The United States has no national company register. Business entities are created and recorded under the law of an individual state, normally by the Secretary of State of that state (in some states a Department of State, Corporation Commission or Division of Corporations), and each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories keeps its own register with its own search facility, its own filing requirements and its own fees. Two federal layers sit on top: the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes the filings of public companies through EDGAR, and the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) collects beneficial ownership information — a regime that in 2026 was permanently narrowed to foreign companies only.

The company registry in the United States

Formation is a state act. A corporation comes into existence when its articles or certificate of incorporation are filed and accepted by the state filing office; a limited liability company when its articles or certificate of formation are filed. That office then maintains the entity’s record — name, entity type, state file number, formation date, registered agent and registered office, status, and the filing history — and publishes a free entity search. The Delaware Division of Corporations, which alone holds more than a million registered entities, is the best-known example: it offers entity search, name availability checking, entity status checking, a document filing and certificate request service, annual franchise tax reporting and UCC filings at corp.delaware.gov.

Not every business appears in a state register. Under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s guidance, sole proprietorships and general partnerships generally do not need to register with the state — "if you conduct business as yourself using your legal name, you won’t need to register anywhere" — although a fictitious or "doing business as" name is normally filed with the state or county, and the SBA warns that not registering means forgoing personal liability protection and certain legal and tax benefits. Registration is required for limited liability companies, all corporation types, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships, and nonprofit corporations.

Beneficial ownership has changed dramatically. The Corporate Transparency Act originally required most US entities to report their beneficial owners to FinCEN. An interim final rule of 26 March 2025 redefined "reporting company" to cover only foreign entities registered to do business in a US state or tribal jurisdiction, removing the obligation for all domestic entities, and a final rule issued on 11 August 2026 and published on 14 August 2026 made that permanent. As matters stand, entities created in the United States are exempt, US persons do not have to provide their beneficial ownership information to reporting companies, and only foreign companies registered to do business in the United States must file — those registered before 26 March 2025 by 25 April 2025, and those registered afterwards within 30 days of notice of effective registration.

Financial reporting is likewise not a state-register function. State filing offices do not collect annual accounts; the annual filing required by most states is a short annual report or statement of information confirming addresses, officers and the registered agent, often coupled with a franchise tax. Full financial disclosure exists only for companies with registered securities, which file through EDGAR.

Legal forms that can be registered in the United States

The forms below follow the classification used by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The details — minimum members, permitted management structures, publication requirements — are set by each state’s statute, so they vary from state to state.

  • Sole proprietorship — an unincorporated business owned by one individual; no separation between owner and business, unlimited personal liability, and generally no state registration unless a trade name is used.
  • General partnership — two or more persons carrying on business together; partners are personally liable, and registration with the state is usually optional though advisable.
  • Limited partnership (LP) — at least one general partner with unlimited liability and limited partners whose liability is confined to their investment; must be registered with the state.
  • Limited liability partnership (LLP) — a partnership in which all partners obtain limited liability protection; used heavily by law and accounting firms and registered with the state.
  • Limited liability company (LLC) — the most popular vehicle for closely held business: members enjoy limited liability while profits and losses generally pass through to their personal returns. Formed by filing articles or a certificate of formation with the state.
  • Corporation — C corporation — the default corporate form; a separate taxpaying legal person offering the strongest liability protection and the ability to issue multiple classes of stock, at the cost of corporate-level taxation.
  • Corporation — S corporation — not a separate state form but a federal tax election available to eligible corporations, allowing profits and losses to pass through to shareholders, subject to limits on the number and type of shareholders.
  • Corporation — Benefit corporation — a for-profit corporation formed to pursue a public benefit as well as profit, with reporting on its social and environmental performance, recognised in the states that have enacted benefit-corporation statutes.
  • Corporation — Close corporation — a corporation with a small number of shareholders and relaxed formalities, typically barred from public trading.
  • Nonprofit corporation — a corporation organised for charitable, educational, religious, literary or scientific purposes, registered with the state and separately eligible for federal tax-exempt status.
  • Cooperative — a business owned and operated for the benefit of its members, who use its services and elect its board.
  • Foreign entity qualification — an entity formed in one state that wishes to do business in another registers there as a "foreign" entity; this is a registration, not a new legal person.

Information available from the US registry

Every state offers a free public entity search, and the core record is broadly consistent from state to state: the legal name of the entity and any trade names, the entity type, the state file or entity number, the date of formation or of qualification as a foreign entity, the jurisdiction of formation, the current status — active, delinquent, suspended, dissolved, forfeited or merged out — the principal office and the mailing address, and the registered agent with the registered office address, which is the point at which legal process can be served.

