Tennessee won’t take a P.O. Box as your registered office — and the $300 LLC annual report is not the registered-agent job

What Tennessee actually requires

Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-109 is who must keep an agent. Each domestic and foreign LLC shall continuously maintain in this state: (1) a registered office, which may be the same as any of its places of business; and (2) a registered agent who maintains an office at the same street address as the registered office. The agent may be an individual who resides in this state, or a domestic corporation, not-for-profit domestic corporation, domestic LLC, domestic general partnership, domestic limited partnership, or domestic registered limited liability partnership. The agent may also be a foreign corporation, not-for-profit foreign corporation, foreign LLC, foreign general partnership, foreign limited partnership, or foreign registered limited liability partnership that is authorized to transact business in this state. If the agent resigns or cannot do the job, the LLC shall promptly designate another. Each LLC shall at all times have a registered agent in this state. That is the statute’s list. We print it. We do not invent a shorter one.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-15-101 is the corporation pair. Each corporation must continuously maintain in this state a registered office and a registered agent who keeps an office at the same street. The who-may-serve list matches the LLC list. Tennessee does not switch the job name for corporations the way Massachusetts does. This page is the LLC / formation-owner job. We still print the corporation section because the words are the same. LegalZoom’s Tennessee article, updated May 15, 2026, cites Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-208-101 for LLCs. Northwest’s Tennessee product page cites the same pair. That older chapter is the Tennessee Limited Liability Company Act. Current formation uses the Tennessee Revised Limited Liability Company Act. The live LLC section we retrieved is Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-109. We print both. We do not treat the 2005 chapter as today’s formation chapter.

The Articles of Organization form is the office’s own street rule. Enter the name of the LLC’s initial registered agent, the street address, city, state, and zip of the initial registered office in Tennessee, and the county. A post office box is not acceptable for the registered agent/office address. The address will be verified. If it cannot be recognized as valid, the Division will reject the form. The Secretary of State business FAQ repeats the ban in a longer sentence. The address of the registered office must be a physical Tennessee address. It cannot be a post office box, a route number, or a box number alone. The FAQ also says a registered agent is a person or company who agrees to accept legal mail on behalf of your entity. All entities except a general partnership must keep a registered agent and office in Tennessee at all times. We print the statute, the form, and the FAQ. We do not invent a fourth sentence that makes them the same.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-110 is how an LLC changes the line. The company files a statement of change with the secretary of state. The statement names the company. If the office is changing, it gives the street of the new registered office, including the zip code, and the county. If the agent is changing, it gives the name of the new registered agent. It must also say that after the change, the street addresses of the registered office and the business office of the registered agent will be identical. A registered agent who moves may change the street for each company the agent represents by notifying the company in writing and filing one statement. The Statement of Change of Registered Agent/Office by Entity or Agent on the forms and fees table is SS-4534. The fee is $20. The FAQ also says a change of registered agent or principal address requires Articles of Amendment and the statutory $20 filing fee. We print the statute, the change form, and the FAQ. We do not invent a winner. LegalZoom’s Tennessee article, updated May 15, 2026, names Form SS-4427 for corporations and Form SS-4225 for LLCs. Those numbers are LegalZoom copy. The live table we retrieved lists SS-4534. We do not treat a vendor form number as the Division’s table.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-111 is how an agent steps down. The live LLC resignation form SS-4227 cites § 48-208-103 or § 48-249-111. A copy of the notice has been mailed by certified mail to the principal office. The resignation will be effective on the date it is filed by the Secretary of State. The filing fee on that form is $20. The current forms table also lists SS-4420, Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent, at $20. Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-15-103 is the corporation clock. The agent files a statement of resignation and certifies that a copy was mailed to the principal office by certified mail. The agency appointment is terminated on the date the statement is filed. That is the same-day clock. It is not Maryland’s 10-day clock. It is not Massachusetts’s 31st day. The company must promptly name another agent. Being without a registered agent is a reason the Secretary of State FAQ lists for administrative dissolution. We print promptly. We do not invent a 30-day waiting room.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-1017 is the yearly SOS paper this page will not confuse with the agent job. Each domestic LLC and each foreign LLC authorized to transact business in this state shall file an annual report. The report is due on or before the first day of the fourth month following the close of the fiscal year, or on a date set by rule. For a calendar-year LLC that day is April 1. A Secretary of State press release we retrieved says business entities are required to file an annual report with the state by April 1 each year. The Business Services Online annual-report instructions repeat the first-day-of-the-fourth-month line. They also say there is an additional $20 fee if any changes are made to the registered agent or registered office. Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-1017 treats an annual report that changes the registered office or registered agent as the statement of change under § 48-249-110(a). That is the opposite of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts $500 report cannot change the resident agent. The Tennessee $300 report can change the registered agent if you pay the extra $20. Changing the line on the report is still not the registered-agent job. The job is taking court papers at the Tennessee street.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-1007 is the $300 clock. The secretary of state collects an annual filing fee equal to fifty dollars multiplied by the number of members specified in the annual report. The amount shall be no less than three hundred dollars and no more than three thousand dollars. The secretary of state shall also collect an additional twenty dollars for any annual report that sets forth a change of the registered office or registered agent. The business FAQ repeats that split. The annual report fee for a corporation is $20, and an additional $20 is required if any change is made concerning the registered agent or registered office. The annual report fee for LLCs is $300 minimum up to a maximum of $3,000. The fee increases by an additional $50 per member for every member over six, up to that $3,000 cap. Northwest’s Tennessee page, retrieved the same day, says domestic Tennessee corporations cost $20 if there are no changes and $40 if there are, and all other entities cost $300 if there are no changes and $320 if there are. That is vendor copy of the same two-line split. We print the statute and the FAQ. We do not invent a third price.

