The Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing, inside the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, is the filing office for corporations under AS 10.06, nonprofit corporations under AS 10.20, limited liability companies under AS 10.50, limited partnerships under AS 32.11 and limited liability partnerships under AS 32.06, and it publishes the whole body of law it works under in a single statutes and regulations compilation, the June 2026 edition at the time of reading. Its Corporations Section works from Post Office Box 110806 in Juneau, on 907-465-2550, and its forms say what the free lookup offers: the corporations database, reached from the division site as Search Corporations Database, can be searched by entity name, entity number, officer name or registered agent, and in many cases copies of filed documents can be had from the site at no charge.
What a researcher finds on an Alaska record is shaped by the biennial report, the two yearly filing that every corporation and limited liability company must make, and by the fact that the report asks for owners. Section 10.06.808 requires a corporation to set out its directors and officers, the shares it may issue and has issued by class, every alien affiliate with the percentage of shares it controls, and the name and address of each person owning at least five percent of the shares or of any class as of September 30 of the second year of the reporting period. Section 10.50.755 asks a limited liability company for its managers, or its members where they manage, and each person owning at least a five percent interest. The division instructions on a foreign LLC registration repeat the rule in plain words, telling a company to file a Change of Officials form whenever its officers, directors, members, managers or owners of five percent or more change between reports. For Alaska businesses by place, see the Alaska borough pages.
- Five percent owners: named with their addresses on every corporate and LLC biennial report, an ownership disclosure most states never make.
- January 2, then February 1: the report and tax are due before the first date and delinquent on the second, in even or odd years by the year of formation.
- One hundred or two hundred dollars: the biennial corporation tax, domestic or foreign, with twenty five dollars for each year or part of a year late.
- Ten dollars: a certificate of good standing on the division copy request form, with documents at ten dollars each and a whole file for thirty.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Alaska's own systems: the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing statutes and regulations compilation, June 2026, the Alaska Statutes on the Alaska Legislature site, the Alaska Administrative Code on the Alaska Legislature site, the division copy request form 08-4535, the foreign limited liability company registration instructions, form 08-0497 revised May 7, 2026, the foreign business corporation certificate of authority form 08-414, the change of registered agent form 08-409, the domestic cooperative articles of amendment form 08-463, the foreign corporation name registration form 08-558, the business license certificate copy request form 08-4080, the division release of January 22, 2018 on the Alaska Council for Corporations solicitation, the division release of November 3, 2016 on the same solicitation, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The two year calendar
Section 10.06.811 sets the rhythm. A corporation that filed its articles, or a foreign corporation that received its certificate of authority, in an even numbered year files its biennial report in every even numbered year, and one formed in an odd year files in odd years. The report is due before January 2 of the filing year and is delinquent if not filed before February 1, although a report deposited in the United States mail by February 1, sealed, addressed and stamped, counts as filed.
A report returned for correction and sent back in time to be filed before April 1 escapes the penalty. A new corporation also files a first report within six months of incorporation once the commissioner sends it the form. Section 10.50.760 repeats the same dates, the same even and odd split and the same six month first report for limited liability companies, and cooperatives and nonprofit corporations under AS 10.15 and AS 10.20 run on a different clock, due before July 2 and delinquent on August 1.
Between reports the record is kept current by notices of change. Under Section 10.06.813 a corporation whose officers, directors or alien affiliates change in the first year of a reporting period, or whose five percent shareholders change before September 30 of that year, must file a notice amending its last report before the following January 2, signed by the president or vice president and naming the person replaced and the office held.
A limited liability company does the same for a change of manager or managing member under Section 10.50.765. The division enforces the calendar at the counter as well: its amendment form for cooperatives states that an amendment will not be filed while a biennial report is due or while the signatures do not match the officers on record, and sends the filer to the database to check both first.
The biennial tax and what lateness costs
Alaska charges a biennial corporation tax alongside the report. Under Section 10.06.845 a domestic corporation pays one hundred dollars and a foreign corporation two hundred before January 2 of each filing year, and one that has not paid before February 1 owes a penalty of twenty five dollars for each year or part of a year of delinquency; nonprofit corporations under AS 10.20 pay no tax. A corporation that fails or refuses to file its report in time owes a further penalty under Section 10.06.815 of ten percent of the corporation tax assessed for the period from January 1 of the year the report was due.
The regulations price the limited liability company and limited liability partnership reports the same way, in 3 AAC 16.065 and 3 AAC 16.055: one hundred dollars for a domestic company and two hundred for a foreign one, a late charge of twenty five dollars for each year or part of a year, and an additional charge of ten percent of the filing fee for a report not filed in time. The tax is also folded into the price of arriving: the certificate of authority form for a foreign corporation and the registration form for a foreign LLC each ask three hundred fifty dollars, which the corporation form breaks down as the one hundred fifty dollar filing fee plus the two hundred dollar tax for the first reporting period.
Why a delinquent company cannot sue
Section 10.06.848 gives the tax a sharper edge than a fee. A domestic or foreign corporation may not commence a suit, action or proceeding in an Alaska court without alleging and proving, when it starts the case, that it has paid its last biennial corporation tax and filed its last biennial report. A certificate of payment and filing issued by the commissioner is prima facie evidence of both, for a fee set by regulation, and a corporation dissolved involuntarily may still bring an action to wind up its affairs under Section 10.06.675.
