Texas Registered Agent

Responsibilities of Texas Registered Agents

A registered agent accepts service of process and other official notices on behalf of your organization. They then forward such correspondence so that you can respond timely and avoid legal issues.

To perform their duties, the agent must be available during regular business hours at the registered office—a physical address in Texas to which process servers will deliver court summons, subpoenas, and similar correspondence.

Any absence during work hours might result in your agent missing a notice, which can harm your organization’s legal standing. For example, if the agent fails to receive a summons, you may not know your organization is involved in litigation and that you must appear in court.

As a result of your absence, the judge will most likely rule in the plaintiff’s favor, which is known as default judgment. You won’t be able to defend your case and might incur penalties.

The good news is that avoiding such setbacks is easy—all you need to do is find a responsible agent who will deliver your notices efficiently.

Registered Agent Requirements in Texas

According to Section 5.201 of the Texas Business Organizations Code, your registered agent can be either of the following two entities:

1. An individual who resides in Texas (e.g., a friend, family member, attorney, employee, or yourself)
2. A domestic or foreign organization other than yours

Businesses that provide registered agent services are known as commercial registered agents. Like any well-run business, they have staff redundancies to ensure continuity of service in case of a team member’s absence. This makes them more reliable than individual agents, as someone is always available to receive your notice at the registered office.

Whether you choose an individual or organization, they must sign the 401-A form and consent to serve as your agent. While you don’t need to submit the form to the secretary of state, you should have it on file as proof of consent.

Appointing a nonconsenting entity is a punishable offense pursuant to Sections 4.007 and 4.008 of the Business Organizations Code. It’s either considered a Class A misdemeanor or a state jail felony if there is intent to defraud or harm another party.

How To Appoint and Change a Registered Agent in Texas

If you’re forming a new organization in Texas, you’ll appoint an agent in your registration filings, which depend on your business structure:

You only need the agent’s name and address (registered office) to appoint them. The agent’s consent isn’t a part of the registration documents, so including their details implies they’ve already signed the aforementioned 401-A form.

Whether you’re forming or foreign qualifying your organization, the corresponding filings will contain a section where you need to enter the agent’s name and address. The documents will also include the Consent to Appointment by Registered Agent form, which confirms the agent has agreed to provide the aforementioned services.

Appointing an agent works similarly if you’re expanding an existing organization to Texas, except you’ll name them in your foreign qualification filings.

If your organization already operates in Texas and has an agent, but you wish to work with a different one, you must submit the Change of Registered Agent/Office form to the secretary of state.

Note that if only the address changes, your agent can send a different form to update the secretary of state on behalf of all represented entities. Commercial agents often assume this responsibility, which is another argument in favor of choosing them over individuals.

Texas Registered Agent Services by Harbor Compliance

Harbor Compliance is one of the nation’s leading Registered Agent Service providers. We combine extensive experience with a robust system to help you stay on top of all legal or government correspondence. When you partner with us, you get the following:

• Same-day electronic delivery of time-sensitive notices from our local office in Austin
• A phone call in case of legal action to ensure important correspondence isn’t missed
• A secure Client Portal for managing your notices and accessing pre-filled state forms with our signatures wherever necessary

We can help you meet Wyoming’s registered agent requirement effortlessly and ensure all correspondence reaches you timely. Our rich service portfolio encompasses numerous other services that help you operate in accordance with the law, such as the following:

Our service ensures you don’t need to worry about missed notices or undetected legal threats—we’ll leave you ample time to promptly respond to any legal action taken against you.

Besides acting as your registered agent, Harbor Compliance offers a rich portfolio of services that help you meet your other regulatory obligations, most notably:

• Document filing and retrieval—Our Drop-off Filing service gives you a fast, hands-off way to deliver time-sensitive filings to the secretary of state. We can also retrieve your certificate of good standing or authority, articles of reinstatement, as well as certified copies of official documents.
• Entity lifecycle management—Whether you need help with DBA management, payroll tax registration, formation document amendments, initial and annual report filing, or even withdrawal, we can help you expedite the process.
• Beneficial ownership information reporting—We can file the initial beneficial ownership information report to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in your name. Besides that, our Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Service includes any updates and corrections to help you meet the requirements established by the Corporate Transparency Act.
• Business licensing support—Harbor Compliance can help secure your organization’s general business license, as well as industry-specific ones (construction, engineering, security, etc.).
• Nonprofit formation—We can take over nonprofit incorporation and charitable registration on your behalf (we’ll also secure your 501(c) tax exemption).

Individual Texan Registered Agent vs. Harbor Compliance

As mentioned, the main drawback of an individual registered agent is that they might miss your notice. This can happen due to personal or work obligations, travel, emergencies, or many other reasons.

You might feel compelled to appoint an employee to resolve the availability issue, as they’ll be at the office during business hours anyway. Appealing as this may sound, it exposes you to the risk of receiving service of process in front of your team or clients.

Another option is to appoint yourself, which might seem the simplest. Still, this would mean your personal details enter the public record, and you’d need to be available at the registered office 40 hours per week.

By partnering with Harbor Compliance, you can eliminate all of the above issues and enjoy the following benefits:

• Constant availability of our team members at our Austin office
• Undisturbed privacy as a result of our information being listed with the secretary of state instead of yours
• Complete flexibility thanks to the Client Portal, which lets you manage notices online wherever you are
• Enhanced security through various measures unavailable to a typical individual agent (data encryption, cloud monitoring, etc.)
• Nationwide presence that lets you appoint us in any state your organization operates in and manage all official correspondence in a centralized hub

How To Appoint Harbor Compliance as Your Texas Registered Agent Service Provider

The steps to partnering with us vary between the following three scenarios:

1. Forming a new organization in Texas
2. Foreign qualifying to the state
3. Changing your existing registered agent

Forming a New Organization

If you’re registering your organization in Texas for the first time, we can help you go through the process effortlessly with the following services tailored to different entity structures:

1. Incorporation
2. Nonprofit formation
3. LLC formation

Choose your preferred service, and we’ll complete the registration on your behalf and enlist Harbor Compliance as your registered agent.

If you wish to be more involved in the registration process and only need the Registered Agent Service, you can order it separately and take the following steps to appoint us:

1. Order the service
2. Find the address of our Austin office in the Client Portal
3. Complete and submit the filings to the secretary of state

Foreign Qualifying to Texas

Expanding to another jurisdiction is no easy feat due to the many requirements you must meet. Our Foreign Qualification Service package can make the process a breeze.

Complete the wizard, and we’ll take all the necessary steps to obtain your Texas certificate of authority. Not only will we appoint Harbor Compliance as your agent, but we’ll also offer the service at no extra cost for a year if you opt for the package.

Changing Your Agent

While changing an agent in Texas is straightforward enough, we can completely take this task off your plate once you purchase the Registered Agent Service.

You’ll see the option to add the Change of Agent service right before checkout. Select it, complete the purchase, and we’ll make the change for you.

Partner With Harbor Compliance as Your Texas Registered Agent

Outsourcing the responsibilities of a registered agent to us ensures your notices will be processed by experts and delivered without complications. To enjoy such convenience and all of the aforementioned benefits, order our Registered Agent Service today.

If you need additional help ensuring your organization operates in accordance with the law, you can take the following steps:

• Reach out to us and inquire about our additional services.
• Get a free Harbor Compliance Score™ to assess your current regulatory standing.
• Schedule a demonstration of our robust software solution to see how it can help your organization operate without regulatory setbacks.

Harbor Compliance can serve as your agent across the U.S.—check out the following table to learn about registered agents in other states and territories: