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South Carolina business records are held by the Secretary of State's Office in Columbia. The public tool is Business Entities Online, which covers corporations, nonprofit corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships. You can search by business name, and a separate Registered Agent Search shows every company a given agent serves.
South Carolina LLC and corporation search modes
The name search offers three modes: Begins With, Contains and Exact Match. The page itself notes that results show entities containing your search terms, so a short, distinctive word pulls up the widest list. Use Exact Match only when you already know the full legal name.
The site may ask for a captcha before it shows results. Complete it and run the search again. From the results, click a company to open its business profile.
Two things to know before you start:
- Sole proprietorships and general partnerships do not file with the Secretary of State, so they never appear in this search.
- DBA names are not registered at the state level in South Carolina. A trade name search here will come up empty. Our DBA search guide covers other places to look.
What a South Carolina profile shows
A profile gives the company's general information on file, including its registered agent and registered office. What it will not give you is the people behind the company. The Secretary of State says it does not have the names or addresses of officers or directors, and companies are not required to report them. Business corporations list their directors on annual reports filed with the South Carolina Department of Revenue, which is the place to ask. For other ways to trace people behind a company, see our business owner lookup guide.
From the profile you can also order copies through the online document request. Copies cost $3.00 for the first page and $0.50 for each page after that. A certificate of no record or certificate under seal is $20.00.
Name rules and reserving a name
Under S.C. Code 33-44-105(a), an LLC name must contain "limited liability company" or "limited company", or one of the abbreviations L.L.C., LLC, L.C. or LC. "Limited" can be shortened to Ltd. and "company" to Co. The name must also be distinguishable on the Secretary of State's records from other companies, reserved names and approved fictitious names, under S.C. Code 33-44-105(b). The statute text is on the South Carolina Legislature site.
The office will not let a new company form with a name identical to one already in its database. Being on the register still does not give you an exclusive right to the name in business. For that, the office points to a trademark or service mark registration.
A name reservation costs $10 and lasts 120 days under S.C. Code 33-44-106. It cannot be renewed, though the holder can transfer it with a signed notice. If you are ready to file, skip it: the office says no reservation is needed. Read more in our name reservation guide.
Staying in good standing
South Carolina LLCs file no annual report with the Secretary of State unless they are taxed as a corporation. Corporations file their annual report with the Department of Revenue under S.C. Code 12-19-20, not with the Secretary of State. A new business corporation also files a CL-1 form, a Department of Revenue form, with its articles. If a company is administratively dissolved for a missed tax return, the Department of Revenue issues a Certificate of Tax Compliance that must go with the reinstatement application. LLCs and nonprofits must reinstate within two years of the dissolution.
Proof of standing in South Carolina is a Certificate of Existence, also known as a certificate of good standing. Order it through the document request system for $10. A request is rejected if the company is not in good standing. The office also warns about mailers that charge hundreds of dollars for the same certificate. The details are in the business entity FAQ. See certificate of good standing for how other states compare.
Bulk data
The Secretary of State's pages do not list a bulk download or data subscription for business records. Public records can be asked for under the Freedom of Information Act. Paper copies are $0.10 per page and electronic copies of records that already exist in that form have no copy charge.
Starting a company here? Read our guide on how to start an LLC in South Carolina and the South Carolina registered agent rules.
DBA and assumed names in South Carolina
South Carolina has no state DBA registry. The Secretary of State's business entity FAQ says plainly that the office does not register DBA or trade names. That means a search of the state database for a trade name will find nothing, and there is no state fee or form to quote.
The same FAQ says business licenses are issued at the county or city level. Your city or county business license office is the sensible place to ask how it treats a name you operate under. We did not read any local rule, so we cannot say whether a county keeps a name record.
One state form does use the term. When a foreign entity applies for a certificate of authority and its legal name is not available in South Carolina, the FAQ says it must file a fictitious name form. That is for an out-of-state company that cannot use its own name here. It is not a DBA for a South Carolina LLC.
If you want legal protection or a name nobody else can take in the state, a DBA will not do it. Read DBA vs LLC, then how to file a DBA and DBA search. The South Carolina LLC guide covers the entity route.
Also see our guides to the South Carolina business license.