To find information about a business, start with public records: state registries confirm a company legally exists and identify who runs it, SEC and IRS filings show its finances, court and lien records surface lawsuits and debts, and licensing and safety databases reveal how it has behaved. Which database you open first depends on what you’re trying to learn and whether the company is public, private, or nonprofit.
Confirm the Business Exists and Find Out Who Runs It
The fastest way to verify a company is real is the business entity database maintained by the secretary of state (or equivalent agency) where the company was formed. Every state runs one, and most allow free searches by business name or entity number. A search returns the legal name, formation date, entity type, and current status. Anything other than “active” or “in good standing” is a warning sign worth investigating before you sign anything.
These registries also disclose the registered agent, the person or company designated to accept legal papers. If you ever need to serve a lawsuit or send a formal demand, that name and address is where it goes. Many states require annual or biennial reports listing current officers, directors, or managing members, which can show who actually runs the company rather than just who founded it.
Mergers, acquisitions, and dissolutions typically appear in the same database. If a company you dealt with seems to have vanished, check for a name change, a merger filing, or a cancellation document before assuming it disappeared. For an official document proving current legal status, you can request a certificate of good standing from the secretary of state; some states let you download it immediately, others require a mailed request.
Many businesses trade under names different from their legal owners. A sole proprietor named Jane Smith running a bakery called “Sweet Morning” would file a fictitious business name statement, commonly called a DBA or “Doing Business As” filing, with the local county or city clerk. If you’re trying to figure out who really owns the shop on your block, the DBA registry at the county clerk’s office connects the brand name to the actual person or parent company behind it.
Local governments also issue health department permits, building permits, fire safety certificates, and operating licenses. A permit application typically lists the proprietor’s name and the specific activities authorized, which verifies the physical location and confirms the business met zoning and safety requirements. These are most useful for brick-and-mortar operations where local compliance directly affects your safety as a customer.
Check the Finances
Publicly Traded Companies
Publicly traded companies operate under much deeper transparency requirements than private ones. Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 requires every company with securities registered on a national exchange to file periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.1GovInfo. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 These filings live in EDGAR, the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, which is free to search.2U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Search Filings
Three filings do most of the work. The 10-K is the annual report, with audited financial statements, management’s discussion of risks and performance, and disclosures about pending lawsuits or regulatory proceedings. The 10-Q covers the same ground quarterly, with unaudited financials. The 8-K is event-driven: companies must file one within four business days when something significant happens, such as a CEO departure, a major acquisition, or a bankruptcy filing.3U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 8-K General Instructions Reading recent 8-Ks is often the fastest way to catch red flags a company would rather bury.
Nonprofits and Tax-Exempt Organizations
If the entity is a charity or tax-exempt organization, the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search lets you verify its status by name or Employer Identification Number, see whether its exemption was revoked, and check whether it’s eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.4Internal Revenue Service. Search for Tax Exempt Organizations
The document to actually read is Form 990. Most tax-exempt organizations file one annually, and it’s public. Form 990 discloses total revenue, total expenses, net assets, and detailed compensation for officers, directors, key employees, and the organization’s highest-paid staff.5Internal Revenue Service. About Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax A nonprofit that pays its executive director $800,000 while reporting modest program spending will show that clearly. Several years of 990s give you a far better picture of where the money goes than the organization’s own website.
Look for Lawsuits, Bankruptcies, and Debts
A company’s litigation history often tells you what its marketing won’t. Federal court records are searchable through PACER, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, which covers appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts nationwide.6United States Courts. Find a Case (PACER) Search by party name and you’ll find breach of contract disputes, employment discrimination suits, patent claims, and bankruptcy proceedings. PACER charges a small per-page fee.7United States Courts. Electronic Public Access Fee Schedule State court records live in each state’s separate online system.
Bankruptcy filings deserve extra attention. A Chapter 7 filing means the business was liquidated, its assets sold to pay creditors and operations ended. A Chapter 11 filing means the company attempted to reorganize while continuing to operate.8United States Courts. Bankruptcy Basics Either shows up in PACER and helps you judge whether a company that went through bankruptcy has genuinely recovered or is still carrying baggage.
