Texas splits the question of whether a company is in order between two agencies, and a researcher needs both. The Corporations Section of the Secretary of State holds the formation and registration record, and its business services pages carry the news that changes how the lookup is done: SOSPortal launched on September 29, 2026 and replaces both SOSDirect and SOSUpload, bringing filing, ordering and searching into one platform. Online services were unavailable from midday on September 25 until eight in the morning on September 29 during the switch.
The second half of the answer sits with the Comptroller of Public Accounts, whose franchise tax account status search, formerly called good standing, shows whether an entity has the right to transact business in Texas. The two are different documents and the Secretary of State says so plainly, because a certificate of account status from the comptroller is routinely confused with a certificate of fact as to status from the Secretary of State. For Texas businesses by place, see the Texas county pages.
- SOSPortal since September 29, 2026: it replaces SOSDirect and SOSUpload, with filing, ordering and searching in one place.
- Two statuses, two agencies: the Secretary of State certifies existence and authority, the Comptroller certifies the tax account.
- Three ways to search the tax status: by taxpayer number or federal identification number, by entity name, or by Secretary of State file number.
- Forty five days before forfeiture: an entity gets at least that long after a pending forfeiture notice to cure the deficiency.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Texas's own systems: the Texas Secretary of State business services pages, the Secretary of State copies and certificates page, the Secretary of State tracking and other searches page, the Secretary of State fees, legal and other page, the Comptroller franchise tax account status instructions, the Comptroller franchise tax account status search, the Secretary of State search help for business organization inquiries, the management and ownership questions, the name filings questions, the Comptroller franchise tax page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What changed with SOSPortal
The new system is more than a new address. The Secretary of State lists what it brings: a modern, user friendly design; enhanced security through multi factor authentication; the ability to file all documents through the portal, including mergers and conversions, which previously could not be filed online; the option to save filings as drafts; the ability to check status and retrieve filings from a My Submissions page; a shopping cart; and expedited submission options.
Two changes affect regular users in particular. Client accounts, the prepaid arrangement many law firms and filing agents used on the old system, are not available in the new one. And the accepted payment methods in the portal are bank transfer and credit card. Anyone who has bookmarked the old system or kept a client account number should expect to set up access afresh.
Certificate of fact as to status, and what it proves
The Secretary of State issues a certificate of fact as to status, and describes it carefully because of the confusion with the comptroller document. It serves as official evidence of an entity existence or authority to transact business in Texas, and it provides a statement of the entity status together with its current legal name and its date of formation or registration. That is the document to ask for when a contract, a lender or an out of state registration requires proof that a Texas entity exists and is authorized.
Copies of documents on file and certificates of all kinds may be ordered through SOSPortal, by email to the certifying team, or by post to the certifying team at its box in Austin, and the section also provides records information by telephone and email.
Certificate of account status, the former good standing
The comptroller holds the other half. Its franchise tax account status, formerly called good standing, shows whether an entity has the right to transact business in Texas, and the comptroller notes that some real estate and financial transactions require it. The online status is a summary for everyday business needs, and it is explicitly not a substitute for the certificate a person needs when reinstating or terminating a business with the Secretary of State, which is requested separately for that purpose.
The Secretary of State adds that although the comptroller no longer uses the phrase, certificate of good standing is still used informally to mean this document, and publishes the comptroller telephone number for anyone who needs help getting one.
Searching the tax status
The comptroller search takes any one of three identifiers, which makes it forgiving for a researcher working from partial information. The eleven digit comptroller taxpayer number, or the nine digit federal employer identification number, will find an entity. So will an entity name of between two and fifty characters. So will the Texas Secretary of State file number, of six to ten digits, which ties the tax record back to the formation record.
The results can be printed, and the comptroller adds the caveat that they reflect its records at the moment the query is made, so a status printed today is evidence of today rather than of next month.
What forfeiture actually costs a company
The reason the tax status matters so much in Texas is the consequence of losing it. The comptroller must forfeit an entity right to transact business where the entity misses the franchise tax filing requirements of chapter 171 of the Tax Code. Before that happens, the entity is given at least forty five days after a pending forfeiture notice is mailed to cure the deficiencies. If the forfeiture takes effect, two things follow that matter to anyone dealing with the company: the entity cannot sue or defend itself in a Texas court, and its directors and officers can become liable for its debts.
For a researcher checking a counterparty, a forfeited status is therefore not a technicality, it changes who can be pursued and whether the company can enforce its own contracts.
Six ways into the Secretary of State record
The search help for the Secretary of State records describes what each inquiry returns. A name search reaches the entities, name reservations and name registrations matching the words entered. Find-Assumed Name retrieves active and inactive assumed names only. Find-People lists every corporation, limited liability company and limited partnership on which a person is recorded as a managing person, meaning an officer or director of a corporation, a manager or managing member of an LLC or a general partner of a limited partnership, plus the entities for which that person is the last known agent for service of process.
Find-Registered Agent does the agent part alone, across corporations, LLCs, partnerships, financial institutions and unincorporated nonprofit associations. A filing number search takes the ten digit number the office assigns to each organization, and a FEIN search takes the nine digit federal employer identification number. A last tool lists the entities that named a given registered agent within the past sixty days.
The management names behind Find-People come from the Comptroller. The management and ownership questions explain that corporations and LLCs list their officers, directors, managers or members on the Public Information Report filed once a year with the franchise tax report, that the Comptroller forwards the processed report to the Secretary of State, and that the office then shows those names through SOSPortal, by telephone on (512) 463-5555 or by email, with the warning that they reflect the last report received rather than today.
The office adds that as a ministerial filing officer it can give an entity name, registered agent, registered office and status, and nothing about ownership or how the company is run.
Assumed names: the county clerk or the state
Where a trading name is recorded depends on who uses it, and the name filings questions draw the line. A sole proprietorship, a general partnership or a joint venture files its assumed name certificate with the county clerk of each county where it keeps a business office, or, with no office in Texas, each county where it does business. A corporation, limited liability company or other filing entity files with the Secretary of State on form 503, which needs no notarization and is accepted as a fax or a photocopy of a signed certificate.
The office cannot reject an assumed name because the same name is already on file, since chapter 71 of the Business and Commerce Code gives it no such power, so several unrelated businesses may hold identical assumed names and the certificate gives none of them an exclusive right.
The franchise side has its own calendar. The Comptroller franchise tax page puts the annual report due on May 15, or the next business day when that falls on a weekend or holiday, and sets the no tax due threshold for 2026 reports at 2,650,000 dollars of annualized total revenue, up from 2,470,000 the year before. An entity under the threshold still files its Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report, and the Comptroller notice for a missed year says so: the cure for an entity below the threshold is simply to file that report.
A company that shows as forfeited on the account status search has usually missed exactly that step.
Questions about looking up a Texas business
Related Texas records
Texas's other records guides on this site are the Texas public records law guide for the Public Information Act, the Texas court records guide for the district and county clerks, the Texas property records guide for the county clerks and appraisal districts, and the Texas county pages for every county office.