The Department of Revenue franchise and excise tax page is the other April bill. If you are a corporation, limited partnership, limited liability company, or business trust chartered, qualified, or registered in Tennessee or doing business in this state, then you must register for and pay franchise and excise taxes. The minimum franchise tax is $100. The due-dates page says the annual return is due the 15th day of the fourth month following the close of your books and records. For a January 1 to December 31 calendar year, that tax is due on April 15 of the following year. The Department of Revenue help article we retrieved cites Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 67-4-2015(a) and 67-4-2115(a) and names Form FAE170 on TNTAP. Those dollars go to the Department of Revenue. They do not go to the Division of Business Services. They are not the registered-agent job. A tax-clearance letter from Revenue is required to obtain a certificate of existence, to reinstate, or to terminate, cancel, or withdraw. That letter is still not the agent line.

The Division of Business Services sits at 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue, 6th Floor, Nashville, TN 37243-1102. The Articles form and the LLC resignation form print that line. The Secretary of State is Tre Hargett. Those lines are the Division. They are not a commercial registered-agent suite. Tennessee does not post Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 windows. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-109.

Confirm the live name and street on the Business Entity Search before you treat a marketing city as current. Headquarters is not the registered office. The Division desk in Nashville is not a vendor suite. That search returned a live lookup form on retrieval. File later papers on TNCaB, the Tennessee Charity and Business Filing System. We do not invent a row we could not open.

Cited prices, retrieved September 12, 2026

We print what the company’s official registered-agent page said on the retrieval date. No company publishes a different Tennessee registered-agent price from the national card, except where we note a Tennessee-page renewal line. We do not invent a renewal.

• Northwest Registered Agent: official page: “$125 Per Year.” Same price in year two on the national card. Five or more states is $100 a year per state. Retrieved September 12, 2026 from northwestregisteredagent.com/registered-agent and the Tennessee product page. First year free only if you form through them; we do not treat that bundle as the standalone price. The Tennessee page cites Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-15-101 and § 48-208-101. We print that pair. The live LLC formation section we retrieved is § 48-249-109.
• Bizee: official registered-agent page: free first year with formation; standalone $149/year; year two $149/year. Retrieved September 12, 2026 from bizee.com/business-management/registered-agent. A bizee.com/llc/tennessee-registered-agent URL returned 404 the same day. The live Tennessee page is bizee.com/llc/tennessee/registered-agent. That page names the $300 Articles of Organization fee, the April 1 annual report, and the 6.5% franchise and excise tax. It also prints $149 per year after a free first year with formation. We do not invent a Tennessee-only price from a missing hyphenated URL.
• LegalZoom: official overview retrieved September 12, 2026: “Get registered agent services for $249/year.” Product card: $249/year. Footnote: auto-renews at the purchase rate; “The renewal rate is subject to change.” Retrieved from legalzoom.com/…/registered-agent-overview.html. The Tennessee registered-agent article, updated May 15, 2026 and retrieved the same day, talks about commercial services typically costing $100 to $300 a year. That range is not a LegalZoom price. A legalzoom.com/articles/registered-agent-in-tennessee URL returned 404 the same day. We do not invent a higher year-two number.
• ZenBusiness: official Tennessee page: first-year and renewal dollars are the national card. The national page says $99 + state fees for the first year and renews at $199/yr, subject to change. The Tennessee page, last updated August 27, 2025, talks about fees from $100 to a few hundred dollars a year as a market range. That range is not a ZenBusiness price. We keep the national card. A zenbusiness.com/tennessee-resident-agent/ URL returned 404 the same day. The live Tennessee page is /tennessee-registered-agent/. The same national page says they currently do not offer registered-agent service to PLLCs or nonprofits. That is their national exclusion, not a Tennessee statute. Retrieved September 12, 2026 from zenbusiness.com/registered-agent and the Tennessee registered-agent page.

