West Virginia Business Entity Search: WV SOS Business Organization Search

WV SOS Business Search: Two Free Fields, Plus Advanced Filters

The West Virginia Secretary of State’s business entity search is the Business Organization Search at apps.sos.wv.gov. It takes an Organization name or an Agent/Officer/Name, and Advanced Search adds a RecordID box and filters by county, entity type (Organization Type: Limited Liability Company, Corporation, Trademark Holder and others), business purpose code, and “Woman Owned” or “Veteran / Active Military Owned.”

Step 1: Key Words, and % as a Wild Card

The state’s tips: “Enter one or more key words in the business name” and “Use the % symbol for a wild card search,” as in %Fraternal%1234%. Results come in four tables, Org Name, Doing Business As, Name Change and Registrations/Reservations, with the Org Id, type, dates, Termination Date and Termination Reason of each line. Closed companies stay in the list.

Step 2: The Record Lists Officers, DBAs and Report Years

To look up an LLC in West Virginia, open its record from the results list (its web address ends in the Org Id, as in organization.aspx?org=29746): it shows whether the LLC is Member Managed (MBR) or managed by managers (MGR), its Notice of Process Address (the registered agent, if the LLC named one), each officer, member or manager with an address, its DBAs, mergers, amendments and the years its annual reports were filed. An LLC doesn’t have to name an agent: the Secretary of State acts as every company’s attorney-in-fact.

No filed documents are attached; certified copies cost a flat $15 for the company formation documents plus $5 for each later filing.

West Virginia Org Id: A Plain Number, Typed in Full

The Org Id is a whole number without letters or leading zeros, as in 29746 for United Bankshares, Inc. or 31169 for WesBanco, Inc. It is not the Control Number shown on some records, a five-character code such as 9AHJR.

Short Org Ids mean a missing digit opens a different company: 2974 is Black Springs Coal Co., not United Bankshares. The box drops any leading zero but never fills in digits, and one name can hold several Org Ids: City Holding Company is both an active corporation, 5739, and an expired trademark holder record, 225269.

No “Active” Label: Read the Termination Reason

A West Virginia record has no status field. An active company simply has an empty Termination Reason; a closed one shows why, in words such as “Revoked (Failure to File Annual Report),” “Merger,” “Voluntary Dissolution (Domestic)” or “LLC Cancellation (Foreign).”

A Termination Date alone proves nothing: an LLC formed for a fixed term, such as First Mountaineer, LLC (364195), shows a date in 2047 with no reason and is still active. An administratively dissolved company can reinstate within two years with a certificate from the Tax Commissioner showing all taxes paid; for an LLC, the fee is $25. A Certificate of Existence (Certificate of Authorization for a foreign company) costs $10 online, prints immediately and carries a validation ID anyone can check; it is issued only to companies that are “registered, active and have filed annual reports.”

June 30: The West Virginia Annual Report Deadline for Every Company

Every West Virginia corporation, LLC, LP, voluntary association and business trust files its annual report from January 1 through June 30, starting the year after it registered, for $25 plus $1 online. After June 30 it costs $75 ($50 for a nonprofit), and the state warns that missing it “may result in monetary penalties as well as administrative dissolution or revocation.”

The deadline is June 30 at 11:59 p.m., although one Secretary of State page still mentions a July 1 due date. Notices go out by mail or email each January, and a report with no changes can be filed as a guest on the One Stop Business Portal. A report more than 30 days late also allows the Tax Commissioner to suspend, cancel or withhold the business registration certificate. A private service that solicits annual report filings must print on its mailing that “Annual Report filings may be filed directly with the Secretary of State for the statutory $25 fee.” Step by step: filing a West Virginia LLC annual report.

A Biennial Option Since July 1, 2026

Under W. Va. Code §59-1-2a, in force since July 1, 2026, a company that has filed five consecutive annual reports on time and is in good standing can elect a $50 biennial report; a late biennial report carries a $100 late fee. The Secretary of State’s annual report pages don’t explain the election yet, so the annual report stays the default.

WV Trade Names: Filed With the Secretary of State, Free for Sole Owners

In West Virginia, the Secretary of State registers trade names (DBAs): free for an individual, sole proprietorship or general partnership already registered with the State Tax Department, $25 for a corporation, LLC, LP or LLP. A DBA line in the search points to the Org Id of the company that holds it.

The box lists a company’s trade names under Other names. State trademarks are filed on paper only, notarized, $50 for up to two classes, and last ten years; the state’s trademark search link returns an error, and trademark owners appear instead in the business search as “Trademark Holder” records.

Would a Driver Tell Them Apart? West Virginia’s Billboard Test for Names

The legal test is that a West Virginia name be “distinguishable upon the records of the Secretary of State.” Endings such as Inc. or LLC, articles and separators (The, A, And, &, -, /), singular or plural (Food, Foods), apostrophes (Farmer’s, Farmers) and spacing (Cut Above, CutAbove) don’t count.

The state’s name guidance adds a Billboard Test: “If a person riding in a vehicle on the highway reads one name on a billboard, then in one mile reads another similar name on a different billboard, could the driver distinguish between the two names?” Smiley Towing and Smiley’s Towing fail it; Towing by Smiley passes. To check West Virginia business name availability, the state says to search “using only the most distinctive word in the name”; that check covers Secretary of State records only, not names held by the Tax Department. A $15 reservation keeps a name for 120 days. Acceptance by the state doesn’t clear a name against trademarks, so checking an LLC name beyond the state registry comes before forming a West Virginia LLC.

WV Business License Search: The Tax Division’s $30 Registration Certificate

The West Virginia business license is the Tax Division’s business registration certificate (the Division’s own forms call it a license): “Before engaging in business activity in West Virginia, every individual or business entity must obtain a West Virginia business registration certificate” from the Tax Division, $30 per location, posted where business is done and permanent until the name, location or ownership changes.

Neither tax.wv.gov nor the MyTaxes home page offers a public lookup of these certificates; the Tax Division issues a Statement of Good Standing on request through MyTaxes. Contractors are checked in the Division of Labor’s Contractor License Search, liquor licensees in the Alcohol Beverage Control Administration‘s License Search. No state record carries an EIN (“The West Virginia State Tax Division does not issue the EIN”); the documents that show a company’s EIN are where another company’s number appears.

Record Changes Aren’t Checked: Free Email Alerts

“The Secretary of State must accept the information filed for a business at face value and record it,” so the office suggests keeping an email address on file to receive real-time alerts whenever a company’s record changes.