how to look up an llc in nc [Real Research]

Last updated : Aug 18, 2022

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do you want to start and incorporate an llc in north carolina but unsure where to begin today you will learn about the most common ways to start your business including the correct forms you'll need how to register your llc critical naming requirements and all other important tips and tricks then as a bonus later on in the video i will reveal to you a trustworthy registered agent who will help set up your llc for free so make sure to stick with me until the end north carolina llcs are cost effective and easy to set up the state of north carolina like other states has several specific llc requirements there are three main ways you can start an llc in north carolina first is the diy or do-it-yourself process where you mostly depend on north carolina state's website the second way is hiring a professional service that practically offers more efficiency and security in the process of creating your llc while the third one is hiring an attorney we will skip the attorney hiring portion because that's expensive and most business owners won't need that service first let's take a look at the steps required for starting an llc on your own step 1 choose a name for your north carolina llc you will have to think of the llc's legal business name each llc in north carolina must have a distinct llc name that is not currently in use you must include the terms limited liability company or an abbreviation such as llc you cannot include phrases such as a corporation which would lead people to believe you are a different business organization knowing if your business name is taken or not is very easy just go to google and type in the words business entity records north carolina secretary of state and click the first search result i also have the link in the description below for your convenience it will lead you to a landing page of business entity records in north carolina scroll down a little and you will see some search options which makes checking the availability of your business name easier generally you can click the first option entity name and type in your business name for example i am typing a very common business name here car wash express which will give you a list of existing business names a unique business name will say no matches found just like this random name i typed in keep in mind that the division of revenue doesn't check names for trademark compliance it's ultimately up to you and your business attorney to ensure that your llc's name doesn't infringe on any other companies rights you can reserve a name for 120 days by filing an application to reserve a business entity name with the north carolina secretary of state the application must be filed by mail the filing fee is thirty dollars step two north carolina requires llc to have a registered agent an agent has a physical address a po box is not allowed and is available during business hours this agent will serve as the llc's primary point of contact for receiving key legal papers tax warnings summons subpoenas and so on you can register yourself or someone in your company but i highly recommend getting a professional registered agent as they have more knowledge by protecting your company in cases of possible cracks while i agree that family members or friends are reliable enough to be trusted as your llc's agent you are more comfortable sleeping at night knowing that your agent is professional and trained to manage legal documents to avoid problems concerning court schedules filing reports with the secretary of state etc besides hiring a professional registered agent is not expensive in fact there are companies who offer a free registered agent as part of your package when you form your llc through them inc file is a company i recommend which has this free service inc file offers a free registered agent on your first year of signing up for their service during that free year you can already take advantage of a professional and trained agent to receive legal documents on your behalf a dashboard where you can always access the correspondence that your agent has received as well as email notifications and automatic forwarding whenever your registered agent receives documents step 3 filing the north carolina llc certificate of formation after that you must file the certificate of formation with the north carolina secretary of state's business entities division and the office of the judge of probate to officially incorporate a domestic north carolina limited liability company the north carolina state filing cost for llcs is 125 dollars for both domestic llc's and foreign llcs you can file the certificate of formation online or by mailing it to the secretary of state expect the llc certification process to take approximately two weeks this is three to four days for the judge of probate and ten days for the secretary of state step four prepare an operating agreement now an operating agreement is a good idea to have in place with the other members if your llc has more than one member although a limited liability company operating agreement is not necessary for north carolina your operating agreement should clarify how your company or business will handle big picture issues such as allocating earnings and losses and dissolving the company your operating agreement should also cover the transfer of membership interest profits or losses and distributions initial investments decision making powers voting rights and management and lastly dissolving the business step 5 obtain an ein an ein or employer identification number is a federal tax id issued by the irs your ein is used by them to readily identify your firm and tax filings all north carolina firms pay a business privilege tax and the state requires you to have an ein to file you may also be required to provide your ein when opening a bank account or applying for municipal permits or licenses obtaining an ein is a slightly longer process compared to their previous steps i'm sure you know anything to do with the irs is confusing first you have to have complete knowledge of your llc such as your company information managing member information business address business information company details and even critical information regarding vehicular assets and federal excise taxes this is another reason why getting a professional registered agent is way more convenient as they can do this for you as part of their service step six file annual reports with the north carolina secretary of state all north carolina llcs must file an annual report with the north carolina secretary of state llc annual reports are due for the year in which they are filed in other words if you form an llc on or before april 15th you must file your first annual report by the end of the same year you formed the company if you start your llc after april 15th you will not have to file an annual report until april 15th of the next calendar year you can file the annual report online at the secretary of state online annual report editor or by mail the filing fee is two hundred and two dollars and two hundred dollars for mail filings now let's talk about the second option to for

