Statutory requirements, filing fees, and recommended services for Texas businesses.
Verified against Texas Secretary of State · Updated 2026-04-30
Under Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §5.201, every Texas business entity must designate a registered agent at the time of formation and maintain that designation as long as the entity exists. The Texas Secretary of State treats a lapsed agent as cause for administrative dissolution. This page documents how Texas treats the registered agent designation under Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §5.201, the fees the Texas Secretary of State charges to file, and the practical mistakes that trip up first-time filers.
A Texas registered agent is the individual or business entity that Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §5.201 requires every LLC and corporation to maintain as the official recipient of service of process, state tax notices, and Texas Secretary of State correspondence. The agent must keep a physical Texas street address — P.O. boxes alone do not satisfy the statute — and must be reliably available during normal business hours. The Texas Secretary of State, Corporations Section files the agent’s name and street address as part of the public business record, searchable by any member of the public through the agency’s online entity database.
The registered agent designation in Texas is filed as part of the Certificate of Formation (Form 205), submitted to the Texas Secretary of State’s business filings division. Most filers use the SOSDirect portal at the Texas Secretary of State, which accepts the formation document, the agent designation, and the $300 filing fee in a single transaction. Online submissions typically clear in two to seven business days; paper filings can take two to four weeks depending on agency workload.
Texas charges $300 to form but requires no Secretary of State annual report — instead, LLCs file a Franchise Tax Public Information Report with the Texas Comptroller by May 15 each year. LLCs under the $2.47M revenue threshold owe no franchise tax but still must file the no-tax-due report.
Once the entity is on file, the registered agent’s role continues for as long as the LLC or corporation exists. Texas’s ongoing maintenance is handled through an annual report at $0, due annually by May 15 (Franchise Tax Public Information Report to Comptroller), and any subsequent change of registered agent is filed with the Texas Secretary of State via a Statement of Change at a $15 fee. The agent must file a written consent or, where the agency requires, sign the formation document itself — the Texas Secretary of State rejects designations that lack agent consent.
Five state-specific gotchas account for most of the registered agent problems we see in Texas filings.
Listing a P.O. box or commercial mailbox. Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §5.201 requires a physical street address, and the Texas Secretary of State returns filings that list anything other than a real Texas street. Commercial mailbox services without a registered street component (typical UPS Store-style addresses) are routinely rejected.
Using a non-Texas address. The agent’s address must be physically inside Texas. Out-of-state owners cannot list their own home address; they must either hire a commercial agent or designate a Texas-resident individual.
Letting the agent designation lapse without filing a Statement of Change. When a commercial agent service is terminated and a replacement is not filed with the Texas Secretary of State, the LLC enters a compliance gap. The $15 change fee is trivial compared with the cost of administrative dissolution and reinstatement.
Missing the annual report deadline. Texas’s annual report is due annually by May 15 (Franchise Tax Public Information Report to Comptroller), and the registered agent is the only party who receives mailed reminders from the Texas Secretary of State. If the agent is unreliable, the entity can miss the deadline silently.
Texas’s no-tax-due report still has to be filed every May 15. The Comptroller treats nonfiling as administrative forfeiture grounds even when no tax is owed.
National registered agent services — Northwest Registered Agent, Mainstay Filing, ZenBusiness, and LegalZoom — operate in Texas with the same pricing and feature set they offer in every other state. For most Texas LLCs and corporations, a national provider is the right choice: consistent pricing, an online dashboard with scanned mail, and same-day acceptance of service of process. Northwest’s $125/year tier and Mainstay Filing’s $99/year tier are the two most common picks for Texas businesses that want privacy and reliability without paying premium prices.
A Texas-specific provider like Texas Registered Agent.ai makes sense in narrower cases. State-focused agents tend to specialize in Texas filings only, which can mean faster local turnaround on Statements of Change, deeper familiarity with the Texas Secretary of State’s portal, and a single jurisdiction to worry about. For business owners who plan to operate exclusively in Texas and value a local-only operator, a state-specific provider is often a better cultural fit than a multi-state brand. The tradeoff is interface polish: state-specific services usually lack the dashboard depth and mail-forwarding automation of the national services.
| # | Service | Price/yr | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northwest Registered Agent | $125 | privacy-focused customers |
| 2 | Mainstay Filing Best Value | $99 | balanced value |
| 3 | ZenBusiness | $199 | new businesses bundling formation |
| 4 | LegalZoom | $249 | customers wanting brand-name support |
Texas-specific option: Texas Registered Agent.ai operates exclusively in Texas and specializes in same-state filings. Best for businesses that want a state-focused provider with local-only operations.
| Physical address required | Yes — must be a street address in Texas |
|---|---|
| P.O. box allowed | No |
| Business hours availability | Required during normal business hours |
| Resident requirement | Texas resident OR authorized business entity |
| Listed in public record | Yes — searchable via Texas Secretary of State |
| Statute reference | Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §5.201 |
| Filing Type | Fee | Renewal | Renewal Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| LLC formation (Articles of Organization) | $300 | annually by May 15 (Franchise Tax Public Information Report to Comptroller) | $0 |
| DBA / Fictitious Name | $25 | Every 10 years | $25 |
| Registered Agent change | $15 | — | — |
| Annual Report | $0 | annually by May 15 (Franchise Tax Public Information Report to Comptroller) | $0 |
Yes — if you are a Texas resident with a physical street address and are available during business hours.
Yes. Texas law requires every LLC to maintain a Texas-based registered agent regardless of where the owner lives.
The Texas Secretary of State can administratively dissolve your business after approximately 60 days of non-compliance.
Yes — file a Statement of Change of Registered Agent with the Texas Secretary of State for $15.
$50–$150 per year for commercial services; free if you self-serve.
Yes. The agent's name and address are searchable via the Texas Secretary of State business records.
Same-day with most commercial services; same-business-day filing if submitted online before the daily cutoff.
This page provides general information about Texas registered agent requirements, not legal advice. Filing fees and procedures may change; verify current details with the Texas Secretary of State before filing. We may receive compensation from services listed in our comparisons; this does not influence our editorial selections.