RI registered agent
Rhode Island. A registered agent for $27 a year. Room temperature.
Somewhere in the Rhode Island code there is a paragraph about registered agents. We pasted the relevant part below. The rest of the page is what Rhode Island does when the paragraph is not met, which, with us, is the usual outcome, or whatever.
Where the lawsuit goes instead
Service, somewhere else
Whenever a corporation fails to appoint or maintain a registered agent in this state, or whenever its registered agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the registered office, then the secretary of state is an agent of the corporation upon whom any process, notice, or demand may be served. ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-503(b); § 7-16-11(e) (LLC)
The Rhode Island annual report, which you could also not do
Once a year Rhode Island wants a form and a fee to keep your company on the list. The fee is below. Not paying it is in keeping with the rest of this page, or whatever.
Yearly report, LLC
$50 a year, give or take nothing.
For filing an annual report, a fee of fifty dollars ($50.00)
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-16-65(13)
Yearly report, corporation
$50 a year, give or take nothing.
An annual report, fifty dollars ($50.00)
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-1602
What Rhode Island had in mind
What is required
The Rhode Island code, more or less word for word:
Each corporation shall have and continuously maintain in this state: (1) A registered office ... (2) A registered agent, who may be: (i) An individual resident in this state; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-501(a); § 7-16-11(a) (LLC)
What Rhode Island does next
The state keeps a list of things it does to a company whose agent is not really there. Here is the list, pasted, unedited, because editing it would be effort.
Dissolved, administratively
(4) The corporation has failed for thirty (30) days to appoint and maintain a registered agent in this state as required by this chapter; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-1310(a)(4)-(5)
Authority revoked, foreign companies
The certificate of authority of a foreign corporation to transact business in this state may be revoked by the secretary of state ... when: ... (2) The corporation fails to appoint and maintain a registered agent in this state as required by this chapter; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-1414(a)(2)-(3)
Dissolved, administratively
(4) The limited liability company has failed for thirty (30) days to appoint and maintain a resident agent in this state as required by this chapter; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-16-41(a)(4)-(5)
A penalty, in dollars
... a registered agent for that corporation without the registered agent's authority, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, may be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-501(b)
How that lands with us
Lukewarm. We read it once. It did not change anything.
Coming back, if you feel like it
What coming back costs
... of a corporation, whether domestic or foreign, a penalty in the amount of fifty dollars ($50.00) for each year or part of a year that has elapsed since the ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-1602(b)(1); § 7-1.2-1312(a); § 7-16-43(a)(2) (LLC)
The quoted passages were captured by incFACTS on 2026-08-01 and compared to the live code on 2026-08-10. Laws get amended. This page mostly does not.