UCC Filings
Uniform Commercial Code filings reveal whether a company’s assets are already pledged as collateral. A UCC-1 financing statement, filed with the state, identifies the creditor and describes the collateral, which could be equipment, inventory, accounts receivable, or all of it. Multiple UCC-1 filings against a business mean other creditors have claims that would be paid before yours in a default.
These filings don’t clear themselves. The creditor must file a UCC-3 termination statement to release the lien. An old UCC-1 with no matching UCC-3 either means the lien was never cleared after the debt was paid or the debt is still outstanding. Asking the business directly about unresolved filings is a reasonable due diligence step.
Federal Tax Liens
When a business owes unpaid federal taxes, the IRS can file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien, which becomes a public record. For real property, notices are typically filed with the county recorder where the property sits. For personal property of a corporation or partnership, many states direct the filing to the secretary of state’s office.9Internal Revenue Service. 5.17.2 Federal Tax Liens A federal tax lien signals serious financial distress; the IRS generally doesn’t file one until repeated collection attempts have failed. The agency also publishes a quarterly extract from its Automated Lien System, though that dataset may be incomplete and should be confirmed against the local filing office.10Internal Revenue Service. Automated Lien System Database Listing
Verify What the Business Claims to Own
Trademark and patent registries show whether a company actually owns the brands and technology it claims. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office runs searchable databases for both. Trademark Search returns the registered owner of a brand name, logo, or slogan, along with filing date, registration status, and the goods or services covered.11United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Search If ownership has changed through a sale, merger, or corporate name change, the transfer should appear in the Assignment Center.12United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Assignments: Transferring Ownership or Changing Your Name
Patent records work the same way. The Patent Assignment Search contains recorded assignment information open to the public from August 1980 to the present, and you can search by assignee name to find every patent owned by a specific company.13United States Patent and Trademark Office. Patent Assignment Search – Assignment Center For technology, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical companies, the patent portfolio is often a major part of the value. A company claiming to hold important patents that don’t show up in USPTO records warrants skepticism.
Check the Safety and Disciplinary Record
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration publishes inspection and citation data nationwide. OSHA’s Establishment Search covers more than three million inspections conducted since 1972, and you can search by business name, state, or date range.14Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Establishment Search Help Each record shows the inspection type — planned, complaint-driven, or accident-related — and the specific violations once the case is closed. A single old citation may mean nothing. A pattern of repeated serious violations at the same location suggests management treats safety as an afterthought.
Regulated professions such as plumbing, electrical work, medicine, law, accounting, and real estate require licenses issued by state boards, and every state makes those records searchable online. You can confirm the license is current, view the issue and expiration dates, and check for disciplinary actions. Disciplinary history is the most valuable part: an active license with a record of suspensions, fines, or formal complaints tells a very different story than a clean one.
One boundary worth knowing: the National Practitioner Data Bank, which collects malpractice payment and adverse action reports for healthcare providers, is not open to the general public. Access is restricted to hospitals, health plans, and certain other authorized entities.15U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – National Practitioner Data Bank. About Querying the NPDB For healthcare providers, the state licensing board is the best publicly available source of disciplinary information.
The Better Business Bureau also tracks complaints and resolutions and assigns letter grades based on responsiveness and complaint volume. Those ratings can supplement official records, but they reflect consumer satisfaction rather than regulatory compliance. A company can carry an A+ BBB rating while sitting on unresolved OSHA violations or pending lawsuits, so treat the BBB grade as one data point, not a verdict.
How to Sequence Your Checks
Start with the state entity registry to confirm the business is real and identify who runs it. If it’s public, pull the latest 10-K and any recent 8-Ks from EDGAR. If it’s a nonprofit, read a few years of Form 990. Then run the name through PACER for federal litigation and bankruptcy, check UCC filings and any tax liens with the secretary of state and county recorder, and finish with OSHA and the relevant state licensing board. Each database answers a different question, and the answers together are much more revealing than any single record on its own.