Kentucky Business Entity Search: Secretary of State Records

Using the KY SOS Business Search: Name, Number, City or ZIP

One search box covers Kentucky business entities, out-of-state ones registered in Kentucky, and their assumed names. The Show active entities only box is unchecked when the page opens, so results mix active and inactive rows unless it’s ticked.

Official site: Business Entity Search

Step 1: Pick Name or Organization Number, City, or ZIP Code

The I want to Search By list has three choices: Business Name or Organization Number, City Name of principal office, and Zip Codes of principal office. A search for “Churchill Downs” returns the names beginning with those words, The Churchill Downs Foundation, Inc. included.

Step 2: Read the Company ID Column

Results show Company Name, Company ID, Status and Company Type, where the type reads Kentucky Corporation, Kentucky Limited Liability Company, Foreign Limited Liability Company or Assumed Name for LLC, for instance. The same Company ID can sit on several rows: in this search, 0009274 is both CHURCHILL DOWNS, INCORPORATED (I - Inactive) and CHURCHILL DOWNS INCORPORATED (A - Active).

Step 3: Open the Record, Then Its Panels

General Information gives the Organization Number, Company Type, Status, Standing, the file date, the date of the last annual report, the principal office, the registered agent and, for an LLC, whether it’s managed by members or managers. The buttons below it open the rest: Show Images (filed documents as PDFs), Show Activities (the filing history), Show Assumed Names, Show Former Names, Show Current Officers and Show Initial Officers.

Industry and Number of Employees aren’t reliable: the Industry line of this record read Miscellaneous Manufacturing Industries on one visit and Miscellaneous Repair Services on the next.

The FAST TRACK logo in the page header refers to FastTrack, the Secretary of State’s online filing pages: File Annual Report, File LLC (to form an LLC) and Business Registration Portal in the left menu open them, while the search itself stays on sosbes.sos.ky.gov.

One Organization Number, Several Rows

A Kentucky company keeps one Organization Number (the Company ID in the results), and its former names and assumed names are filed under that same number. Each shows up as its own row, which is why one company can fill several rows of a search.

Brown-Forman Corporation, 0059256, is on five rows in a search for its name: the current name, BROWN-FORMAN INC. as an inactive former name, and three assumed names. An assumed name row says so in the Company Type column (Assumed Name Corporation, Assumed Name for LLC). The numbers seen on the register are seven digits, with leading zeros on lower numbers (0059256, 1348718).

The search box above draws on that register too. When a number is shared, it may show an older name or send you to the official record; the current name and status are on the official record.

The Organization Number Is Not the LLET Account Number or the EIN

Kentucky’s Department of Revenue issues its own six-digit Corporation/LLET account number, used for the corporation income tax and the limited liability entity tax. The Form 720 instructions say the Secretary of State organization number “is not the same number as the Corporation/LLET Account Number.”

Neither number is on the Secretary of State record, and Kentucky offers no public LLET account number lookup. The Department of Revenue limits what it gives out by phone because of confidentiality: the account number is reached through the Kentucky One Stop Business Portal, or by someone listed on Form 20A100 (Declaration of Representative). The EIN comes from the IRS. Tracing a company’s EIN from its own paperwork is covered in looking up a company’s EIN.

Assumed Names (DBAs): Secretary of State First, Then the County Clerk

A corporation or LLC doing business under another name must file a Certificate of Assumed Name with the Secretary of State ($20), then file a stamped copy with the county clerk where its registered agent is (KRS 365.015). The name lasts five years and is renewed in the six months before it expires; the form warns that the Secretary of State doesn’t have to send a reminder. The Assumed Names panel of a record lists each one with its expiration date.

A sole proprietor files an assumed name with the county clerk only, so it never reaches the Secretary of State’s database. A DBA search for a sole proprietorship goes to the clerk of the county where it has its principal place of business.

