Monday, February 3, 2014

New Assumed Name Certificate Form

Good news for businesses operating in Texas under an assumed name: the assumed name certificate is now shorter as easier to complete!

As many readers probably know, Section 71.101 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code requires any company regularly conducting business in Texas under a name other than its legal name to file an assumed name certificate with the Texas Secretary of State and the appropriate Texas county.

Thanks to Senate Bill 699 of the 83rd Texas Legislature, effective September 1, 2013, the State of Texas no longer requires an assumed name certificate to include the address of the company's registered office or similar information for company's who are not required to maintain a registered office in Texas.  The only address now required to be included is the principal office of the company, whether such office is inside or outside of Texas.

The Texas Secretary of State's office has prepared a new form of assumed name certificate, which is available here.

This is a change for the better for Texas law because the older, longer information requirements for assumed name certificates were redundant and therefore did not seem to serve any meaningful purpose.