SD registered agent
South Dakota. A registered agent for $27 a year. Room temperature.
Somewhere in the South Dakota code there is a paragraph about registered agents. We pasted the relevant part below. The rest of the page is what South Dakota does when the paragraph is not met, which, with us, is the usual outcome, or whatever.
Where the lawsuit goes instead
Service, somewhere else
... (2) The date shown on the return receipt, if signed on behalf of the entity; or (3) Five days after its deposit with the United States Postal Service...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 59-11-16
The South Dakota annual report, which you could also not do
Once a year South Dakota 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
$55 a year, give or take nothing.
... of fifty-five dollars, due and payable with the filing of ...
Source: official state fee schedule, via incFACTS: https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/47-34A-212
Yearly report, corporation
$55 a year, give or take nothing.
(25) Annual report, fifty-five dollars;
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL 47-1A-122(25) (as amended by SL 2025 ch. 189 s. 1)
What South Dakota had in mind
What is required
The South Dakota code, more or less word for word:
A registered agent filing must state: (1) The name of the represented entity's commercial registered agent; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 59-11-6
What South Dakota 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
The Office of the Secretary of State may commence a proceeding under § 47-1A-1421 to administratively dissolve a corporation if: ... (3) The corporation is without a registered agent in this state for sixty days or more; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-1420(3)-(4)
Authority revoked, foreign companies
The Office of the Secretary of State may commence a proceeding under §§ 47-1A-1531 and 47-1A-1531.1 to revoke the certificate of authority of a foreign corporation authorized to transact business in this state if: ... (3) The foreign corporation is without a registered agent in this state for sixty days or more; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-1530(3)-(4)
Locked out of the courthouse
... business in this state without a certificate of authority may not maintain a proceeding in any court in this state until it ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-1502
A penalty, in dollars
A foreign corporation is liable for a civil penalty of one hundred dollars for each day, but not to exceed a total of one thousand dollars for each year, it transacts business in this state without a certificate of authority. ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-1502.2
Also, apparently
... existence but may not carry on any business except that necessary to wind up and liquidate its business and affairs under §§ 47-1A-1405 and 47-1A-1405.1 ... The administrative dissolution of a ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-1421
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
... administrative dissolution, three hundred dollars, plus any delinquent annual report filing fees and associated penalty fees for the period ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-122(17)
What coming back costs
... charge filing fees for any delinquent annual report and a fee for application of reinstatement in the amount ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-34A-811(a)
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.