How a Business Search Works in Nevada

The Commercial Recordings Division of the Nevada Secretary of State, at 101 North Carson Street in Carson City, files the articles and annual lists of every Nevada corporation, limited liability company and partnership, and its pages at nvsos.gov answered an empty page to this server on reading day, with their content built by script, so the rules below are taken from the Nevada Revised Statutes on the Legislature site, which set every fee and date the division applies. The division search, long known as SilverFlume, now redirects to the business portal at orion.nv.gov, where entity records are searched and annual lists filed.

What makes a Nevada record useful is the annual list. Under NRS 78.150 a corporation files, with its articles and then every year, a list naming its president, secretary and treasurer or their equivalents and all of its directors, with a residence or business address for each, signed under a certification that the list is true, and under NRS 86.263 a limited liability company lists all of its managers or, where there is none, all of its managing members. Each list must state whether the entity is a publicly traded company and, if so, give its Central Index Key, which the Secretary of State publishes with instructions for reaching its filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission. For Nevada businesses by place, see the Nevada county pages.

  • Last day of the anniversary month: when the annual list of officers or managers falls due each year, unless the entity chose an alternative date.
  • One hundred fifty dollars and up: the annual list fee, scaled by authorized shares for a corporation up to eleven thousand one hundred twenty five.
  • Two hundred or five hundred dollars: the yearly state business license renewed with the list, the higher figure for a corporation.
  • Seventy five dollars, then revocation: the default penalty, and the loss of the charter on the first day of the anniversary month a year on.

Written by SearchSystems.net from Nevada's own systems: NRS Chapter 78, Private Corporations, on the Nevada Legislature site, NRS Chapter 86, Limited-Liability Companies, NRS Chapter 80, Foreign Corporations, NRS Chapter 76, State Business Licenses, NRS Chapter 77, the Model Registered Agents Act, NRS Chapter 602, Doing Business Under Assumed or Fictitious Name, the Nevada Secretary of State businesses page, the Commercial Recordings forms and fees page, the Commercial Recordings database search page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

The annual list and what it costs

The list is due with the articles of incorporation or organization and then annually on or before the last day of the month in which the anniversary of formation falls, unless the entity has chosen an alternative due date, which the statute allows. It travels with a declaration under penalty of perjury that the entity has complied with the business license chapter, that it understands under NRS 239.330 that offering a false or forged instrument for filing is a category C felony, and that no officer or director has been named to conceal the identity of whoever really exercises the office.

The initial list costs one hundred fifty dollars for either entity type, and an LLC pays one hundred fifty for each annual list after it. A corporation annual list is scaled to the capital represented by its authorized shares: one hundred fifty dollars at seventy five thousand dollars or less, two hundred up to two hundred thousand, three hundred up to five hundred thousand, four hundred up to one million, and two hundred seventy five for each further five hundred thousand, to a ceiling of eleven thousand one hundred twenty five.

Under NRS 80.110 a foreign corporation files the same list of its president, secretary, treasurer and directors in the month of its qualification anniversary. An amended list filed within sixty days of the initial list costs nothing, the Secretary of State sends each entity a reminder of the fee and list due, and failure to receive the reminder excuses nothing.

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The business license that rides on the list

Nevada folds its state business license into the same filing. Under NRS 76.100 no person may conduct a business in the state without a license from the Secretary of State, and an entity that files lists obtains the license when it files its initial or annual list, giving its exact name on file, its business identification number and its Nevada locations. The application fee is two hundred dollars, and under NRS 76.130 the renewal is two hundred dollars a year, submitted with the annual list, except for a corporation organized under Chapter 78, 78A or 78B or a foreign corporation filing lists under Chapter 80, which pays five hundred.

The office sends a notice ninety days before the license falls due. For a researcher the practical effect is that a Nevada corporation current on its list has paid at least six hundred fifty dollars that year, and a lapsed list usually means a lapsed license as well.

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Default, revocation and the three hundred dollar way back

The sequence after a missed list is written into three sections. Under NRS 78.170 an entity that refuses or neglects to file and pay within the time allowed is in default and owes a penalty of seventy five dollars on top of the fee, the same figure NRS 86.272 sets for an LLC and NRS 80.150 for a foreign corporation. Under NRS 78.175 the Secretary of State notifies the registered agent of the default with a statement of the fee, penalty and costs unpaid, and on the first day of the first anniversary of the month following the month in which the filing was required the charter is revoked and the right to transact business forfeited; the office compiles a list of every corporation that has forfeited and notifies each one again, and the directors hold the assets of a defaulting domestic corporation in trust for creditors and stockholders.

