Certificate of Fact Request Form – This is a Solicitation

If you’ve formed a limited liability company, corporation, limited partnership or other business entity in the State of Texas and subsequently received a letter containing a “Certificate of Fact Request Form” or something similar, the letter is likely a solicitation and not official correspondence.

 We have had several clients receive letters like this recently. They have all looked very official and requested the payment of a fee of around $75 by a due date to have a Certificate of Fact for your business entity sent to you from the Texas Secretary of State. These letters did not originate from the Texas Secretary of State and you likely do not need a Certificate of Fact for your business entity. If you ever do need a Certificate of Fact, you can request one from the Texas Secretary of State for $15.

 A Certificate of Fact (also called a Certificate of Good Standing in other states) is a certificate you can request from the Texas Secretary of State that certifies that your business entity was formed and remains in existence in the State of Texas. You may be asked to provide a Certificate of Fact for your business entity when requested by third parties from time-to-time (most often by a bank in connection with a loan), however, you do not need to have a Certificate of Fact for your business entity unless one has been requested. If one ever is requested, it will need to be dated within a certain timeframe to be effective. Therefore, it is likely you will need to obtain a new Certificate of Fact at that time anyway.

 If you find that you do need to obtain a Certificate of Fact for your business entity, you can obtain one for $15 by following the instructions for “How to Order Certificates using SOS Direct” in this link: https://www.sos.texas.gov/corp/instructions-for-copies.shtml#.

 If you have any questions about your business entity, please feel free to contact us here and we will be happy to help.