Every Minnesota filing lives in one system the Secretary of State calls Business and Liens, and the business filing search is its front door. A record can be found by business name or by file number, with the name match set to begins with or contains, the results limited to active or inactive filings, and prior names either excluded or included. The page itself gives the best tip: type only a portion of the name. Including prior names is the setting that catches a company which has renamed itself since the contract or invoice in your hand was written.
The same page carries a warning that matters to anyone researching an owner rather than a company. Information provided when filing a business entity is public data and may be viewable online, and the office spells out that this includes all individual names and addresses. Looking is free and needs no account, while filing, renewing and ordering copies need an online account. For Minnesota businesses by place, see the Minnesota county pages.
- Zero dollars: the annual renewal for domestic corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, nonprofits and assumed names.
- December 31: the date each calendar year by which a Minnesota corporation must file its renewal.
- Five dollars: the statutory fee for a certificate, with three dollars per copy of a filing.
- Email only: the Secretary of State says it never mails renewal notices, so a paper bill is not from the office.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Minnesota's own systems: the Minnesota Secretary of State business filing search, the Secretary of State page on mail solicitations, the business filing and certification fee schedule, the UCC, tax and CNS forms and fees page, Minnesota Statutes section 5.12 on certificates and copies, Minnesota Statutes section 5.26 on good standing, Minnesota Statutes section 5.35 on held names, Minnesota Statutes section 302A.821 on corporate renewals, Minnesota Statutes section 333.055 on assumed names, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What good standing means in Minnesota
Minnesota defines the phrase in statute, which makes a search result easier to read than in most states. Under section 5.26, good standing means the entity, or the filer of an assumed name or trademark, has complied with every filing and registration requirement of its governing chapter. One clause surprises people: a filer whose payment is rejected or dishonored is not in good standing until the payment clears or the delinquent amount is paid, so a bounced check can change the status shown on the record.
The consequences are spelled out too. A business that is not in good standing cannot amend its organizing document or file anything else except the documents that return it to good standing, although it may still dissolve or be merged out of existence. The office notes good standing on each record and must refuse a certificate of good standing to an entity that lacks it, issuing instead a certificate of not in good standing, a document few states offer by name.
Certificates and copies, and what they cost
Section 5.12 sets the prices. Each certificate, or each certification of a copy or image of a filed document, costs five dollars. A copy of an original business entity filing costs three dollars, and so does a copy of each later filing. At the time of filing, the office may hand over a copy of ten pages or fewer at the public counter without charge. Besides the certificates of good standing and not in good standing, the statute provides a certificate of registration for a filing, such as an assumed name, that does not create a separate legal entity.
The forms and fees pages add a practical detail for paper orders. Filings sent by mail are returned to the address printed on the check unless the sender gives other instructions or a return envelope, and enclosing a prepaid FedEx, USPS Priority Mail or UPS label speeds the return without being required.
The December 31 renewal and what happens when it is missed
A Minnesota corporation must file its renewal by December 31 of every calendar year after the year it incorporates, under section 302A.821. If no renewal arrives during a calendar year, the Secretary of State must issue a certificate of administrative dissolution and publish the names of dissolved corporations electronically. Filing the renewal later with the statutory twenty five dollar fee puts the corporation back in good standing as of the date of dissolution, validates contracts made in the meantime and restores its assets and rights, except where they were affected or sold after the dissolution.
The office fee schedule prices reinstatement higher than that statutory figure: sixty five dollars by mail and eighty five online or in person for assumed names, domestic corporations, cooperatives, LLCs and limited partnerships, forty and sixty for domestic nonprofits, and five hundred forty or five hundred sixty for foreign business corporations and foreign cooperatives. A researcher should expect the posted schedule to be what the office actually collects.
The schedule adds that an entity inactive for more than six years cannot be reinstated online. Meanwhile section 5.35 has the office automatically reserve the name of a dissolved or terminated filer for one year, so a lapsed company name cannot be grabbed straight away.
Renewal fees by entity type
Domestic filers renew for nothing. The fee schedule lists no charge for domestic corporations, cooperatives, LLCs, limited partnerships, nonprofits and assumed names, and none for foreign LLCs and foreign limited partnerships either. Foreign business corporations and foreign cooperatives pay one hundred fifteen dollars by mail or one hundred thirty five online, domestic and foreign limited liability partnerships one hundred thirty five or one hundred fifty five, name reservations thirty five or fifty five, and trademarks twenty five or forty five.
Foreign nonprofit corporations file no annual renewal at all. Online filings are expedited, typically two to five business days, and in person filings are processed while the customer waits.
Formation prices on the search portal are fifty five dollars for a name reservation, one hundred fifty five for a domestic business corporation or domestic LLC, two hundred twenty for a foreign corporation, two hundred five for a foreign LLC, one hundred twenty for a limited partnership, ninety for a domestic nonprofit, seventy for a trademark and fifty for an assumed name.
Assumed names, with an odd fee gap
An assumed name certificate in Minnesota stays in effect only while an annual renewal is filed in each calendar year after the original filing, and section 333.055 makes that renewal free. A certificate expires in the calendar year after a missed renewal, and it can be reinstated by filing the renewal with a twenty five dollar reinstatement fee. Certificates on file on September 5, 2011 were exempt from yearly renewal until their original ten year term ran out.
The statute sets the filing fee at thirty dollars, while the portal lists an assumed name at fifty, so the two official sources disagree on the price and the portal figure is what an online filer sees.
The office must accept an assumed name even if it is not distinguishable from another assumed name already on file, which means a search can return two unrelated businesses trading under the same name. It will not accept one that collides with a corporate, LLC, partnership or cooperative name in use or reserved, or with a registered trademark, without written consent or a court decree.
The renewal mailers
The Secretary of State keeps a page on mail solicitations about third party letters that misstate its fees, mostly for annual renewals, and that suggest a fee must be paid to meet a reporting requirement. The office gives two examples of official sounding names that are not government agencies, United States Business Records Division and Federal Business Filing Department. Its decisive point is that it never sends renewal notices by mail, only courtesy reminders by email, so any paper invoice for a Minnesota renewal comes from someone else.
Its advice is to check the entity status online first: a business whose renewal is due in 2026 can file now, while one whose renewal is due in 2027 is in good standing and its renewal opens next year. Warning signs it lists include urgent language, legal jargon or citations, misspellings, exorbitant fees and threats of jail time. Before paying anyone, owners can call the office at 651-296-2803 in the metro area or 1-877-551-6767 from greater Minnesota.
Liens filed against a business
Business and Liens also holds the Uniform Commercial Code and state tax lien filings, searchable online, and the Central Notification System for farm product liens, with standard and limited search requests, secured party searches, a debtor name look up subscription and bulk UCC data for sale. The UCC, tax and CNS forms page gives the mailing address for paper filings and search requests: Minnesota Secretary of State, UCC, First National Bank Building, 332 Minnesota Street, Suite N201, Saint Paul, with checks payable to MN Secretary of State.
It also carries an affidavit of wrongful filing for anyone named as debtor on a fraudulent financing statement. One reminder for owners researching their own company: registration with the office does not produce a tax ID number, which comes from the Department of Revenue for the state and the IRS for federal purposes.
Questions about looking up a Minnesota business
Related Minnesota records
Minnesota guides that pair with a business lookup on this site are the Minnesota public records law guide, the Minnesota court records guide for suits against a company, the Minnesota property records guide for county land records, and the Minnesota county pages for each county office.