Register your business in Mississippi

LLCs and corporations file with Business Services⁵ at the Mississippi Secretary of State⁸. A sole proprietorship has no formation filing. The filing creates the company. Licenses and permits is the step that covers permission to do the work.

What’s different in Mississippi

• An LLC’s articles are a certificate, and the fee is $50. A business corporation’s articles are the same $50⁴.
• The annual report is due April 15, even when the fee is $0. A corporation pays $25. A nonprofit’s report is due May 15². A foreign LLC pays $250⁴ every year.
• A name reservation is optional. It is $25⁴ and lasts 180 days⁶.
• A DBA is a fictitious name filed with the Secretary of State. It does not give you the name exclusively.
• The registered agent can be any individual or company with a Mississippi street address. A noncommercial agent has to agree before you list them.

Do this

1. Pick your structure. LLC, corporation, nonprofit, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Pick an entity compares them. The Secretary of State will not choose for you.
2. Check the name, then decide whether to reserve it. An LLC name must contain the words limited liability company or the abbreviation L.L.C. or LLC. It must be distinguishable on the Secretary of State's records from an active or reserved corporation, nonprofit, limited partnership, LLP, or LLC name. It may not contain bank, banker, banking, trust, insurance, corporation, incorporated, or a similar word or abbreviation¹³. A corporation’s name must contain the word corporation, incorporated, company, or limited, or the abbreviation corp., inc., co., or ltd., or a word or abbreviation of like import in another language¹¹. Check with a legal professional if the name uses a word like bank or insurance. Search the web and the federal trademark database too. Reserve the name only if you are not ready to file. It is $25⁴ for 180 days⁶. It can be renewed once, with a renewal application filed within 30 days before the 180 days end¹².
3. Choose a registered agent with a Mississippi street address. The Registered Agents Act lets the agent be an individual, or a company formed in Mississippi or in another state, and the filing must give an actual street address in Mississippi. The registered-agents page puts it the same way: the agent may be any individual, corporation, or LLC with a physical address in Mississippi. You need the person's permission before you list a noncommercial agent. Without it, that person can refuse the job. The LLC act text the office still posts, titled 2010, has an older rule that the agent be a Mississippi resident or a company authorized here. That section was repealed effective January 1, 2013¹⁰, when the Registered Agents Act took effect. A commercial agent who is in the business of accepting service pays $100³ to be listed. That fee is not the fee for naming yourself.
4. File online. The filings FAQ says you pay by credit card, e-check, or ACH. If you would rather send a check, finish the form online, print it, and mail it with a check. Paper takes significantly longer than paying online. Do not mail a blank form from an old packet: the FAQ says old paper forms were accepted only for a short time after the online filing system opened on August 25, 2014. Some paid online filings are approved immediately. Filings that need a review are returned within 24 hours of submission¹.
5. Put April 15 on the calendar. Every for-profit corporation, nonprofit corporation, and limited liability company operating in Mississippi must file an annual report. A profit corporation or an LLC can file any time on or after January 1, and the report is due by April 15. A nonprofit's report is due by May 15. All annual reports must be filed online². Details and the dissolution timing are below and on Stay compliant.

By structure

LLC

File a Certificate of Formation, form F0100, for $50⁴.

The annual report is $0⁴. It is still due. A domestic LLC files the annual report on the Secretary of State's website at no cost. A mailer that asks for a fee is not from the office⁸.

Failure to file may result in administrative dissolution². The LLC act text says that can start 60 days after the annual report is due, and then another 60 days after the Secretary of State serves written notice, unless you correct the ground⁶. Reinstatement is $50. A certificate of dissolution, if you close the company yourself, is $50⁴.

To change the registered agent later, the Registered Agents Act has the company file a statement of change, and it sets the fee at $10¹⁰ per company. The filings FAQ says there is no longer a separate form to change the registered agent. A change is filed as an amendment¹.

Corporation

File Articles of Incorporation, form F0001, for $50⁴. The name must contain the word corporation, incorporated, company, or limited, or the abbreviation corp., inc., co., or ltd., or a word or abbreviation of like import in another language¹¹.

The annual report is $25, due by April 15. A corporation that does not file will be administratively dissolved². Reinstatement after an administrative dissolution is $50⁴. The application must contain a certificate from the Department of Revenue that all taxes the corporation owes have been paid¹¹. Stay compliant covers that letter.

S corporation status is a federal election on Form 2553¹⁵. Mississippi still charges franchise tax at the entity. That is on Get your tax IDs. This page does not pick the election.

Nonprofit

The form list prices articles of incorporation at $50 for a nonprofit as well. A law in force since July 1, 2024 requires every nonprofit corporation, including a foreign one registered here, to file an annual report, and it sets no fee for that report. It is due May 15². The October 2024 services and fees schedule still prints $25⁵ for an annual report under its heading for profit and nonprofit corporations. The Nonprofit Status Report on the form-number list, at $25⁴, is a different filing that the office can request no more than once every five years¹⁴. Past formation, the rest of this series is written for for-profit businesses.

Partnership

A general partnership can file a statement of partnership authority for $25. That filing is on the fee schedule. It is not required to exist as a partnership the way an LLC filing is. A limited liability partnership files a statement of qualification for $250. A Mississippi limited partnership files a certificate for $50⁴.

Sole proprietorship

No formation filing. You still register for the taxes that apply on Get your tax IDs, and you still check local licenses. A name other than your own is the fictitious name below.

Fictitious names

A fictitious business name, also called a DBA or an assumed name, is filed with the Secretary of State for $25⁴. Registration is completely voluntary. It lasts five years, and it can be renewed. Registration does not give you the exclusive right to use the name. The office will not reject a name only because it matches one already on file. The office’s fictitious-name summary, dated July 2010, says online registration is not yet available⁷. The filings FAQ says all business filings may be submitted and paid for online¹.* Use the filing system you see when you are signed in. The fee schedule is the price to trust.

Formed in another state

A foreign LLC files an Application for Registration of Foreign Limited Liability Company (F0200) for $250. Its annual report is $250. Reinstatement of a foreign LLC is $100⁴.

A foreign profit corporation’s certificate of authority is $500. A foreign nonprofit’s is $100⁴. Attach a certificate of good standing or existence from your home state¹. The Business Corporation Act requires every Mississippi corporation and every foreign corporation authorized to do business here¹⁰ to file an annual report, and it sets the fee at $25¹². The form-number fee list leaves that amount blank for a foreign corporation.

You still need a Mississippi registered agent. If you are not sure the work counts as transacting business, check with a legal professional. Forming in another state covers the tradeoffs.

What you get back

A filed certificate or articles you can use for your EIN and your bank. Keep the email the office sends. The annual report comes back every April 15², including the year the fee is zero. A third-party letter that asks you to pay for that report is not the Secretary of State.