The first stop is the Corporations Division business entity search, run by the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin. The division describes itself as the repository for records of about two hundred and fifteen thousand business and nonprofit corporations and over two hundred thousand limited liability entities organized or registered in the Commonwealth, and it also keeps limited partnerships, business trusts, limited liability partnerships, trademarks, service marks and Uniform Commercial Code filings. Many entity filings can be viewed as images in the corporate database. Records and filings received before 2001 were microfilmed or put on fiche, and those are open for public inspection in the Public Room on weekdays from 8:45 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon.
The search misses a whole class of businesses. A person or partnership trading under any name other than the owner's real name files a business certificate with the clerk of the city or town where the business has an office, not with the state, so a plumber trading as Bay State Pipes may never appear in the state database at all. For that search the right office is the local clerk, and the Massachusetts county pages lead to the local offices.
- Seven dollars: a corporate certificate of legal existence, with a good standing certificate twelve dollars, both available while you wait for up to five.
- Five hundred dollars a year: the annual report fee for a limited liability company, set by the General Laws, the same as the fee to form one.
- Four years: how long a city or town business certificate lasts before it lapses unless renewed.
- Before 2001: filings were microfilmed or fiched and are inspected in the Public Room rather than viewed online.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Massachusetts's own systems: the Corporations Division business entity search, the Corporations Division fee schedule, General Laws chapter 110, section 5, on business certificates, General Laws chapter 156D, section 16.22, on the corporate annual report, General Laws chapter 156C, section 12, on the limited liability company certificate, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What the certificates cost and what each one proves
Massachusetts prices its corporate certificates by what they say rather than by a flat fee, and the fee schedule lists the content of each. For a business corporation, a certificate of legal existence costs seven dollars and shows the name, the date of incorporation and that the company legally exists. A good standing certificate costs twelve dollars and goes further, adding that annual reports and fees are paid and no dissolution is pending.
Legal existence with two or more name changes costs twelve, with officers attached twelve, with a chronological list of amendments twenty, and with both amendments and officers twenty five. Certificates of merger, conversion, consolidation and charter surrender run twenty dollars each, and a dissolution certificate seven.
The schedule is dated March 14, 2022, the latest version the division links, and it is the one read for this guide. Ordering electronically adds an expedite charge on a sliding scale, three dollars on anything under fifteen dollars, three fifty from fifteen to just under twenty five, and six dollars from twenty five to just under eighty five, rising to four and a half percent of the fee for transactions over five hundred dollars.
Limited liability companies pay more and prove more
A limited liability company certificate costs more than its corporate cousin. Legal existence is twelve dollars, and a good standing certificate is twenty five dollars, listing the name, the date of formation, that all annual reports are filed, the managers and signatories, and that the company has not been canceled or withdrawn. That listing of managers and signatories is useful: it is often the quickest official record of who controls a Massachusetts limited liability company.
In person, a good standing request is filled while you wait for three or fewer names and up to five certificates, while four or more names can take up to five days.
The big number sits elsewhere. Chapter 156C, section 12 of the General Laws sets the fee for forming a limited liability company at five hundred dollars and the fee for every annual report at five hundred dollars as well, both paid to the state secretary at filing. The report is due on or before the anniversary of the date the company was organized. A company that falls behind and is administratively dissolved must file all of its missing annual reports before reinstatement, at a hundred dollars for the reinstatement filing itself.
The corporate annual report and its two and a half month clock
Corporations run on their own fiscal year. Under chapter 156D, section 16.22, every domestic corporation and every foreign corporation authorized to do business in the Commonwealth delivers an annual report within two and a half months after the end of its fiscal year. The report names the directors, the officers, the chief executive and chief financial officers, the registered agent and office, the principal office, the authorized and issued shares by class, and a brief description of the company activities in Massachusetts, all current as of the day the report is signed, which makes the filed report a fairly rich snapshot for a researcher.
The division counts arrival, not postmark: the report must reach the office within the two and a half month window to be on time. A paper report costs a hundred and twenty five dollars, or a hundred and fifty if late, while an electronic filing costs a hundred dollars plus a ten dollar expedite fee. Late fees are waived for paper reports filed after an administrative dissolution. A foreign corporation seeking reinstatement must first file annual reports for the last ten fiscal years and attach a certificate of good standing from its home state issued within ninety days, plus a certificate from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Trade names live at the town clerk
Chapter 110, section 5 of the General Laws requires anyone conducting business in the Commonwealth under a name other than their real name, alone or in a partnership, to file a certificate with the clerk of every city or town where the business has an office. The certificate gives the full name and residence of each owner, the street address where the business is conducted and the name used, and it is signed under oath in front of the clerk or someone authorized to take oaths. The clerk may ask for proof of identity and, if none is produced, notes that fact on the face of the certificate.
Three details matter to anyone checking on a small business. Each clerk keeps an index of the certificates currently in force, including any later statement that an owner withdrew, moved or closed, so the index is the place to search. A certificate lasts four years and lapses unless renewed. And copies must be kept at the business address and handed over during business hours to anyone who has bought goods or services from the business, a right of inspection few customers know they have. Violations carry a fine of up to three hundred dollars for each month they continue.
Copies, hours and paying
Certified copies of articles of organization for domestic profit, professional, nonprofit and foreign corporations cost twelve dollars, with every other certified copy priced at seven dollars for the first page and two dollars for each further page of the same document. An in person request takes a minimum of twenty minutes. Corporate documents are filed and certificates issued between 8:45 in the morning and 4:00 in the afternoon on weekdays, while Uniform Commercial Code documents are taken until 5:00.
Checks and money orders are payable to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and must be drawn on a United States bank or the Postal Service, cash is taken in person only, and fax or electronic filings are paid by card or e-check.
Questions go to the division at (617) 727-9640 or (617) 727-2850, or to corpinfo@sec.state.ma.us. Service of process on a foreign corporation, a foreign limited liability company or a foreign individual or partner through the Secretary costs ten dollars, and a letter of compliance confirming that service was made is another ten.
Reading a Massachusetts record correctly
Several quirks of the register change how a result should be read. A corporation formed under chapter 156D appears with articles of organization, while a limited liability company shows a certificate of organization, and a professional corporation or company also needs a certificate from the regulating board before it can file, so a professional name in the database has passed a licensing check. Statements changing officers, directors, the fiscal year end or the principal office cost twenty five dollars on paper and nothing online, which tends to keep online filers current.
Certain nonprofits, such as schools, hospitals and religious organizations, need not file annual reports, and the division will not issue them a legal existence certificate listing officers unless an annual report or a change of officers was filed in the last ten years.
Finally, the date matters. Revival applies to companies dissolved before July 1, 2004, and reinstatement to those administratively dissolved after it, so an old dissolved record and a recent one take different paths back to life, each priced at a hundred dollars.
Questions about looking up a Massachusetts business
Related Massachusetts records
Massachusetts guides on this site include the Massachusetts public records law guide for record requests, the Massachusetts court records guide for lawsuits against a company, the Massachusetts property records guide for the registries of deeds, and the Massachusetts county pages for local offices.