Mississippi Certificate of Authority/Filing yourself

Filing your own Mississippi certificate of authority

Doing your own Mississippi certificate of authority means one online filing and one state fee, $500 if you are a corporation, $100 for a nonprofit or $250 for an LLC, with a home-state certificate under six months old. Below you will find the sequence, the usual snags and what to do once approved. To have us do it, use the button at the foot of the page; our charge is $199.

Begin filing

Who can reasonably do this alone

A corporation or LLC that is in good standing at home and has a clear agent can manage it. The outside inputs are the home certificate and the Mississippi agent. Difficulty rises when the home record is stale, when a nonprofit board must approve the filing, or when nobody has settled whether the activity counts as business.

The sequence

Pick the form for your entity
F0002 for corporations and nonprofits, F0200 for LLCs.
Order the home certificate
Good standing or existence, dated within six months.
Confirm the agent
A person or company at a Mississippi street address who agrees to serve.
Sign in to the filing system
This is the Secretary of State portal named in the guide.
Choose the foreign registration link
The guide points filers to this link for entities from elsewhere.
Enter the entity's facts
Name, formation state, addresses, agent and signer.
Send in the certificate
It goes with the filing.
Pay and keep the record
The fee depends on the entity.

Paying and what comes back

The fee is paid in the online system with the filing, and under the LLC Act a filing has no effect until its fee is in. When an LLC registration is approved, the office marks it Filed with the date and time and sends a copy back; that mark settles the filing date unless there was fraud. Keep the copy with the entity's records.

Home-state certificates

Delaware sells its short-form good standing certificate for $50, and Wyoming issues one online with no charge. Other states vary. Request the version that shows current standing, read its date when it comes, and keep the file to send in.

Common snags

The usual snags are a stale certificate, an agent address that is a mailbox, the wrong form for the entity, and a signer who lacks authority. Nonprofits add one more: confirming whether the board must authorize the filing. For an LLC already doing business in the state, the start date also sets a daily charge.

How long it takes

The parts you control are the certificate, the agent and the form, and they can run at the same time. Mississippi publishes no processing time for its own part.

After approval

Save the record the office returns. Calendar the yearly date for your type: April 15 for an LLC or profit corporation, May 15 for a nonprofit. If the entity has Mississippi taxes to pay, it also needs a Department of Revenue account.

The name an LLC uses here

An LLC's Mississippi name must include limited liability company, LLC or L.L.C. and must be one a Mississippi LLC could register. It can differ from the home name, so an LLC whose home name is taken here can file under a second name. Settle that before you log in, because the name goes on the first lines of the application.

A checklist before you log in

Open a folder and put in it the formation record, the home certificate as a file, the agent and its street address, the principal office, the signer and that person's role, and the day Mississippi business began. Decide the entity type from the first page of this site, because the portal will ask. Have a payment card ready for the fee. If something is missing, the filing stalls partway through, and the daily charge on an LLC does not pause.

Three things to settle before you start

First, the entity type, since it decides between F0002 and F0200 and between $500, $100 and $250; a nonprofit uses the corporation form at the lower price. Second, the home certificate's date, which has to fall inside six months on the day you file. Third, the signer. If any of the three is unclear, ask us before you order.

Where a filing can fail

Each requirement is a place a filing can fail: a name without the right ending, an agent without a street address in the state, a stale or missing home certificate, a signature from someone without authority, or an unpaid fee. Fix the cause and file again.

DIY versus handing it over

Filing alone costs only the state fee and your time. Handing it over costs our fee, shown separately at checkout, and gives you a prepared form, a checked certificate date and an agent address test. Which is better depends on how tidy your records are and how much a delay costs you. An LLC already working in Mississippi loses $10 a day to delay, which tips many owners toward help.

Keeping records after you file

Save the filed record, the receipt, the home certificate you used, and a note of the yearly date. Put the yearly date, April 15 or May 15, in two calendars. If the entity changes agents, names or addresses, file the change before the next report. These habits cost nothing and prevent most of the revocation problems that arise later, so make them part of the entity's routine from the first year.

If the entity is a nonprofit

A nonprofit files the same F0002 as a corporation at the lower fee of $100. Check that the board has authorized the filing and the signer, keep the minutes, and calendar the annual report due May 15. A nonprofit that also solicits contributions in Mississippi files a separate charity registration with the Charities Division, apart from this filing.

If your agent steps down later

An agent can resign later. For an LLC, an agent's resignation becomes effective 90 days after filing, with mailed notice to the LLC at least 30 days ahead of that filing. Name a new agent inside that window: 60 days without one is a ground for revocation, and the change itself is a $10 statement.

Two worked budgets

A Delaware LLC that files alone spends $250 to Mississippi and $50 to Delaware for the certificate, $300 in all. A profit corporation spends $500 to Mississippi plus its own home certificate, and a nonprofit $100 plus its certificate. Add an agent if the entity has no one in Mississippi. These are the out-of-pocket numbers before any help from us.

A word on saving time

The slow parts of a self-filing are almost never the form. Those are the home certificate, the agent's consent and the signer's availability. Start all three on the same day, and the filing itself is an afternoon's work.

Registered agent: first year included, then $149 a year

$199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.

Do-it-yourself questions

Do I need an attorney?

No, but a Mississippi attorney can answer questions about whether your activities count as business.

Does a nonprofit pay the corporation fee?

No. It files the same F0002 for $100.

Can I file before the certificate arrives?

The certificate goes in with the filing, so wait for it.

What do I need before I log in?

The home certificate as a file, the agent and its street address, the signer and a card for the fee.

Let us handle the filing

Our fee plus the state fee

Start my Mississippi filing

The Mississippi form that matches your entity type
Your home-state certificate checked against the age limit
A Mississippi street-address agent, from us or from you
The filed record sent to you
Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year

$199

+ the Mississippi fee for your entity

Begin filing

The state portion runs $100 to $500 by entity, and checkout shows it on its own line. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.

Sources

Not sure which Mississippi filing you need?

Pick your entity type and the right one is prepared.

Start my filing