DCCA Business Name Search: Hawaii Business Entity Search

Hawaii DCCA Business Search on Hawaii Business Express

Search & Buy, run by the Business Registration Division (BREG), is free and has one field, Enter a Business Name, matched Begins with (the default) or Contains. One result list mixes entities, trade names, trademarks, service marks and publicity rights names, each with its Record Type, File Number and Status. The DCCA has no public search by file number, and its Agent Search needs a myHawaii login.

Step 1: Search the Name, Then Filter by Record Type

To look up an LLC in Hawaii, type the start of its name, or switch the menu to Contains and type its most distinctive word. A search for Hawaiian Airlines returns two HAWAIIAN AIRLINES, INC. entities, a trade name and several trademarks and service marks. The Record Type, Status and Entity Type filters narrow the list, and a trademark row carries its owner’s file number. The portal itself warns that the results “should not be used as a definitive method to determine name availability.”

Step 2: Open the Record and Read the Good Standing Banner

A green banner says “This business is in good standing.” above the annual filings processed; a warning banner says the opposite. The fields give the entity name, business type, file number, status and where it was organized. The REGISTRATION DATE is the Hawaii date, even for a company formed elsewhere: HAWAIIAN AIRLINES, INC. (33838 F1, Delaware) shows March 22, 2005. The agent’s name and address close the block.

Step 3: Officers, Stocks and the Documents Tab

A corporation’s record lists its officers and directors with coded titles (P, V, S, T, D, CEO), and an LLC’s lists its Managers/Members, marked MGR or MEM. Corporations also show their stock: MATSON, INC. reports 150,000,000 common shares authorized and 30,439,310 issued as of January 1, 2026. The Forms tab also flags a pending filing, such as an officer change not yet processed, and Buy Available Documents sells copies, articles of incorporation included, at $3.00 each ($10 more when certified); the same records can be viewed free in Room 201 of the King Kalakaua Building.

What D1, C5 and F1 Mean at the End of a Hawaii File Number

A Hawaii file number is a number followed by a two-character suffix that matches the type of entity, shown with a space on the record (235100 D1) and without one in lists (235100D1). The search on this page accepts either form.

The DCCA publishes no key to the suffixes; the table pairs each one with the business type printed on the records. Because a new filing number comes with a new form of entity, one name can sit on several records: HAWAIIAN AIRLINES, INC. is 2041 D1, Merged, and 33838 F1, Active. A record’s web address uses an internal ID, so the file number is what to note.

Why a Hawaii LLC Is “Terminated” and a Corporation “Dissolved”

After two years without an annual report (or with unpaid fees, or no registered agent), the DCCA can administratively terminate an LLC (HRS §428-809) or involuntarily dissolve a corporation (HRS §414-401), once a notice has gone unanswered for 60 days. Either way the company may only wind up its affairs.

An administratively terminated Hawaii LLC can apply for reinstatement within two years, for $25, with every unfiled report, the fees and penalties due, and a Department of Taxation clearance showing its taxes are settled (HRS §428-811). Reinstatement relates back to the termination date. If another business took a substantially identical name in the meantime, the LLC comes back under a new one.

Hawaii Annual Report: $12.50, Due in the Quarter You Registered

A Hawaii annual report is due by the last day of the calendar quarter in which the business registered, and costs $12.50 online for an LLC or a corporation ($15 on paper). A business registered in the current year skips that year’s report.

Online, a late report adds $10 for each year it is late, though the statute allows up to $100 for every 30 days of delinquency. The report carries no financial information, a nonprofit pays $2.50 and a partnership $5.00, and amending a filed report is free. MATSON, INC., registered in January, filed its 2026 report on March 26. Reports are filed from the Manage menu of Hawaii Business Express; late fees and the quarter rule are detailed in Hawaii’s quarterly LLC annual report.

