texas-resident individual or an organization registered/authorized to do business in Texas - but never the entity itself - and in either case the agent must have consented in the SOS's written or electronic form and must maintain a business office at the registered office address. The registered office must be a street address where process can be personally served and may not be solely a mailbox or telephone answering service; an organization serving as agent must have an employee available there during normal business hours (§ 5.201(d)).

Consent required: yes.

The Secretary of State is the entity's agent for service if a filing entity or foreign filing entity fails to appoint or maintain a registered agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the registered office (also for a 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 → whose registration is revokedRevocation / 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 → or that transacts business unregistered). Service is effected by delivering duplicate copies plus the required fee to the SOS, who forwards one copy by certified mail to the entity's most recent address on file (§§ 5.252-5.253). Certain officers, partners, managers and members are also agents for service as a matter of law (§ 5.255).

• Administrative Dissolution. The SOS may involuntarily terminate a domestic filing entity's existence if it fails to maintain a registered agent or registered office and does not cure within 90 days of the SOS's mailed notice.
• Revocation Foreign. The SOS may revoke a foreign filing entity's registration if it fails to maintain a registered agent or registered office in Texas and does not cure within 90 days of mailed notice.
• Reinstatement Fee. Reinstatement after involuntary termination or revocation costs $75 (for-profit corporations; LLCs pay the same fee via § 4.154) and requires a comptroller tax-clearance letter for taxable entities (§ 11.253(c)(2)). Reinstatement before the third anniversary makes existence continuous (§ 11.253(d)).
• No Court Access. A foreign filing entity transacting business in Texas without registration (e.g., after revocation) may not maintain an action, suit, or proceeding in a Texas court on a cause arising out of that business until registered.
• Civil Penalty. An unregistered foreign filing entity transacting business in Texas is liable to the state for a civil penalty equal to all fees and taxes it would have paid had it registered, plus penalties and interest; the attorney general may sue to recover.
• Other. Late filing fee for a foreign entity that transacted business more than 90 days without registering: the registration fee multiplied by each (full or partial) calendar year of unregistered business.
• Other. Naming a person as registered agent without their consent is a false filing: civil liability for damages, court costs and attorney's fees (§ 4.007), and a criminal offense - Class A misdemeanor, or state jail felony if intent to defraud or harm (§ 4.008); the named person may file a no-fee statement of rejection (§ 5.205).

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

Texas Secretary of State (Form 503 Assumed 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 → Certificate) for corporations, LLCs, LPs, LLPs and other registered entities

State fee

$25 per assumed name certificate (Form 503); credit card payments via SOSDirect add a 2.7% convenience fee

Term

Registrant-selected term up to a maximum of 10 years from filing date; certificate expires at end of stated term

Renewal

No automatic renewal - file a NEW assumed name certificate ($25) before the current one expires (renewal filing may be made within 6 months before expiration); abandonment (Form 504) is $10

Publication

Not required. None - Texas has 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 for assumed names at either the state or county level

Online filing

Available

The regime

Texas splits assumed-name filings by entity type: unincorporated persons (sole proprietors, general partnerships, estates, and other unincorporated associations) regularly conducting business or rendering professional services under an assumed name file an assumed name certificate with the county clerk of each county where they maintain (or, if none, where they conduct) business premises, while corporations, limited partnerships, LLPs, LLCs, registered series, and foreign filing entities file with the Secretary of State. Certificates last up to 10 years and are renewable.

Where it is filed

Unincorporated persons file in the office of the county clerk of each county where they have or will maintain business or professional premises (or, if no premises, each county where they conduct business or render services). Registered entities required to file under § 71.101 file in the office of the Secretary of State (the former dual county-level entity filing was repealed effective September 1, 2019).

Term and renewal

A certificate is effective for a term not to exceed 10 years from the date of filing; the certificate itself states the period (not to exceed 10 years) during which the registrant will use the name.

Assumed names for registered entities

Registered entities adopt assumed names by filing with the Secretary of State under Subchapter C of chapter 71 (§§ 71.101-71.104), and Business Organizations Code § 5.051 confirms that a domestic entity or authorized foreign entity 'may transact business under an assumed name on compliance with Chapter 71.' The forced-fictitious-name scenario appears in § 71.101(2) (an entity 'required by law to use an assumed name in this state') and in BOC § 9.105, under which the Secretary of State requires a foreign filing entity whose name does not comply with BOC Chapter 5 to amend its registration or provide 'a fictitious name under which the foreign filing entity will transact business in this state that complies with Chapter 5.'

Penalties

A non-compliant person may not maintain an action in Texas courts arising out of a contract or act in which the assumed name was used until the required certificate is filed - though contracts remain valid and the person may still defend actions.
In an action against a non-compliant person, the court may award the party bringing the action its expenses, including attorney's fees, incurred in locating and serving the defendant.
Conducting business under an assumed name while intentionally violating the chapter is a Class A misdemeanor.
Knowingly or intentionally filing a document that falsely indicates signing authority, contains a material false statement, or is forged is an offense punishable as tampering with a governmental record under Penal Code § 37.10.

Official source

www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/namefilingsfaqs.shtml↗ (opens the official source)

What it is called

Texas Franchise Tax (margin tax)

Tex. Tax Code § 171.001(a): a franchise tax is imposed on each taxable entity that does business in this state or that is chartered or organized in this state · source↗ (opens the official source)

Administering agency

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

Comptroller franchise tax program page · source↗ (opens the official source)

Basis of the tax

receipts/margin

Taxable margin = least of 70% of total revenue, total revenue minus COGSCOGSIndustry shorthand for the certificate of good standing - the state-issued document proving an entity exists and is current on its filings.Read the full entry →, total revenue minus compensation, or total revenue minus $1M (Tex. Tax Code § 171.101); compensation deduction capped at $480,000 per person for 2026-2027 reports · source↗ (opens the official source)

Minimum

$0

No minimum tax; no tax due if annualized total revenue is at or below the no-tax-due threshold of $2,650,000 for 2026-2027 reports (Tex. Tax Code § 171.002(d), threshold indexed biennially) · source↗ (opens the official source)

Due date

May 15 annually (next business day if May 15 falls on a weekend or holiday)

Comptroller: 'The annual franchise tax report is due May 15.' · source↗ (opens the official source)

Corporations

True

LLCs

True

Phone

(512) 463-5555

Email

[email protected] (filings/status) and [email protected] (copies and certificates of fact)

Mailing address

Business & Commercial Section, The Office of the Secretary of State, P.O. Box 13697, Austin, TX 78711-3697

Courier / walk-in

1019 Brazos St., Austin, TX 78701

The Corporations Section's own published number and PO box; FedEx/UPS must use the 1019 Brazos dock because the PO box cannot take courier packages, and the 400 W 15th St. lobby is walk-in only.