SD registered agent
Registered agent service in South Dakota. $24 a year. Yes.
Every South Dakota company must appoint a registered agent at a street address in the state. What follows is the statute, quoted where it matters, and our position on it, which is brief.
The statutory requirement in South Dakota
Requirement
The South Dakota code provides:
... or (2) If the entity does not have a commercial registered agent: (a) The name and address of the entity's noncommercial registered agent; ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 59-11-6
Service of process in our absence
Substituted service
If an entity that previously filed a registered agent filing with the secretary of state no longer has a registered agent, or if its registered agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the entity may be served by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the governors of the entity by name at its principal office in accordance with any applicable judicial rules and procedures. ...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 59-11-16
Enforcement in South Dakota
The state's remedies against a company whose agent does not perform. Quoted without paraphrase.
Administrative dissolution by the state
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)
Revocation of foreign authority
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)
Loss of standing to sue
... certificate of authority may not maintain a proceeding in any court in this state until it obtains a certificate of authority.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-1502
Pecuniary penalty
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
Further
... to wind up and liquidate its business and affairs under §§ 47-1A-1405 and 47-1A-1405.1 ... The administrative dissolution of a corporation does not terminate the authority of its registered agent.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-1421
Restoration
Fee upon restoration
... hundred dollars, plus any delinquent annual report filing fees and associated penalty fees for the period before the reinstatement application;
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-1A-122(17)
Fee upon restoration
... annual report and a fee for application of reinstatement in the amount of one hundred fifty dollars.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: SDCL § 47-34A-811(a)
The South Dakota annual report, which you may also decline
South Dakota levies an annual charge to keep a company in good standing. The amount is below. Declining it is consistent with everything else on this page.
Annual report, limited liability company
$55 per annum.
... dollars, due and payable with the filing of each annual report.
Source: official state fee schedule, via incFACTS: https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/47-34A-212
Annual report, corporation
$55 per annum.
(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)
Our position
We decline. At this price you may have expected otherwise.
Statutory text captured by incFACTS on 2026-08-01, verified against the code on 2026-08-10. Statutes are amended. This page is not.