The Idaho Secretary of State registers corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and assumed business names through its Business Services Division in Boise, and since the office moved its filings online it points every lookup at SOSBiz, which it describes on its starting a business page as the place to look up business information, registered agents and more. The search box states its own rule, that searching starts with the entered keyword, and an Advanced Search Options panel sits beneath it; the same portal carries lists, forms, and the separate notary, lien and trademark searches.
The office tells filers that business registrations are public records and that the names and addresses on them may be available to anyone, which is the premise of the search. Its business questions page and its forms page both note that filings are currently processed about seven to ten days from the date of filing, with the live date published on the SOSBiz processed through page. For Idaho businesses by place, see the Idaho county pages.
- No fee: the annual report, listed at no charge in Section 30-21-214 and due by the end of the month the entity was formed.
- Ten dollars: a certificate of existence from the office, against the marked up price of the false certificate mailings it warns about.
- Sixty days: without a registered agent, or one missed report, and the Secretary of State may begin administrative dissolution.
- Ten years: the window in which a dissolved Idaho entity may reinstate, paying everything that would have fallen due meanwhile.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Idaho's own systems: the Idaho Secretary of State starting a business page, the frequently asked questions for business, the business forms page, the new business page, the SOSBiz business search, Idaho Code Section 30-21-213 on the annual report, Idaho Code Section 30-21-214 on fees, Idaho Code Section 30-21-601 on the grounds for administrative dissolution, Idaho Code Section 30-21-602 on the procedure, Idaho Code Section 30-21-603 on reinstatement, Idaho Code Section 30-21-804 on assumed business names, Idaho Code Section 30-21-209 on signing an entity filing, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The annual report, free and due by the anniversary month
Section 30-21-213 of the Idaho Code requires every domestic filing entity, domestic limited liability partnership and registered foreign entity to deliver an annual report stating its name and jurisdiction of formation, its registered agent, the street and mailing addresses of its principal office and the name of at least one governor, a director, member or partner. The report is due each year before the end of the month in which the entity formation record became effective or the foreign entity registered, and from one year after that date it must be received by the close of business on the last day of that month.
On the fee list in Section 30-21-214 the annual report is marked no fee, which is why the office can say, in warning about a false notice, that no fee is due to the state for it. A report that lacks required information is returned for correction, and a report naming a different registered agent counts as a statement of change. Most reports are filed inside SOSBiz, and the questions page explains that a company which cannot see its own record has simply not linked it to its account.
How an Idaho entity is dissolved, and the ten year way back
The grounds are short. Under Section 30-21-601 the Secretary of State may begin to dissolve a domestic entity administratively if it does not deliver its annual report by the due date, has no registered agent in the state for sixty consecutive days, or is credibly reported to have failed for sixty days to disclose that its agent changed or resigned. Section 30-21-602 gives the entity sixty days after service of a notice to cure or disprove each ground, after which a statement of administrative dissolution reciting the grounds and the effective date is filed and served.
A dissolved entity continues to exist as the same type of entity but may do nothing except wind up, or apply to come back. Section 30-21-603 allows that application for ten years after the dissolution date, on payment of every fee, tax, interest and penalty that was due at dissolution and everything that would have fallen due in between, with a thirty dollar application fee on the schedule, and the reinstatement then relates back as if the dissolution had never occurred, without disturbing the rights of anyone who relied on the dissolution before learning of the reinstatement. The questions page adds that only Idaho entities may reinstate.
The ten dollar certificate and the mailings that mark it up
The starting a business page says what a certificate of existence is for, proof that a business is properly registered with the State of Idaho, and what it costs, ten dollars ordered directly from the office, a figure the fee statute confirms. A paper order form exists, and a verification tool checks a certificate number printed at its bottom left. Under the heading Beware of False Certificate Scams the office states that a certificate of existence is not required to do business in Idaho, and that scam websites and mailings may suggest one is necessary and offer it at a high markup.
Copies of any filed record cost twenty five cents a page and ten dollars for the certification. A foreign business registering in Idaho must bring a certificate of existence from its own state dated within ninety days of filing, and the forms page prices the foreign registration statement at one hundred dollars.
What the fee list says about speed and paper
Section 30-21-214 attaches three surcharges to any filing. Forty dollars buys evidence of filing within eight working hours of delivery, which the questions page describes as the expedited service for certain filings; one hundred dollars buys same day service on a filing submitted before one in the afternoon Mountain time, with later submissions rolling to the next business day; and twenty dollars is charged for any form not generated by the electronic filing system that needs manual data entry, which the forms page repeats against every paper form and says will cause a form submitted without it to be rejected.
The statute prices the main filings as well: one hundred dollars for articles of incorporation of a business corporation, a certificate of organization of a limited liability company, a certificate of limited partnership, a statement of qualification of a limited liability partnership or a foreign registration statement, thirty for a nonprofit corporation, thirty for an amendment, merger, conversion or correction, twenty for a name reservation that lasts four months, sixty for registering an out of state corporate name, and nothing for articles of dissolution, an LLC statement of dissolution or a registered agent resignation. Withdrawing or correcting a filed record earns no refund.
Assumed business names that no longer expire
An Idaho assumed business name, which the office calls an ABN and the public calls a DBA, is a state filing, so a search for a trading name runs through SOSBiz rather than a county office. The questions page gives the office own example, Smith Enterprises LLC filing an ABN to operate as Mountain Coffee, and makes two points about what the filing is not: it creates no separate legal entity and it is not a business license. Under Section 30-21-804 a name filed since July 1, 2015 may not contain the words or abbreviations reserved for entities and may not be only the true name of an individual, and an entity later taking a similar name does not invalidate an ABN filed first.
The certificate costs twenty five dollars on the fee schedule, an amendment ten, an address only amendment nothing, and a cancellation nothing when filed online. ABNs are no longer subject to renewal and do not expire after a set period, so a name found in the register may be decades old and still active until its owner cancels it. Where the name is not distinguishable from one already registered, the owner of the existing name must sign a consent letter without conditions, and the questions page prints the wording for a corporation and for an LLC.
Stock, owners and the records kept elsewhere
The office answers the shareholder question directly: the Secretary of State does not maintain records of stock ownership or shareholders for Idaho corporations, which are kept by the corporation itself or a transfer agent. Someone holding old stock certificates is told to search the register to see whether the company is still active, then to contact the company or its transfer agent, and to consult a financial professional if the company is gone, since the office cannot say whether the certificates have value.
Tax accounts belong to the Idaho State Tax Commission, employer identification numbers to the Internal Revenue Service, and a registered agent, who must have a physical street address in Idaho rather than a post office box, is a private arrangement the office neither provides nor endorses, although it publishes a fourteen day list of recently appointed agents. Every entity filing is signed under the penalties of perjury under Section 30-21-209, and a person signing as agent affirms that they are authorized to.
For the people behind an Idaho company, the Idaho people search guide lists the state sources, and the Idaho court records guide covers the iCourt portal where a dispute over a company would be filed.
Questions about looking up a Idaho business
Related Idaho records
The other Idaho guides on this site are the Idaho public records law guide for the Public Records Act, the Idaho court records guide for the iCourt portal, the Idaho property records guide for the county assessors and recorders, and the Idaho county pages for every county office.