How to Find Business Registration
- 1). Visit your Secretary of State's Office website (see link in Resources to a nationwide list of SOS websites) to search for the business registration online. Most Secretary of State websites do offer an online searches of all corporate business records filed within the state, which will reveal any legitimate registration. If your state doesn't offer online search, simply call the Secretary of State's office and ask for help searching for a business registration.
- 2). Contact your state's Department of Taxation (or Department of Revenue) to search for sales tax registrations. Almost all businesses are required to collect state sales tax (in those states that have a sales tax), so virtually every business in the state should be registered to remit sales tax collections. (The Secretary of State's Office can direct you to this agency if you can't find it on your own.)
- 3). Contact the county licensing bureau for vendor's or seller's license information. The area licensing bureau should have records of all vendor's or seller's licenses issued in the county. Note that counties in different areas may call this office something different and that not all counties require local licensing to operate a business.
- 4). Ask the IRS for the information you need. Access to tax information is not part of the public record, but the IRS will release certain information about the business if you explain why you want it. A business's legal address, EIN number, corporate structure and corporate officers are all part of the information the IRS may provide. Contact your local office to seek this type of help and use a personal touch--the IRS may release such information, but they're not required to.
- 5). Search the Federal Trade Commission's online database of registration numbers via their website (see Resources). By simply entering a business name, state and/or other information, the FTC's "Query RN Information" search engine can return registration numbers for businesses nationwide.