A change of registered agent is a separate Division of Business Services filing. We cite Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-110, Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-1007, and the office’s $20 SS-4534 / extra $20 on the annual report, not company blogs. The $300 annual report and the April 15 franchise tax are still not the registered-agent job.

Who publishes a Tennessee street

A city is not a registered office. We print only the streets the companies publish for registered-agent use. We do not invent the rest. Confirm the live name and street on the Business Entity Search before you file. Headquarters is not the registered office. The Division’s Nashville contacts are not vendor suites.

• Northwest. The Tennessee product page says they accept and scan documents on-site at their registered office in Knoxville, TN. The office-locations page lists Knoxville, TN 37919, Knox County, and says they leave the street off this list. No street is published. The two city lines match. Those city, ZIP, and county lines are vendor-claimed. We have not been to a Knoxville office.
• Bizee. Claims owned offices in all 50 states. The official registered-agent page names no Tennessee street. The live Tennessee product page names no Tennessee street. The hyphenated Tennessee URL we tried returned 404 on September 12, 2026. The contact page lists 17350 State Highway 249, Suite 220, Houston, TX 77064 as headquarters. That address is not a Tennessee registered-agent street.
• LegalZoom. The official registered-agent overview does not publish a Tennessee street. The Tennessee article, updated May 15, 2026, names no LegalZoom Tennessee city. It talks about a physical Tennessee street and says a P.O. box will not be accepted. We do not invent a suite. We do not treat a LegalZoom virtual-mail street as the registered-agent street.
• ZenBusiness. The Tennessee registered-agent page publishes no ZenBusiness street or city. It prints a Secretary of State contact at 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue, 6th Floor, Snodgrass Tower, Nashville, TN 37243-1102, telephone 615-741-2286, office hours Monday–Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST. That is a published street. It is the Division of Business Services, not ZenBusiness. The Articles form lists the same building. We do not treat that Nashville line as their suite.

If you are your own registered agent, the street on the public record is often your home. If you hire a commercial registered agent, the agent line is that organization’s name. Northwest names Knoxville, ZIP 37919, Knox County, on both the product page and the office list, and no street on either. LegalZoom’s Tennessee article names no LegalZoom city. Bizee publishes no Tennessee street. ZenBusiness publishes the Division’s Rosa L. Parks Avenue contacts. We label every published city vendor-claimed. Use the Business Entity Search.

In-state office, the post-office ban, and the two April bills

Tennessee wants an in-state resident or an authorized company, a street address in this state, and someone who can take court papers at that street. The agent’s office and the registered office must be the same street. A P.O. Box is not that street. The FAQ also refuses a route number or a box number alone. The Articles form will reject an address the Division cannot treat as valid. Change the agent on SS-4534 at $20, or on the annual report for an extra $20. Resignation is effective on the day the statement is filed. The LLC annual report starts at $300 and is due on or before the first day of the fourth month after the fiscal year. For a calendar year that day is April 1. The franchise and excise tax is due April 15 for a calendar year and goes to the Department of Revenue. Those two filings are not the registered-agent job. Tennessee does not post a Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 clock, and it does not run a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register. Northwest claims Knoxville, ZIP 37919, Knox County. LegalZoom’s Tennessee article names no LegalZoom city. ZenBusiness publishes 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue — the Division of Business Services. Bizee names no Tennessee street. Process Score has not been to those offices. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-109.

