An entity's legal name is meant to uniquely identify the business in a given state. Each state may have requirements around valid entity names (e.g., requires the use of alphabetical characters) or the use of suffixes (e.g., LLC, Inc.). Most states do not allow an entity to register with a name already in use, and some states require an entity name to reflect the operations of the business.
While states guard against duplicative names, each state acts independently when forming entities. Therefore, many business entities have the same name as a separate business in another state. In this case, it is critical to understand the domestic and foreign jurisdictions of each state, and how and when each filing was made.
A company is said to be "doing business as" a name when the business operates under a name different than its legal, registered name. These names are also referred to as "assumed", "fictitious", or "trade" names.
State and local governments usually require companies to register these alternate names through a DBA filing, allowing the company to legally operate under a separate trade name.
All valid business entities will have an EIN issued by the IRS. The Federal government requires a legal entity to have an EIN to pay employees and to file business tax returns. To be considered a Partnership, LLC, Corporation, S Corporation, Non-profit, etc., a business must obtain an EIN when incorporating. EINs do not expire. Once an EIN has been issued to an entity, it will not be reissued. Each EIN is unique to a business and persists over time.
Based on IRS documents, some small businesses like single-member LLCs have EINs that match against an officer's name instead of the registered business name. Middesk has an optional feature to verify if the submitted EIN matches the person's name in the case that it failed to match with the business name. Contact your account manager or support@middesk.com if you would like to opt-in, and see our reference for additional information.
Websites are rich sources of information about corporate entities and help verify the legitimacy of a business. Thanks to common web design practices, there are very frequently a minimum set of pages on a company's corporate website, each of which may contain a wealth of data:
In sum, reviewing this minimum set of pages can help build a deeper picture of the business entity and help establish the credibility of associated businesses.
Industry Verification
Industry classification
Link to a list of SIC Codes
There are several configuration options to reduce false positives, including:
The parameters of the Watchlist tolerance or matching threshold can be adjusted to either Low, Medium, or High for entity and individual names in the dashboard settings:
Entity List (EL)
Bureau of Industry and Security
Denied Persons List (DPL)
Bureau of Industry and Security
Military End User (MEU)
Bureau of Industry and Security
Unverified List (UVL)
Bureau of Industry and Security
ITAR Debarred (DTC)
State Department
Nonproliferation Sanctions (ISN)
State Department
Capta List (CAP)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Foreign Sanctions Evaders (FSE)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions (NS-MBS)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Non-SDN Iranian Sanctions (NS-ISA)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List (NS-CMIC)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Non-SDN Palestinian Legislative Council List (PLC)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Specially Designated Nationals (SDN)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List (SSI)
Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
In the public court of law, bankruptcy filings are important references when taking on balance sheet risk. Each bankruptcy provides details about all aspects of the case proceedings; these details include:
Customers in the lending and financing spaces may perform due diligence on entities as part of their underwriting process. The Liens Search product covers UCC liens along with Federal and State Tax liens.