Thanks for your comment Harry Donhoe, have a nice day.
- Lynn Asano, Staff Member

the following information is provided for educational purposes only and in no way constitutes legal tax or financial advice for legal tax or financial advice specific to your business needs we encourage you to consult with a licensed attorney and/or CPA in your state the following information is copyright protected no part may be redistributed copied modified or adapted without prior written consent of the author in this video we are going to teach you how to research and choose your desired LLC name the purpose of this video is to help you avoid infringing upon someone else's name rights to help you differentiate your business name from existing entities and to make sure your desired LLC name is available for use in order to make sure your desired LLC name is available for use you will need to search it against the existing organized entities on the state's online database we will first walk you through some requirements and restrictions and then later we will show you how to perform your search name requirements your LLC name must end with the words limited liability company or the abbreviations LLC dot or LLC using the abbreviation LLC is the most common for example Joe wants to start a company by the name Joe's landscaping services since he has formed an LLC he must file under the name Joe's landscaping services LLC again using the abbreviation LLC or the full word limited liability company is a requirement when forming an LLC name restrictions your LLC name cannot imply that it is a corporation you are not allowed to use the words corporation or incorporated or the abbreviations Corp or Inc anywhere in your LLC name let's look at our example again since Joe wants to form an LLC he cannot call his company Joe's landscaping services Inc LLC or Joe's landscaping services incorporated LLC your desired LLC name must we'll be distinguishable this means it cannot be too similar to the names of existing organized entities that are found in the results during the search of the database we will now illustrate several examples of distinguishability and we will provide examples you may see while performing your search differences in designators which are the identifier x' at the end of a business name do not create distinguishability examples of designators would be ink or corp for corporations and LLC or LLC for limited liability companies there are other designators as well but these are the most commonly used for example your desired LLC name is Smith Investments LLC but during the search of the database let's say you found the business under the name Smith Investments Inc in this example your desired LLC name would not be available for use you would have to think of an alternative name that is unique and different an example would be Smith Financial Group LLC grammatical differences the following do not create distinguishability differences in variables and singular plural and possessive forms of a word for example your desired LLC name is apple farm LLC let's just say during the search you found the business under the name apple farms LLC or let's say you also found a business under apples farm LLC with an apostrophe s both of these names although slightly different are too similar and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an example of an alternative name would be bob's apple orchard LLC the following do not create distinguishability differences in articles such as a and or the for example your desired LLC name is print shop LLC let's just say that during the search of the database you found a business called the print shop LLC or you found the business called a print shop LLC again although they seem different these names are all the same in the eyes of the state and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an alternative name would be printing solutions LLC the following also do not create distinguishability the use of conjunctions such as and or and the ampersand symbol let's say your desired LLC name is night and day LLC with the ampersand symbol but during your search you find a night and day LLC or you found that night day LLC again both of these examples are too similar and your desired LLC name is not distinguishable and therefore not available for use an example of an alternative name would be moon and sunshine LLC the following also do not create distinguishability the use of certain punctuation such as hyphens slashes periods commas etc let's say your desired LLC name is peter paul and mary studios LLC but during your search you found Peter - Paul - Mary Studios Incorporated or you found a Peter comma Paul comma and Mary studios Incorporated again both of these examples are too similar and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an alternative example would be ppm productions LLC alphanumeric differences in numerical or written numbers does not create distinguished ability for example let's say your desired LLC name is three teachers Consulting LLC with the number three spelled out but during your search of the database you found the company called three teachers Consulting LLC with the number three again these are deceptively similar the state does not look at these as any different and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an alternative example would be a few good teachers Consulting LLC deceptively similar names that are too similar to existing organized entities also do not create distinguished ability for example your desired LLC name is speedy delivery services LLC but during your search let's say you find a speed delivery services LLC or you find a super speedy delivery services LLC again these names are too similar therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an example of an alternative name would be at your door quake LLC takeaways as you can see just filing your paperwork with your desired LLC name is not as straightforward as you may have originally thought the most important takeaways from showing you all these examples are as follows it's important to make sure your name is truly unique and not too similar to the names of existing organized entities if your desired LLC name is unavailable for use either by its exact match already being used or by it being too similar to an existing name we recommend using some creativity and coming up with the variation of your original LLC name so that the name is now unique and is distinguishable and stands apart from other businesses some additional tips to think of when creating your LLC name are make your LLC name easy to spell you want to make sure people can find you when they're looking for you make your LLC name short shorter names are easier for people to remember make your LLC name have a positive connotation leave people with a good feeling when they hear about your business you are now ready to search your desired LLC name against the state's online database we showed you a number of examples where the desired LLC names were not available for use but don't worry in the next part of this video we will provide plenty of examples of names that are availa

Thanks Toi your participation is very much appreciated
- Lynn Asano

About the author

Lynn Asano

I've studied economic development at Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque and I am an expert in psychophysics. I usually feel optimistic. My previous job was casino surveillance officer I held this position for 15 years, I love talking about checkers (draughts) and magic the gathering. Huge fan of Jude Law I practice cheerleading and collect first day covers.