How Texas's business registry works
Two separate state systems hold a Texas entity's record, and a KYB check that reads only one of them will miss the most common failure mode. The Secretary of State's Corporations Section, through SOSDirect, holds the formation record — name, 10-digit file number, entity type, formation date, registered agent. The Comptroller of Public Accounts, through the Franchise Tax Account Status Search, holds the entity's tax-side right to transact business. An entity can sit on the SOS register, paid-up and present, while the Comptroller has already forfeited its right to transact business for unfiled franchise tax reports. The Comptroller's status field is the one that matters for KYB.
The Comptroller status vocabulary is short. Active means franchise tax reports are filed and no balance is outstanding. Forfeited means the Comptroller pulled the entity's right to transact business for unfiled reports or unpaid franchise tax. Active - Eligible for Termination/Withdrawal means the entity has cleared the Comptroller and may file to terminate (domestic) or withdraw (foreign) at the SOS. Franchise Tax Ended means the entity has ceased to exist or do business in Texas. Franchise Tax Involuntarily Ended means the entity was tax-forfeited or administratively forfeited at the SOS. Not Established means the entity has not completed the franchise tax accountability questionnaire yet.
The two identifiers map to the two systems: the SOS issues a 10-digit file number at registration; the Comptroller issues an 11-digit taxpayer number for franchise tax filings. Both are stable keys for the same legal entity. The Comptroller's Taxable Entity Search is free and public; SOSDirect online search costs $1.00 per name and requires a funded SOSDirect client account. The register covers for-profit and nonprofit corporations, professional corporations, LLCs, professional LLCs, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, professional associations, and financial institutions — roughly 2.9 million active entities as of 2025.
What Texas specifically charges and requires
Formation
A Texas LLC or for-profit corporation files a Certificate of Formation for $300; a limited partnership pays $750. Expedited processing runs $25 per document and $10 per certified copy or certificate.
Franchise tax and annual obligations
Texas franchise tax is a margin tax, not an income tax. The 2026–2027 no-tax-due threshold is $2,650,000 in total revenue — every taxable entity at or below it owes nothing. Above the threshold, the rate is 0.375% of taxable margin for retail and wholesale and 0.75% for everyone else. The annual report is due May 15. Starting with the 2024 report year, entities at or below the threshold file a Public Information Report (Form 05-102) or an Ownership Information Report (Form 05-167) instead of a No Tax Due Report. PIRs publish officer, director, manager, and member information on the Comptroller's Taxable Entity Search; OIRs keep ownership confidential. Miss May 15 and after the delinquent period the Comptroller forfeits the entity's right to transact business.
| Filing | Fee |
|---|---|
| LLC Certificate of Formation | $300 |
| For-profit Corporation Certificate of Formation | $300 |
| Limited Partnership Certificate of Formation | $750 |
| Expedited processing (per document) | $25 |
| Expedited processing (per certified copy / certificate) | $10 |
| Certificate of Status | $15 |
| Certificate of Fact | $15 |
| Certified copy | $1.00 per page + $15 certificate |
Registered agent
The Texas registered agent must be a Texas resident or an organization registered in Texas, with a physical Texas street address — PO boxes are rejected. Deep verification returns the agent on file at the SOS, formation date, officers and managers from the most recent Public Information Report, principal office address, and filing history.
Common ways developers use Texas verification
Verify-before-provision in an AI agent
An onboarding agent takes a customer's stated Texas LLC name and calls verify_business({ entity_name, jurisdiction: "us-tx" }) through the BizVerify MCP server before it provisions an account. A Forfeited result tells the agent the entity is technically still registered with the Secretary of State but has lost its right to transact business at the Comptroller — enough signal to drop into manual review instead of auto-approving. The same call runs from Claude Code, a LangChain agent, or a CrewAI crew.
Catching SOS-active, Comptroller-forfeited entities
The mistake that catches Texas-naive KYB tooling is reading SOSDirect, seeing the entity is on the register, and stopping. The Comptroller forfeits the right to transact business of tens of thousands of entities a year for unfiled franchise tax reports — they keep their SOS record until administrative forfeiture catches up. A quick check for us-tx returns the Comptroller status, so a Forfeited entity reads as Forfeited on the first call. No second hop required.
Marketplace seller onboarding
Texas has a deep base of small operators — agencies, contractors, restaurant LLCs, real estate holding companies. A marketplace verifying a new seller's Texas LLC confirms the entity reads Active (not Forfeited for an unfiled PIR) before enabling payouts. A quick check is one credit and fast enough to sit inline in a signup flow — wire the call through Zapier or n8n and never write the integration twice.
Cap-table and formation tooling
Tools that manage entity formation or cap tables need the structured record. Deep verification for Texas returns the registered agent, formation date, officers and managers from the latest PIR, principal office address, and filing history — the fields a KYB pipeline builds a company profile around. The 10-digit SOS file number and 11-digit Comptroller taxpayer number both come back, so downstream systems can reconcile on whichever identifier they store.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Texas have two registries instead of one?
Texas splits the entity record across the Secretary of State (formation, registered agent, file number) and the Comptroller of Public Accounts (franchise tax status, right to transact business). The SOS is the registrar of record; the Comptroller is the authority on whether the entity may currently do business in Texas. For KYB the Comptroller's status is the load-bearing one — it's the field that flips when an entity stops filing franchise tax reports. BizVerify's status field for us-tx is the Comptroller's status.
What does Forfeited mean for a Texas entity?
Forfeited is the Comptroller's status when the entity has failed to file required franchise tax reports or has unpaid franchise tax, penalties, or interest after the delinquent period passed. The entity legally still exists at the Secretary of State, but its right to transact business in Texas is gone. Contracts signed in that state can be voidable; officers and directors can become personally liable. Treat Forfeited as a hard fail for a KYB decision.
Which identifier do you return — the SOS file number or the Comptroller taxpayer number?
The jurisdiction_id is the 10-digit Texas SOS file number, which is the stable identifier assigned at registration. Deep verification also returns the 11-digit Comptroller taxpayer number when present. Most third-party systems store the SOS file number, so that's the default key; if you reconcile on Comptroller records, both are in the response.
Do you handle foreign entities registered in Texas?
Yes. Out-of-state entities registered to transact business in Texas appear in the register with the same status vocabulary as domestic ones. A foreign entity that has cleared its franchise tax obligations and is ready to withdraw reads Active - Eligible for Termination/Withdrawal. A foreign entity that has actually withdrawn from Texas reads Franchise Tax Ended.
How current is Texas entity data?
Status reflects the Comptroller's record at the time the check runs. Status changes show up within seconds of the registry updating. The trade-off is that p95 latency tracks the Comptroller's own responsiveness, which is generally faster than the SOSDirect side.
What does deep verification add over a quick check for Texas?
A quick check returns entity name, type, SOS file number, and Comptroller status — enough to confirm the entity exists and has its right to transact business in Texas. Deep verification adds the registered agent on file with the Secretary of State, the formation date, the officers, directors, and managers from the most recent Public Information Report, the principal office address, and filing history. Use quick on the hot path; deep when you need the full record.
Do I get charged for a Texas entity that doesn't exist?
A confirmed "no match" still counts as a quick check (1 credit, ~$0.08 on public pricing) — the verification ran and proved the entity isn't on either Texas register. Hard errors from the registry side (timeouts, 5xx) don't consume credits.