Texas Secretary of State Business Scraper

Scrape Texas business entities from the Texas Open Data Portal using the official Socrata API.

🎯 What This Actor Does

This Apify actor fetches business entity data from the Texas Comptroller's Active Franchise Tax Permit Holders dataset, which contains information about all businesses registered in Texas.

Data Source: data.texas.gov

✨ Key Features

• Fast API access - No web scraping, uses official Socrata API
• Date range filtering - Get businesses registered in specific time periods
• Entity type filtering - Filter by LLC, Corporation, Partnership, etc.
• Name search - Find businesses by name
• Location filtering - Filter by city or state
• Active status filter - Get only businesses with active right to transact

🚀 Example Inputs

Get all new LLCs from 2025

{
    "startDate": "2025-01-01",
    "endDate": "2025-12-31",
    "entityTypes": ["LLC"],
    "activeOnly": true,
    "maxResults": 10000
}

Search for businesses by name

{
    "nameSearch": "consulting",
    "activeOnly": true,
    "maxResults": 5000
}

Get all businesses in Austin

{
    "city": "AUSTIN",
    "startDate": "2025-01-01",
    "maxResults": 10000
}

Get all new corporations (any status)

{
    "startDate": "2024-01-01",
    "endDate": "2024-12-31",
    "entityTypes": ["Corporation"],
    "maxResults": 50000
}

📊 Output Data

Each record includes:

Field	Description
taxpayerNumber	Texas Comptroller taxpayer number (11 digits)
taxpayerName	Business legal name
address	Street address
city	City
state	State code
zip	ZIP code
countyCode	Texas county code
organizationalTypeCode	Entity type code (CI, LI, etc.)
organizationalType	Human-readable entity type
recordTypeCode	Record type
responsibilityBeginningDate	Date business became responsible for franchise tax
rightToTransactBusiness	"Active" or "Not Active"
rightToTransactBusinessCode	Y or N
scrapedAt	Timestamp of scrape
source	"texas_open_data_portal"

🏢 Entity Type Codes

Code	Entity Type
CI	Corporation - Domestic
CF	Corporation - Foreign
LI	LLC - Domestic
LF	LLC - Foreign
PI	Limited Partnership - Domestic
PF	Limited Partnership - Foreign
NI	Nonprofit Corporation - Domestic
NF	Nonprofit Corporation - Foreign
AI	Professional Association - Domestic
AF	Professional Association - Foreign
RI	Limited Liability Partnership - Domestic
RF	Limited Liability Partnership - Foreign
SI	Professional Corporation - Domestic
SF	Professional Corporation - Foreign

🔧 Input Configuration

Field	Type	Required	Description
startDate	String	No	Start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
endDate	String	No	End date (YYYY-MM-DD)
entityTypes	Array	No	Entity types to include
nameSearch	String	No	Search text for business names
city	String	No	City filter (exact match)
state	String	No	State code filter (TX, CA, etc.)
activeOnly	Boolean	No	Only active businesses (default: false)
maxResults	Integer	No	Max results (default: 10000, 0=unlimited)

⚡ Performance

• Speed: ~10,000 records per minute
• API Limit: 1,000 records per batch (automatic pagination)
• Memory: Only needs 1GB
• Cost: Very low compute usage

💰 Cost Estimate

• 10,000 records: ~0.1 compute units
• 100,000 records: ~0.5 compute units
• 1,000,000 records: ~2-3 compute units

📈 Dataset Size

The full Active Franchise Tax Permit Holders dataset contains millions of records. Use filters to get manageable result sets:

• All 2025 registrations: ~500,000-1,000,000 records
• All LLCs from 2025: ~300,000-500,000 records
• Specific city for one year: ~1,000-50,000 records

🐛 Debugging

Check the Key-Value store for:

• summary - Run statistics and breakdowns
• sample-data - First 10 records (preview)
• error - Error details if the actor crashed

🚀 Deployment

# Install Apify CLI
npm install -g apify-cli

# Login
apify login

# Navigate to project
cd texas-sos-scraper

# Deploy
apify push

📝 Sample Output

{
    "taxpayerNumber": "32095586189",
    "taxpayerName": "ALBERTROSE TRANSPORTATION LLC",
    "address": "23 TROON DR",
    "city": "LAKEWAY",
    "state": "TX",
    "zip": "78738",
    "countyCode": "227",
    "organizationalTypeCode": "LI",
    "organizationalType": "LLC - Domestic",
    "recordTypeCode": "X",
    "responsibilityBeginningDate": "2023-02-09",
    "rightToTransactBusiness": "Not Active",
    "rightToTransactBusinessCode": "N",
    "scrapedAt": "2025-01-09T10:30:00.000Z",
    "source": "texas_open_data_portal"
}

📚 Related Resources

• Texas Open Data Portal
• Active Franchise Tax Permit Holders Dataset
• Socrata API Documentation
• Apify Documentation

⚠️ Notes

1. Date Field: The responsibilityBeginningDate is when the business became responsible for franchise tax, not necessarily the formation date.

2. Data Freshness: The Texas Open Data Portal dataset is updated periodically by the state.

3. Foreign Entities: Businesses registered in other states but operating in Texas are included with their original state code.

4. Active Status: "Right to Transact Business" indicates whether the business is currently in good standing with the Texas Comptroller.