The South Dakota Secretary of State, at 500 East Capitol Avenue in Pierre, keeps its business register in a portal it calls Business Services, which offers a search for a business by name or Secretary of State Business ID to view the detail or file reports and amendments, a name availability search, a search for registered agents that lists the businesses each one represents, a trademark search, and online ordering of Certificates of Good Standing and certified copies that download as soon as they are paid for. The same page describes a Doing Business As name registry and a request form for downloading the whole business services database.
The office puts its paper forms on sdsos.gov with a warning that some filings cost fifteen dollars more on paper, and the figures below come from those forms and from the South Dakota Codified Laws on the Legislature site, which set the fees in Section 47-1A-122, the report in Chapter 59-11 and the fictitious name rule in Chapter 37-11. For South Dakota businesses by place, see the South Dakota county pages.
- Fifty five dollars: the annual report fee under Section 47-1A-122, shown as seventy on the paper form with the fifteen dollar paper filing fee.
- Fifty five dollars more: the penalty for an entity that does not file its report within the time prescribed, doubling the cost.
- Sixty days, twice: a report sixty days overdue is a ground for dissolution, and the entity has sixty days after notice to cure it.
- Ten dollars, every person interested: a fictitious name statement filed with the Secretary of State, renewed every fifth year, naming each owner.
Written by SearchSystems.net from South Dakota's own systems: the South Dakota Secretary of State business services portal, the Secretary of State business services page, the business corporation forms page, the limited liability company forms page, the database downloads page, the domestic annual report form revised July 1, 2025, the domestic corporation application for reinstatement, Section 47-1A-122 of the South Dakota Codified Laws on fees, Section 47-1A-1420 on the grounds for administrative dissolution, Section 47-1A-1421 on the procedure, Section 47-1A-1422 on reinstatement, Section 59-11-24 on the annual report, Section 59-11-25 on the time for filing, Section 47-34A-211 on the LLC annual report, Section 37-11-1 on fictitious name statements, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
One report for every entity, naming its governors
South Dakota wrote a single annual report rule for all its entities. Section 59-11-24 requires each filing entity and qualified foreign entity, apart from banks, limited partnerships and the series of a series LLC, to report its name, its jurisdiction of formation, its principal office, its registered agent and the names and business addresses of its governors, the directors of a corporation or the managers of an LLC, with two exceptions: a corporation that has eliminated its board names its shareholders instead, and a member managed LLC need not name its governors at all.
Since the agricultural land amendments every report also states whether the entity owns agricultural land and, if it does, whether it has foreign beneficial owners, in which case it describes the land, its acreage and its use. Section 47-34A-211 routes limited liability companies to the same report. Section 59-11-25 sets the first report for the year after formation, before the first day of the second month of that year, and the same date each year after; a 2026 amendment taking effect January 1, 2027 will let an entity choose between the month of its formation anniversary and January 31 and switch between them on a form.
A report returned for missing information is timely if corrected within thirty days of the notice.
Fifty five dollars, fifty five more when late, and the sixty day clock
Section 47-1A-122, as amended in 2025, prices the annual report at fifty five dollars and adds a fee of fifty five dollars on any entity that does not file or refuses to file within the time prescribed, with an amended annual report at thirty dollars. The paper annual report form revised July 1, 2025 shows the result with the paper filing fee folded in, a seventy dollar filing fee and an additional fifty five for a delinquent report, and warns that a false statement carries a criminal penalty under Sections 47-1A-129 and 22-39-36.
Under Section 47-1A-1420 the Secretary of State may begin administrative dissolution when a corporation has not paid a fee or penalty sixty days after it was due, has not delivered its annual report sixty days after it was due, has had no registered agent for sixty days, has gone sixty days without reporting an agent change or resignation, or has outlived its stated duration. Section 47-1A-1421 then gives written notice and sixty more days to correct each ground, after which a certificate of dissolution reciting the grounds is signed and served, the corporation continues only to wind up, and its registered agent keeps authority.
Reinstatement at three hundred dollars, with a tax clearance
Section 47-1A-1422 allows a dissolved corporation to apply for reinstatement at any time after the dissolution, reciting the dissolution date, stating that the grounds did not exist or have been eliminated, confirming that its name still satisfies the name rules, and attaching a certificate from the Department of Revenue that every tax and fee the department administers has been paid; a successful reinstatement relates back as if the dissolution never occurred.
The fee section prices the application at three hundred dollars plus the delinquent annual report fees and the associated penalties for the period before the dissolution, and the reinstatement form repeats the three hundred dollar filing fee and asks the applicant to attach all documents, fees and penalties at once. The portal says the same in its own words: every past due annual report must be filed and a Tax Clearance Form from the Department of Revenue supplied before a reinstatement can be prepared.
Twenty dollars for a certificate, and the rest of the schedule
A certificate of existence or authorization costs twenty dollars under Section 47-1A-122, and the portal lets a buyer request, pay for, receive and verify a Certificate of Good Standing online and download certified copies of an entity documents immediately on payment. The same section prices articles of incorporation at one hundred fifty dollars, a foreign corporation certificate of authority at seven hundred fifty, an amended certificate of authority at two hundred fifty, an amendment or restatement at sixty, a merger at sixty, articles of dissolution at ten, a withdrawal at ten, a name reservation or registration at twenty five, articles of correction at twenty five, any other document at twenty, and service of process on the Secretary of State at thirty dollars, recoverable as costs by a party who prevails.
The forms pages note that filing on paper adds fifteen dollars where the form says so, and the downloads page offers subscription forms for the full business filings database, a monthly file of new entities and a monthly file of DBA and fictitious names.
Fictitious names that name every person interested
A South Dakota trading name is a state record with an ownership disclosure built in. Under Section 37-11-1 any person regularly engaging in business in the state must file a fictitious name statement unless the business name plainly shows the true surname of each person interested in it or the name is already on file with the Secretary of State in a required business filing. The statement gives the name, post office address and residence address of each person interested in the business and the address of its main office, is filed electronically with the Secretary of State or on paper with any register of deeds, is renewed every fifth year, and costs ten dollars for each filing and renewal, paid into the financing statement and annual report filing fee fund.
The portal DBA registry handles registrations, renewals, amendments and cancellations, and the downloads page sells the monthly file of new DBA names. For the people behind a South Dakota company, the South Dakota people search guide lists the state sources.
Registered agents and the limits of the record
Every entity must keep a registered agent, and the portal search for registered agents shows the agent information on file and a list of the businesses each agent represents, which is the quickest way to see what else a given agent or office address is tied to. The record names governors and agents but not owners; a corporation reports its directors and a manager managed LLC its managers, a member managed LLC may omit its governors altogether, and shareholders appear only where a corporation has done away with its board.
Tax standing is held by the Department of Revenue, which is why a reinstatement needs its clearance. For a dispute over a South Dakota company, the South Dakota court records guide covers the Unified Judicial System records.
Questions about looking up a South Dakota business
Related South Dakota records
The other South Dakota guides on this site are the South Dakota public records law guide for the open records statutes, the South Dakota court records guide for the Unified Judicial System, the South Dakota property records guide for the county registers of deeds and directors of equalization, and the South Dakota county pages for every county office.