Kentucky LLC Name Search: What the Guidelines Treat as the Same Name

A new name is available only if it is distinguishable from existing business names actively on file, under the Secretary of State’s Guidelines to Name Availability and KRS 14A.3-010. The Name Availability Search needs at least four characters, and names are filed first come, first served, so a free result is no promise at filing time.

The guidelines’ own examples: Business Machine Company, Business Machine LLC and Business Machine Corporation are one name; so are Carpet Universe LLC and The Carpet Universe Corporation, and CD Corporation, C-D LLC and C & D LLC. Capital letters make no difference. An LLC’s name has to end with limited liability company, limited company, LLC or LC, and “cooperative” is barred except where the statute allows it.

The Secretary of State also answers name questions at (502) 564-3490 or in writing, free of charge, but those answers are informational only: the final decision comes only with the filing that creates the name. Holding a name costs $15 for 120 days, renewable in the last 30 days, and the application can’t be made by phone. Registering a name doesn’t automatically stop anyone else from using it (KRS 14A.3-010(18)); screening an LLC name for trademark conflicts covers what the state leaves out.

Status and Standing: Two Separate Lines on a Kentucky Record

Status says whether the company exists (A - Active or I - Inactive). Standing (G - Good or B - Bad) is a separate line with no official definition, but the Secretary of State’s Annual Reports page says a company dissolved for a missed June 30 annual report is “inactive and in bad standing” until it reinstates.

The Annual Report, Due by June 30

Every entity doing business in Kentucky files an annual report between January 1 and June 30, for $15, starting the calendar year after its Kentucky formation or registration (KRS 14A.6-010). The report confirms the principal office and registered agent and lists the officers, directors, members or managers. A veteran-owned business organized after August 1, 2018 pays no fee for its first four years but still files. Filing details are in the Kentucky annual report guide.

The dissolution isn’t immediate: the Secretary of State mails a notice, and the company has 60 days from that notice to fix the problem (KRS 14A.7-020). The yearly schedule of those notices isn’t published. An out-of-state company that misses its report has its certificate of authority revoked instead.

Reinstatement, With No Time Limit

A dissolved company can apply for reinstatement at any time after the dissolution (KRS 14A.7-030): a $100 penalty plus $15 for each missed annual report. The Secretary of State asks the Department of Revenue for a letter of good standing, and for a profit company the Division of Unemployment Insurance too, before processing it. Once granted, the reinstatement takes effect as of the dissolution date. A company that already wound up its business and notified its creditors can’t reinstate.

Good Standing Proof: the $10 Certificate, and $77.25 “Certificate of Status” Letters

What other states call a certificate of good standing, Kentucky calls a certificate of existence (Kentucky company) or of authorization (out-of-state company), $10 from the record page. Anyone handed one can check it with Validate Certificate of Existence/Authorization, by the number printed on it. Copies of corporate records cost $5 for up to five pages, or $10 certified, from the Records Branch, though documents already scanned open free as PDFs under Show Images.

In 2020 the Secretary of State warned about letters that looked like they came from the state and offered a “Certificate of Status” for $77.25. The office said “There is no such thing as a ‘Certificate of Status’,” that it never solicits businesses to buy documents, and that the status of any company can be checked free in the business search (2020 alert). Such letters should be reported to the Attorney General’s Office.

Who Is Behind a Kentucky Company? Three Searches by Person

Kentucky publishes the people on each record and lets anyone search them by name, free: current officers and LLC members or managers, the founders listed at formation, and registered agents.

Typing part of a name works (JOHN also finds Johns and Johnson). The current list is only as recent as the last annual report, and it leaves out trustees of trusts and general partners of limited partnerships. On a record, Show Current Officers can name a company rather than a person: Churchill Downs Racetrack, LLC lists its member, Churchill Downs Incorporated. The record shows no ownership percentages, and the annual report asks for no financial information.

The registered agent is a Kentucky resident or a company allowed to do business in Kentucky, at a Kentucky address that matches the registered office (KRS 14A.4-010). A company left without one for 60 days can be administratively dissolved, and changing agents costs $10.

Kentucky Business Records: Short Answers