How to find out who owns a company in Texas
Texas names the people who run an entity on its formation certificate — but the state charges to look, and there’s a free route most people never find.
Short answer: Texas lists governing persons — managers, members, directors and officers — on the certificate of formation. The Secretary of State’s SOSDirect charges per search, but the Texas Comptroller’s Taxable Entity Search shows registered agent and officer or director information for free.
Why Texas is easier than most states
Plenty of states will only tell you the registered agent, which is usually a service company that has been instructed not to pass on messages. Texas is better than that. The certificate of formation for an LLC requires governing persons to be named, so in most cases a real human being appears on the public record from day one.
That’s not universal — some states publish nothing at all. We compared them in which states publish LLC member names.
Route one: the Comptroller, free
This is the route most people miss. The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts maintains a Taxable Entity Search covering entities registered for franchise tax, and it displays registered agent and officer or director details at no charge.
- Search the entity by legal name or taxpayer number.
- Open the entity record.
- Look for the officer and director listing, which names the people associated with the entity.
It won’t cover every entity — a brand-new company may not appear until it’s registered for franchise tax — but for an established business it’s free and it’s fast.
Route two: SOSDirect, paid
The Texas Secretary of State runs SOSDirect, which holds the authoritative record including the original certificate of formation. It’s the better source, particularly for recently formed entities, but it charges a fee per search and requires an account.
Use this when you need the filing itself, when the entity is too new to have surfaced at the Comptroller, or when you need the formation date on the record rather than an approximation.
What to do when only the agent is listed
A registered agent receives legal documents for the company. Hiring a commercial agent does not establish that the company is a shell, lacks an operating address, or has no useful contacts. Check the principal or mailing address and named officials separately; an agent address alone does not locate the operating business.
When that happens, your options are the assumed name (DBA) filing at county level, the franchise tax record once it exists, or the company’s own website and licensing records. What you should not do is call the registered agent and expect to be connected — that isn’t what they’re for. We wrote about telling these roles apart in registered agent, incorporator, officer.
If you need this at scale
Everything above works for one company. It stops working at ten a day.
A registered agent receives legal documents for the company. Hiring a commercial agent does not establish that the company is a shell, lacks an operating address, or has no useful contacts. Check the principal or mailing address and named officials separately; an agent address alone does not locate the operating business.
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