Whether an Alaska company is current is therefore a question a litigant can raise, and the Alaska court records guide covers the court system records where that pleading would appear.
Six months late, then dissolution
The ground that ends most lapsed Alaska corporations is in Section 10.06.633. The commissioner may dissolve a corporation involuntarily when it is delinquent six months in filing its biennial report or in paying its biennial corporation tax or a penalty, when it has gone thirty days without appointing and maintaining a registered agent in the state, when it has failed for thirty days after a change of registered office or agent to file a statement of the change, when it has failed for two years to complete a dissolution it elected, when a board vacancy stands unfilled for six months or past the next annual meeting, when a material fact was misrepresented in a filing, or when it is ninety days late reporting a change of officer, director, alien affiliate or five percent shareholder.
Nothing happens without a mailed written notice and sixty days in which the corporation may correct the failure or ask for a hearing before the office of administrative hearings. A foreign corporation faces revocation of its certificate of authority on the same failures to file and pay. The record of a dissolved or revoked company stays searchable, which is why an Alaska status is read with the last report date beside it, and the registered agent form warns that every entity must continuously maintain an agent in Alaska and that what is filed is a public record posted on the state website.
What the fees buy
Chapter 16 of Title 3 of the Administrative Code is the price list, and the division copy request form turns it into an order sheet. Under 3 AAC 16.080 an uncertified copy of a one page document or of a biennial report costs one dollar, a specified document of more than one page from one file ten dollars, and every document in one corporation file thirty dollars for up to fifty pages and a dollar a page beyond that; the form rounds the first line up, charging ten dollars for any copy of articles, amendments, mergers or a biennial report and thirty for an entire file.
A certificate of corporate status costs ten dollars, and the form states that a Certificate of Good Standing, a Certificate of Compliance and a Good Standing Certificate are the same ten dollar document. Certifying a copy as true and correct costs five dollars, an apostille twenty five with the destination country named, and a compact disc of the division business entity database twenty five. Filing articles of incorporation, a foreign certificate of authority, articles of organization or a statement of qualification for a limited liability partnership costs one hundred fifty dollars under 3 AAC 16.030, 16.065 and 16.055, a nonprofit or religious corporation fifty, and an amendment, merger or other document twenty five, with articles of dissolution at fifteen dollars and a certificate of election to dissolve at ten.
Reserving or registering a business name costs twenty five dollars under 3 AAC 16.010, and a reservation renewed more than twice in twelve months needs a statement of intent to start a business. Under 3 AAC 16.105 an expedited filing adds one hundred fifty dollars and expedited copies fifty, and the commissioner charges twenty five dollars to accept service of process under 3 AAC 16.090. Every fee in the chapter is marked nonrefundable, and checks are payable to the State of Alaska.
How long a filing takes
The division prints its own processing times on its forms rather than on a page. The registered agent change form, which costs twenty five dollars, gives a standard of about ten to fifteen business days for a complete and correct filing, reviewed in the order received. The foreign LLC instructions revised May 7, 2026 say a hard copy filing may take up to three weeks and warn that between October and February processing may be delayed by renewals, which is the biennial report season, and they ask filers not to file both online and on paper because duplicates cause delays and double payments.
A foreign corporation that only wants to protect its name registers it for twenty five dollars, without a corporate indicator and distinguishable under 3 AAC 16.120, but the registration expires at the end of the calendar year, renews yearly with a certificate of good standing from the home state attached, and gives no authority to transact business, so a name found in the register is not always a company doing business in Alaska.
What the report leaves out, and what is filed elsewhere
The biennial report is a statement of persons and shares, not of money. It asks for a brief statement of the character of the business and the codes from the identification code established under Section 10.06.870 that best describe it, the registered office and agent, the principal office of a foreign corporation and its home jurisdiction, but no financial figures. Bylaws, operating agreements and the identity of owners below the five percent line are not filed.
A trade name and a business license in Alaska are separate from the entity record: cooperatives under Section 10.25.540 must take out a license under the Alaska Business License Act, AS 43.70, and that act, not the corporations code, governs the license every business holds. Business licenses have their own search and their own copy form, under which a license certificate is printed free from the license detail page or mailed by the Business Licensing Section for five dollars a copy.
For the people behind a company beyond what the report names, the Alaska people search guide lists the state sources.
The Alaska Council for Corporations mailings
The division has twice named the same mailer. Its release of November 3, 2016 reported an entity calling itself Alaska Council for Corporations, with a Ketchikan address, mailing a 2016 Annual Solicitation Form that quoted the Alaska Statutes out of context to ask for money and information, and its release of January 22, 2018 reported the 2018 version with the form attached: an Annual Records Solicitation Form asking a corporation to verify every stockholder, director and officer and send one hundred fifty dollars to a Tongass Avenue box in Ketchikan for documents to be mailed back within four weeks.
The division said no Alaska business is required to do business with, share information with or pay that entity, and gave its own test, that official correspondence from the division carries the state seal and the governor name in its header. Complaints go to the Department of Law Consumer Protection Unit on 907-269-5200, or 888-576-2529 outside Anchorage.
Questions about looking up a Alaska business
Related Alaska records
Alaska's other records guides on this site are the Alaska public records law guide for the Public Records Act, the Alaska court records guide for CourtView, the Alaska people search guide for the state locator sources, and the Alaska borough pages for every borough office.