The post of secretary of state of South Dakota is an elected constitutional office. The secretary of state’s office is composed of three divisions, the business service division, the elections division, the administrative services division, and others. Focusing on the business division, the function of the office is to register corporations and other entities, they also register trademarks, DBA statements, and liens filed under the uniform commercial code. The department is responsible for maintaining official public documents; administering corporations and other duties and these are executed through the business division.
Register a business
To form or register or e-file an entity in South Dakota, you will need a Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express debit or credit card if you are filing electronically.
If you are not filing your entity electronically, you may use the website tools to create the forms, then print the document and mail it for an additional $15 paper processing fee. There is a print option available on the confirmation step of the online business entity process. You can print and sign the completed form, then mail it with the proper fee.
It is important to know that anyone wishing to form or register an entity that is not registered with the department can file.
Business form
The website makes provision for forms, depending on the company type, you can find your form option to print the paper form to mail to the business service division office. The form is available for corporations, limited liability companies, series LLCs, Nonprofit corporations, limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, and business trusts. You can also assess miscellaneous forms and commercial registered agents’ forms for registering, statement of change, courtesy change, and termination of the commercial agent. There are also fees attached to each form.
Information search
You can search for businesses by using their names or their secretary of state business ID; the website displays the information about individual entities that are searched, and they can be viewed and printed for free. The database of the secretary of state has an electronic file of all entities in South Dakota, to download from the database an electronic file of all businesses, you will have to pay a fee.
Name availability
To check if your proposed company name is available for use, you need to do a name search before registration. The information search is used to test for different variations on your proposed company name.
All you must do is enter the name you would like to register and click on the search button.
Certificate of good standing/existence
Anyone can request a business entity’s certificate of good standing/existence. Exemptions are for general partnerships, reserved names, registered names, and doing business as (DBA) – Business names.
To request a certificate of good standing/existence from the business service division, you are required to do the following:
- Enter the business ID or use the search tool to find it if unknown
- Validate that it is the correct entity that is been identified
- If you’re filing electronically, a Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express card
File an annual report
The annual report is filed every year on the 1st day of the anniversary month of the filing of the business entity with the secretary of state. The exception to filing an annual report is not required from limited partnerships and trusts. Any entity that does not file an annual report, becomes delinquent and will incur an additional late fee. And if the entity keeps staying delinquent, it may be dissolved administratively.