Under NRS 78.180 the corporation is reinstated on filing the overdue list, the registered agent information required by Chapter 77 and a declaration that the board or a court authorized the reinstatement, and on paying the fee and penalty for every year it failed to file plus a reinstatement fee of three hundred dollars; a reinstatement relates back to the forfeiture, but a charter revoked for five consecutive years cannot be reinstated at all.

A foreign corporation under NRS 80.150 forfeits its right to do business if the list, fee and penalty are not in by the last day of the anniversary month.

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Certificates, copies and what fifty dollars buys

NRS 78.785 sets the fee for a certificate of corporate existence at fifty dollars whether or not it lists the previous records relating to the corporation, a certificate of a change of corporate name at fifty, any other certificate or record at fifty, certified copies of articles or an amendment at thirty, a name reservation at twenty five, copies from the office at two dollars a page, and a provisional examination of a record before filing at one hundred twenty five.

NRS 86.561 applies the same schedule to limited liability companies and prices their own filings: seventy five dollars for articles of organization or a foreign registration, one hundred seventy five for an amendment, restatement or correction, one hundred for articles of dissolution or a certificate of cancellation, thirty for a certified copy of the articles, and one hundred dollars for service of process on the Secretary of State as the company agent, recoverable as costs by a party who prevails.

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What the state does not hold: stock ledgers and fictitious names

Nevada names officers, directors and managers on the public file but not owners. NRS 78.105 requires a corporation to keep its stock ledger, with the names and residences of its stockholders of record and the shares each holds, at its principal office or with a custodian of records whose name and address are available at the registered office, revised each year within sixty days of the annual list date, together with certified copies of its articles and bylaws; a stockholder of six months standing, or holders of five percent of the shares, may inspect it on five days written demand with an affidavit.

None of that is filed with the Secretary of State. A trading name is a county record: under NRS 602.010 every person doing business under an assumed or fictitious name that differs in any way from the legal name of each owner files a certificate with the county clerk of each county in which the business is conducted, and NRS 602.020 requires the certificate to give the full name and street address of each natural person owner, each partner or each trustee, or the name and mailing address of an artificial person.

A Nevada DBA search therefore runs through the county clerk, and a member of a series LLC doing business under a series name is treated the same way. For the people behind a Nevada company, the Nevada people search guide lists the state sources.

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Registered agents, and the search that moved

Under NRS 77.310 every registered agent filing names either a commercial registered agent, listed with the Secretary of State, or a noncommercial agent with a name and address, or an office within the entity whose holder will receive process, with a certificate of acceptance from the agent, and the annual list declaration confirms that the entity has kept its agent current. The division own pages, when they answer, carry a registered agent listing, a restricted word list for names, sample certificates, a public records request page and a listing of forms and fees, and the search page hands off to the business portal that replaced the older system under the office Project Orion; the release notes for that portal are dated October and November 2025.

Where a Nevada company is sued, the Nevada court records guide covers the district court records, and the Nevada background check guide the person level checks a corporate record never performs.

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Questions about looking up a Nevada business

When is a Nevada annual list due?
On or before the last day of the month in which the anniversary of formation or qualification falls, every year, under NRS 78.150 for corporations, 86.263 for LLCs and 80.110 for foreign corporations, unless the entity selected an alternative date.
What does a Nevada annual list cost?
One hundred fifty dollars for an LLC, and for a corporation one hundred fifty dollars at seventy five thousand dollars of authorized capital or less, rising by the share scale to a maximum of eleven thousand one hundred twenty five, plus the two hundred or five hundred dollar state business license.
What happens when a Nevada company misses its list?
It is in default and owes a seventy five dollar penalty; on the first day of the anniversary month a year later its charter is revoked, and it may reinstate for three hundred dollars plus every missed fee and penalty, but not after five years of revocation.
How much is a Nevada certificate of existence?
Fifty dollars under NRS 78.785, with or without the list of previous records, and certified copies of articles thirty dollars.
Does the Nevada record show who owns a corporation?
No. The annual list names officers and directors, or managers and managing members, and the stock ledger with the stockholders of record is kept by the corporation under NRS 78.105, not filed with the state.
Where is a Nevada fictitious firm name filed?
With the county clerk of each county where the business is conducted, under NRS 602.010, on a certificate naming every owner, partner or trustee with a street address.

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The other Nevada guides on this site are the Nevada public records law guide for NRS Chapter 239, the Nevada court records guide for the district and justice court portals, the Nevada property records guide for the county recorders and assessors, and the Nevada county pages for every county office.