Beyond that, practice diverges sharply. Some states publish the names of officers and directors, or of LLC members and managers, in the annual report; others publish only the registered agent. Some publish full images of every filed document free of charge; others charge per document or per certified copy. Because the register is state-based, a nationwide picture of a US group has to be assembled state by state — there is no single search that covers all US entities.

Two categories of information sit outside the state registers entirely. Financial statements are public only for companies with SEC-registered securities: EDGAR, the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system, provides free public access to registration statements, periodic reports, ownership forms 3, 4 and 5, mutual fund prospectuses and proxy voting records, correspondence between the SEC and issuers, and more than twenty years of history, searchable by company name or ticker, Central Index Key, file number, state or country of incorporation and SIC code. Beneficial ownership reported to FinCEN has never been a public register — it is available only to authorised government users and, in limited circumstances and with consent, to financial institutions — and after the 2026 final rule it no longer covers US-created entities at all.

Documents that can be obtained from the registry

  • Articles of Incorporation / Certificate of Incorporation — the founding instrument of a corporation as filed with the state, showing the name, the authorised stock, the registered agent and the incorporator.
  • Articles of Organization / Certificate of Formation — the equivalent founding instrument of a limited liability company.
  • Certificate of Good Standing (also called Certificate of Status or Certificate of Existence) — the state’s confirmation that the entity exists, is validly formed and is up to date with its state filings and fees. The standard document required by banks, lenders and other states.
  • Certified copies of filed documents — state-certified duplicates of anything on the entity’s file, including amendments, mergers and dissolutions.
  • Apostille or certificate of authentication — issued by the state for documents that must be recognised abroad under the Hague Convention; the Delaware Division of Corporations, for example, issues certificates and apostilles directly.
  • Annual report / Statement of Information — the periodic state filing confirming addresses, officers or managers and the registered agent; publicly viewable in most states.
  • Franchise tax filings and status — records of the entity’s standing for state franchise tax purposes, which drive the good-standing determination in states such as Delaware.
  • UCC filings — financing statements recorded against the entity, searchable through the same state office, and central to security due diligence.
  • SEC filings via EDGAR — for public companies, the registration statements, annual and quarterly reports, proxy materials and insider ownership forms, all free of charge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there one company register for the whole United States?

No. Companies are registered state by state, normally with the Secretary of State of the state of formation, and each state runs its own search. There is no federal register of companies; the closest federal resources are SEC EDGAR for public companies and the non-public FinCEN beneficial ownership system.

Do I have to register a sole proprietorship?

Generally no. According to the Small Business Administration, if you conduct business as yourself under your own legal name you do not need to register, although a trade name is normally filed and registering brings liability, legal and tax benefits.

Are US company accounts public?

Only for companies with SEC-registered securities, whose filings appear on EDGAR. State registers collect annual reports or statements of information about addresses and officers, not financial statements.

Do US companies still have to report beneficial owners to FinCEN?

No, if they were created in the United States. FinCEN’s interim final rule of 26 March 2025 and its final rule of 11 August 2026 limit the reporting obligation to foreign companies registered to do business in a US state or tribal jurisdiction; all domestic entities are exempt, and US persons need not supply their information to reporting companies.

What is a registered agent?

The person or company designated in the state register to receive legal process and official notices on the entity’s behalf, at a physical address in that state. Maintaining a registered agent is a condition of remaining in good standing.

What proves that a US company exists?

The filed articles or certificate of incorporation or formation, and a current Certificate of Good Standing from the state of formation. For use abroad, the state can add an apostille or certificate of authentication.

Sources

  • U.S. Small Business Administration — Choose a business structure — sba.gov
  • Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) — Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting — fincen.gov/boi
  • FinCEN — news release on removing beneficial ownership reporting requirements for U.S. companies and U.S. persons — fincen.gov
  • Federal Register — Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirement Revision (final rule, 14 August 2026) — federalregister.gov
  • Federal Register — Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirement Revision and Deadline Extension (interim final rule, 26 March 2025) — federalregister.gov
  • U.S. Department of the Treasury — FinCEN permanently ends beneficial ownership reporting requirements for millions of small business owners — home.treasury.gov
  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — EDGAR company search — sec.gov
  • State of Delaware — Division of Corporations — corp.delaware.gov

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