The Certificate of Compliance, Hawaii’s Proof of Good Standing

The Certificate of Good Standing, which the fee schedule calls a Certificate of Compliance, costs $5.00 from the Buy Available Documents tab and is available at once for a business in good standing. Anyone can check one on the portal’s Authenticate a Certificate page with its authentication code or document ID. A “Certificate of Standing” or “Certificate of Status” isn’t a Hawaii document at all.

Hawaii Business Name Search: The Substantially Identical Test

A new Hawaii name can’t be the same as, or substantially identical to, a registered entity, a reserved name, or a trade name, trademark or service mark registered in the state (HRS §428-105 and §414-51). Search & Buy lists all of those together, but only the Business Registration Division confirms availability, once the filing arrives.

The division’s rule, HAR §16-36-15, spells out the cases with its own examples: Ka Hana Maiau is Hana Maiau, because the Hawaiian articles da, ka, ke, na and la don’t count; Omni of Hawaii, Omni HI and Omni are one name; so are Hawaii Flower Bouquet and Hawaiian Flower Bouquet, and Twenty-Seven, 27 and XXVII. Star Decorating and Start Decorating, on the other hand, are different names. A name that is only a place or a registered landmark (Diamond Head, Aloha Tower, Pearl Harbor) can’t be registered, even with Inc. or LLC added, and an LLC name must use letters of the English alphabet. A name already taken can still be used with the holder’s written consent, if words are added to make it distinguishable (HRS §428-105(c)).

A name can be reserved for 120 days for $10, online on Form X-1. Search & Buy holds only state marks, so a name that clears it can still collide with a USPTO registration, which a name search that includes federal marks would catch. The reservation holds the name while the articles for registering an LLC in Hawaii are prepared.

Hawaii Trademark Search and Trade Names in the Same Tool

This page’s search returns companies only, so a Hawaii trademark search runs in Search & Buy: state trademarks, service marks and trade names are registered with the Business Registration Division and appear in the same results, filterable by Record Type. Federal registrations sit with the USPTO instead, and a Hawaii trade name lookup is the same search filtered to Trade Name.

A DBA in Hawaii is a trade name. To file a DBA in Hawaii, or a trademark or service mark, the division charges $50 (Form T-1, T-2 or T-3) plus a $1 State Archives fee, and trade name registration lasts five years, renewable during the last six months of its term. The division sends no renewal reminder, and anyone may register an expired name. Registering a trade name doesn’t make it yours: ownership comes from being the first to use it openly and continuously, and a registration unused for 365 consecutive days can be revoked. Hawaii also registers publicity rights names (Form T-7, five years).

The Hawaii Business License Search Is Two Searches: GET and PVL

The Business Registration Division registers businesses but issues no business license. Every business in Hawaii needs a General Excise Tax (GET) license from the Department of Taxation, a one-time $20 on Form BB-1, and licensed trades are checked in the Professional and Vocational Licensing (PVL) Licensee Name Search, which covers 51 professions and vocations.

“Hawaii does not have a sales tax,” the Department of Taxation notes: the GET applies to all business activities, at 4% for most of them. A GET license applied for on Hawaii Tax Online arrives in about 5 to 7 days, and the site has a Search Tax Licenses link to check an existing one. A Hawaii FEIN lookup comes up empty at BREG: its records show neither the IRS-issued EIN nor the Hawaii Tax ID, and the file number is neither of them. Locating a Hawaii company’s EIN starts with the company’s own paperwork.

A Letter From the “Hawaii Secretary of State” Is a Red Flag

The DCCA lists any reference to a “Hawaii Secretary of State” as a warning sign in business mail, because Hawaii businesses register with the Business Registration Division, led by the Commissioner of Securities. Its October 20, 2023 alert covered offers of a “Certificate of Status” that doesn’t exist, for far more than the $5 real certificate.

Earlier mailings asked for $145 to file an annual report that costs $12.50 online. The division neither solicits nor uses third parties to file reports, and confirms a notice at 1-844-808-3222 (option 2). MyBusiness alerts on Hawaii Business Express, $2.50 a year per business, send a text or email when a record changes.

Buying a Hawaii Business List, and Expedited Filing