Business search · Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania business search
The Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations keeps the official record of every company, LLC and corporation registered in Pennsylvania. Look one up by name and see entity type, formation date and officers. Clerkfield reads Pennsylvania's open data directly, and every result shows the source and the date of the data.
What Pennsylvania's records include
The fields a Clerkfield result returns for Pennsylvania, taken from the state's own record.
- Legal name (Clerkfield shows the state's title-cased version; the original capitalisation is kept in the details)
- Filing number
- Entity type (type of business registration)
- Creation date
- Address
- County
- Officers and governors, with their titles, when the record lists any
Not in Pennsylvania's free records
Status not published.
Types of business Pennsylvania registers
- Domestic Limited Liability Company
- Domestic Business Corporation
- Domestic Nonprofit Corporation
- Foreign Business Corporation
- Foreign Limited Liability Company
- Domestic Limited Partnership (LP/LLLP)
- Foreign Nonprofit Corporation
- Domestic Business Trust
- Domestic General Partnership (GP/LLP)
What Pennsylvania's statuses mean
Pennsylvania uses its own words for a business's standing. Clerkfield keeps the state's wording in every result and marks each one active or inactive.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | The registration is in force. Active entities, and variations of Active, must file Pennsylvania's annual report. |
| Inactive – Dissolved | A Pennsylvania entity that has been dissolved and no longer exists. |
| Inactive – Terminated | The registration has ended. This is how a foreign entity's registration ends, including the administrative termination Pennsylvania applies from 2027 for missed annual reports. |
| Inactive – Merged Out | The entity merged into another and no longer exists on its own. Look up the surviving entity instead. |
| Inactive – Withdrawn | A company formed in another state withdrew its registration to do business in Pennsylvania. |
| Inactive – Cancelled | The registration was cancelled. From 2027 this covers limited liability partnerships cancelled for missed annual reports. |
How to search Pennsylvania records by hand
The state's own search is at file.dos.pa.gov.
- Open the PA Business Registry Portal business search at file.dos.pa.gov/search/business.
- Type the business name or its entity number and run the search.
- Open the matching record and read its status: Active, or Inactive with a reason.
- Check the filing history for the latest annual report and any dissolution, merger or withdrawal.
Fees and how current the data is
Fees
A subsistence certificate (good standing) for a domestic entity costs $40; certified copies cost $55 plus $3 a page.
How current it is
Open data refreshed monthly
Good to know about Pennsylvania records
01
Pennsylvania's open data has no status column. Clerkfield marks every Pennsylvania status as unconfirmed, so check the state's portal before funding.
02
The Department says its open data shows more active businesses than really exist, because the law limits how it can remove businesses that have stopped operating.
03
Annual reports began in 2025, replacing the old once-a-decade report. Missed reports carry no dissolution penalty until reports due in 2027, so an Active Pennsylvania company may have filed little or nothing in years.
04
Records carry one row per listed officer, and many list no officer at all. A missing name is not proof that someone is not an owner.
Liens on Pennsylvania businesses
Pennsylvania UCC filings are kept by the Pennsylvania Department of State, Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) section and searched at www.pa.gov. A UCC-11 information request (a search by the Department) costs $12 per debtor name; copies are $3 a page more, and certification adds $28. Clerkfield doesn't search Pennsylvania liens yet.
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Pennsylvania's free open data has no status field, and the Department says it overstates how many businesses are active. Clerkfield confirms the company is registered and leaves status for you to check on file.dos.pa.gov.
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Pennsylvania law uses Governor for the people who direct an entity: a corporation's directors, the managers of a manager-managed LLC, or the members who run a member-managed LLC. It is the most common title in the state's records after President.
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Yes, since 2025. Corporations file by June 30, LLCs by September 30, and partnerships and trusts by December 31, and the fee is $7 for most for-profit entities.
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From reports due in 2027, it will be administratively dissolved (or, if formed elsewhere, its registration terminated) six months after the due date. Its name then becomes available to others, and a terminated foreign entity must register again under a new number.
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Pennsylvania calls it a subsistence certificate, and it costs $40 for a domestic entity.