Service of process, not marketing mail

We grade scan-and-forward of service of process and official notices:

• Bizee: notifications by text and email; court papers mailed via FedEx with tracking; portal upload by employees. The Tennessee page adds that the agent must be physically present Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM. That is Bizee copy. Contact-page support hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST. Those are support hours, not registered-office hours.
• Northwest: “We scan every document you receive right where you receive it—in our office.” The Tennessee page adds on-site scans from Knoxville. Their mail-scanning extras are a different product. We do not grade those extras as a mailbox.
• LegalZoom: upload, email, and a postcard for urgent legal mail; they say they shred junk mail. The Tennessee article adds same-day or next-business-day document handling as a thing to look for. Junk-mail shredding is not the job we score.
• ZenBusiness: scan and upload to a dashboard; email; overnight the original for urgent legal notices. Their own FAQ says you cannot use the agent address as your business address. Their national product currently excludes PLLCs and nonprofits; that is their exclusion, not a Tennessee statute. The Tennessee page prints Secretary of State hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CST. That is office copy for the Division, not Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-109.

Home-address privacy

A commercial registered agent is how most Tennessee owners keep a home off the agent line. The Secretary of State still publishes whatever other addresses you put on a formation filing or an annual report. Privacy of the agent line is not privacy of every field. Confirm the live line on the Business Entity Search.

Scorecards

What this page does not do

• It does not rank mailbox networks or virtual offices.
• It does not publish combined star ratings or a fake 4.8.
• It does not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Tenn. Code Ann. § 48-249-109.
• It does not treat the $300 annual report as the registered-agent job.
• It does not treat the April 15 franchise and excise tax as the registered-agent job.
• It does not treat a Houston headquarters as a Tennessee street.
• It does not treat 312 Rosa L. Parks Avenue, 6th Floor, as a vendor suite. Those contacts are the Division of Business Services.
• It does not invent a Tennessee-only price a company did not print.
• It does not invent a LegalZoom Tennessee city the article did not name.
• It does not treat a P.O. Box, a route number, or a box number alone as the street.
• It does not invent a ten-company commercial-agent bar. Tennessee does not run that register.
• It does not treat § 48-208-101 as the live formation chapter. Current LLC formation uses § 48-249-109. LegalZoom and Northwest still cite the older pair.
• It does not pretend the Massachusetts rule applies here. A Tennessee annual report that changes the agent is a statement of change if you pay the extra $20.
• It does not invent a winner between SS-4534 on the live table and the LegalZoom form numbers SS-4427 and SS-4225.

Choosing among being the agent yourself, asking a lawyer, or hiring a commercial agent: DIY vs lawyer vs commercial. California’s scorecard is a different statute: California scorecard. Texas keeps the written consent with the company: Texas scorecard. Florida files the acceptance and posts a 10–noon / 2–4 clock: Florida scorecard. Delaware bans a virtual-only agent and sets the commercial bar above 50: Delaware scorecard. New York starts with the Secretary of State already on the agent line: New York scorecard. Nevada makes a commercial agent register at ten companies: Nevada scorecard. Wyoming bans UPS stores and virtual addresses as the registered office: Wyoming scorecard. Arizona makes the statutory-agent appointment wait on a signed acceptance: Arizona scorecard. Illinois gives you 60 days after your agent resigns, then you are not in good standing: Illinois scorecard. Ohio cancels the articles if you miss the 30-day statutory-agent notice: Ohio scorecard. Georgia wants the registered office at the same street as the agent: Georgia scorecard. Pennsylvania files a registered office, not a registered agent: Pennsylvania scorecard. New Jersey wants a street for your registered agent and will not take a P.O. Box alone: New Jersey scorecard. Colorado will not take a commercial mailbox or a P.O. Box as the registered-agent street: Colorado scorecard. North Carolina’s LLC annual report is $200 paper or $203 online by April 15. That filing is not the registered-agent job: North Carolina scorecard. Virginia’s LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee and files no annual report: Virginia scorecard. Washington files the agent’s prior consent and will not take a P.O. Box or a PMB as the street: Washington scorecard. Michigan’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to LARA: Michigan scorecard. Indiana’s live statute names a registered agent. Older Indiana law called the same job resident agent: Indiana scorecard. Massachusetts’s LLC statute names a resident agent. The $500 annual report cannot change that line: Massachusetts scorecard. Maryland’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to SDAT, not the Secretary of State: Maryland scorecard. Minnesota wants a registered office, not a required domestic agent. The free December 31 renewal is not that job: Minnesota scorecard.