Arkansas Business Entity Search: SOS Corporation and LLC Lookup

sos-corp-search.ark.org, the New Home of the Arkansas Business Entity Search

The Arkansas SOS business entity search, titled “Search Incorporations, Cooperatives, Banks and Insurance Companies,” now runs at sos-corp-search.ark.org/corps. The old sos.arkansas.gov/corps/search_all.php link still redirects there, while older ark.org/sos addresses for certificates and franchise tax now stop at an image check.

Step 1: Name, Fictitious Name, Agent or Filing #

The form takes a Corporation Type, a Name or a Fictitious Name, a registered agent with city and state, or a Filing #. Punctuation changes what comes back: “J.B. Hunt” missed J. B. HUNT TRANSPORT SERVICES, INC., written with a space, so a single distinctive word works better. To look up an LLC in Arkansas, set Corporation Type to Domestic Limited Liability Company.

Step 2: The List Hides the Number, the Record Doesn’t

To see a business in Arkansas in full, open its record: results show only Name, City, State and Status, where the city is the registered agent’s, and a Download CSV button exports them free. Clicking a name opens Corporation Details, the same title for an LLC: Filing #, Filing Type, Filed Under Act, Status, principal and agent addresses, officers and fictitious names. Name reservations appear in the list too, some marked Good Standing, so a match is not always a company.

Filed Under Act and Status on an Arkansas Record

“Filed Under Act” names the law an entity was formed under: older LLCs read “Domestic LLC; 1003 of 1993,” the former LLC act, while new ones are formed under the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, Act 1041 of 2021, with a $45 online Certificate of Organization. The 9-digit Filing # doesn’t reveal the entity type.

Other statuses seen on records are Dissolved, Statutorily Dissolved, Forfeited Charter and Expired, for a lapsed name reservation; the Secretary of State’s FAQ doesn’t define them, but it does define revocation: “Revocation occurs for failure to comply with all franchise tax obligations.”

Officers, Managers and a Tax Preparer on the Public Record

An Arkansas LLC lookup shows people’s names because the state requires at least one officer at formation “for franchise tax liability,” and each franchise tax report updates the list. The Officers block lists them with a title, and the Tax Preparer named on the report can be the only name on an LLC’s record.

The box lists the same officers with their titles, so a Tax Preparer shows as such, not as an owner; its Person tab searches officers as well as registered agents, while the state’s form searches agents only. Shareholders are not on file (“the corporation maintains that information”), and “only addresses are on file,” never phone numbers. The registered agent needs an Arkansas street address, never a post office box or mail drop, and changing it is free.

Arkansas LLC Franchise Tax: $150 to the Secretary of State by May 1

An Arkansas LLC or for-profit corporation files no separate annual report: its yearly filing is an annual franchise tax report with the Secretary of State, not the Department of Finance and Administration, due on or before May 1 for the year before. “ALL LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANIES PAY $150.00.”

A late report adds a $25 penalty plus interest of 0.000274 per day on the tax and penalty, and “Acts 1046 and 1140 of 1991 eliminated the opportunity to request an extension.” The tax keeps accruing after revocation, “until the business is dissolved, withdrawn, or merged,” and no other filing is accepted while it is unpaid. Paying online takes the Filing # and the federal tax ID at sos-franchise.ark.org, with processing fees from $5 by card or $3 by e-check, and the Arkansas LLC franchise tax report guide walks through the filing.

Arkansas Fictitious Name Search Returns the Company Behind It

A company’s fictitious names (DBAs) are filed with the Secretary of State, $25 on paper or $22.50 online for an LLC or a corporation, and a domestic company files a copy with the county clerk too, unless its registered office is in Pulaski County. Typed in the “OR Fictitious Name” field, a trade name such as Delightful Farms brings up its owner, Tyson Foods, Inc.

The box shows the same names under Other names. A sole proprietor’s business name isn’t in the state’s records: “The Office of Secretary of State has no record of these,” and such names are recorded at the county level. State trademarks, $50 for five years, are searched separately in the Secretary of State’s trademark search, by name, owner, city or state.

Names Aren’t Guaranteed Until the File Mark in Arkansas

Every new Arkansas name is compared with those on record and has to be distinguishable; when it shares a word or phrase with one, the Secretary of State looks for additional wording, “such as a description of business purpose or activity.” A search is only a first check: names “are not guaranteed until the forms are actually file marked.”

The state even advises against ordering a tax ID number, stationery or advertising on the strength of a name search. Accepted LLC endings are Limited Liability Company, Limited Company, LLC, L.L.C., LC and L.C. A name reservation lasts 120 days, $22.50 online or $25 on paper, renewable once for an LLC and never for a corporation. A name on file doesn’t give “the exclusive right to use of that name,” so checking an LLC name against trademarks belongs before forming an Arkansas LLC.

Licenses in Arkansas Come From Each Board, Permits From DFA

“A state board, commission, or association regulates most businesses that require a state license or permit,” so there is no general Arkansas business license to look up. A seller registers with the Department of Finance and Administration through ATAP for a $50 sales tax permit, which ATAP’s Document Inquiry verifies by permit number only.

Good Standing for $25, Tax Standing for Free

A Certificate of Good Standing costs $25 from the Filing #, downloads for 2 weeks, and anyone holding one can check its authorization code free on the same site. The record of a dissolved company has no purchase link. The Department of Finance and Administration’s certificate of tax standing is free and, in its words, “a wise procedure for prospective purchasers” of an Arkansas business.

The EIN: Collected on the Report, Never Shown

The franchise tax report asks for the federal tax ID, but no record or result shows it, and franchise tax information is partly kept out of public view. The state’s advice is to apply for an EIN with the IRS after the entity is filed; for another company’s number, the documents that carry a company’s EIN are the place to look.