Business search · Texas
Texas business search
The Texas Secretary of State keeps the official record of every company, LLC and corporation registered in Texas. Look one up by name and see status, entity type and formation date. Clerkfield reads Texas's open data directly, and every result shows the source and the date of the data.
What Texas's records include
The fields a Clerkfield result returns for Texas, taken from the state's own record.
- Legal name (taxpayer name)
- Secretary of State file number (or the Comptroller taxpayer number when there is none)
- Comptroller taxpayer number
- Right to transact business code
- Secretary of State status code and status date
- Comptroller organization type code (e.g. CL = Texas limited liability company)
- Secretary of State charter date
- Taxpayer address on file with the Comptroller
- Date franchise tax responsibility began
- NAICS industry code, when on file
Not in Texas's free records
No officers published.
Types of business Texas registers
- Cl – Texas Limited Liability Company
- Ct – Texas Profit Corporation
- Cn – Texas Non-Profit Corporation
- Cp – Texas Professional Corporation
- Cf – Foreign Profit Corporation
- Ci – Foreign Lmtd Liab Co - Oos
- Pl – Tx Limited Prtnshp
- Pf – Frgn Limited Prtnshp
What Texas's statuses mean
Texas 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 |
|---|---|
| Right to transact: A | Active. The company's right to do business in Texas is intact. This is the only code Clerkfield treats as a pass. |
| Right to transact: N | Forfeited. The Comptroller took away the company's right to do business in Texas, usually over unfiled franchise tax reports or unpaid tax. |
| Right to transact: D | Active, and has met the franchise tax requirements to end or withdraw its registration. Often a company on its way out. |
| Right to transact: U | Franchise tax not established. The Comptroller has not yet set the company up for franchise tax, which is common for very new companies. |
| SOS status: A | Active on the Secretary of State's records. |
| SOS status: R | Reinstated. The company was ended at some point and has since been brought back. |
| SOS status: F | Forfeited franchise tax. The Secretary of State forfeited the charter or registration over franchise tax. |
| SOS status: W | Withdrawn. A company formed elsewhere gave up its registration to do business in Texas. |
How to search Texas records by hand
The state's own search is at comptroller.texas.gov.
- Open the Comptroller's Franchise Tax Account Status Search.
- Search by entity name (2 to 50 characters), the 11-digit taxpayer number or 9-digit EIN, or the Secretary of State file number.
- Open the match and read its right to transact business status.
- For the Secretary of State's own record and filings, sign in to SOSPortal and pay the $1 search fee.
Fees and how current the data is
Fees
The Comptroller's franchise tax status search has no listed fee. The Secretary of State charges $1 per search on SOSPortal, $15 for a certificate of fact (status) and $25 for a long-form certificate of existence.
How current it is
Comptroller open data with no published refresh schedule; it was last refreshed on 7 November 2026 when checked
Good to know about Texas records
01
Texas business data comes from the Comptroller's franchise tax records, not the Secretary of State, though it carries the SOS file number, charter date and SOS status code.
02
Despite the dataset's name, Active Franchise Taxpayers, it includes companies whose right to transact business is forfeited. Read the code, not the file name.
03
Only businesses set up for Texas franchise tax appear, so sole proprietors and other businesses outside franchise tax will not be found.
04
The file names no officers, owners or registered agent.
Liens on Texas businesses
Texas UCC filings are kept by the Texas Secretary of State, Uniform Commercial Code and searched at webservices.sos.state.tx.us. $1 per search, paid before the search runs and charged even when nothing is found. Clerkfield doesn't search Texas liens yet.
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The Secretary of State charges $1 for every search on SOSPortal, while the Comptroller publishes its franchise tax roster free. That roster carries the company's SOS file number, charter date and SOS status, so the two records line up.
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N means forfeited: the Comptroller has taken away the company's right to do business in Texas, usually over franchise tax. Treat it as a stop until the merchant shows it has been reinstated.
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No. The Comptroller's file has no officers, owners or registered agent. To see who runs the company, use the Secretary of State's record on SOSPortal.
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Only those set up for franchise tax under Tax Code Chapter 171, which covers corporations, LLCs and similar entities. A sole proprietor trading under its own name will not appear.
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Order a certificate of fact (status) from the Secretary of State for $15, or a long-form certificate of existence, which adds the list of filings, for $25.