Vermont has two documents with this name, and they come from different agencies.

The Bottom Line for Vermont LLCs

Order it through the Secretary of State's Online Business Service Center and it lands on your dashboard as soon as the payment goes through. Creating the account is the only step that takes any real time.

Two things about Vermont are worth knowing before you click. The statute behind the LLC version was retitled in 2025 and now routes to the general good standing section, but the fee schedule still lists the LLC line under the older application-for-existence label against that same section, so the state calls one document by two names depending which page you land on. And Vermont prints a price for it in two places that do not agree: the current fee schedule on one hand, the apostille request form on the other. This page follows the fee schedule, which is the more specific and more current source, but check what the portal actually charges at checkout rather than assuming.

What Vermont Actually Calls It

Vermont calls it a Certificate of Good Standing, issued by Vermont Secretary of State, Business Services Division.

The Secretary of State's own description: the certificate confirms the business organization is compliant with all legal requirements to retain sole rights to the business name and the authority to conduct business as recorded with the Secretary of State, as of the date the certificate was issued. The same page says it does not imply good standing with the IRS, the Vermont Departments of Labor or Taxes, or the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Unit.

Vermont also uses Application for Certificate of Existence, Certificate of Good Standing or Status for documents in this family.

Two Documents, Similar Names

Vermont has a second document with a similar name. The Vermont Department of Taxes issues a Certificate of Good Standing, which covers state tax accounts. That is not the same paper as the Certificate of Good Standing, and the two are not interchangeable. Ask whoever requested it which one they mean.

Why You Need One

Most Vermont requests come from outside Vermont. Registering the LLC to do business in another state is the single most common trigger, because the receiving state wants proof from the state that formed you. Banks ask at account opening and lenders ask again at underwriting. Landlords and larger customers ask during diligence, and a buyer's counsel will ask in a sale. What none of them get from the Secretary of State's version is any comfort about tax, labor or consumer protection matters, which the office says outright. A lender that actually wants tax comfort is asking for the wrong document and should be pointed at the Department of Taxes.

What It Costs in Vermont

Vermont charges $35 for the Certificate of Good Standing.

Where this fee comes from: Fees and Statutes page, DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY table: 'Application for Certificate of Existence | 11 V.S.A. § 4028 | $35.00 | 11 V.S.A. § 4012'

How to Order It

You can order the Certificate of Good Standing online.

Immediate download from the Online Business Service Center dashboard.

Order it on the Vermont site

Ordered inside the Online Business Service Center account, which new users must create first.

The portal account is effectively the route. Vermont's Forms Request page carries no downloadable form for the plain certificate, so the portal is where this request happens: you create an Online Business Service Center account, or sign in with the one you already use to file annual reports, and order from inside it. The certificate request sits under the filings menu rather than anywhere obviously labeled, which is where most people stall. The naming lag is the other stumbling block: searching the state's site for the phrase your bank used may land you on the fee table's older label and leave you unsure you found the right thing. You did. Authentication for use abroad is a wholly separate request, on its own form, going to a different office, with its own fee, and it is mailed rather than instant.

1. 1

   Ask the requester which of the two documents they mean

   Vermont issues one under this name from the Secretary of State and another from the Department of Taxes. A bank opening an account almost always wants the first. A lender or a buyer asking about liabilities may want the second, or both.

2. 2

   Sign in to the Online Business Service Center, or create an account

   If you have filed a Vermont annual report yourself, you already have credentials. If a registered agent or an accountant has always filed for you, you will be registering as a new user before you can order anything.

3. 3

   Open the certificate request from the filings menu

   It sits under the business filings section rather than under copies or records, which is where people expect it. Select your entity, then follow the prompts through to payment by card.

4. 4

   Download the PDF from your dashboard and note the numbers on it

   It appears in the certificates area of the dashboard as soon as payment clears. The record and certificate numbers printed on it are what a recipient uses to verify it, so keep them with the file.

5. 5

   If it is going outside the United States, file the authentication request separately

   That is a different form, mailed, with a fee payable to a different office. Start it before you need the certificate rather than after, because the two steps run in sequence.

What Puts You Out of Standing in Vermont

Before Vermont will issue the Certificate of Good Standing, your filings with the state's business filing office have to be current. No separate tax clearance from a revenue agency is part of it.

The Vermont Department of Taxes issues its own, separate Certificate of Good Standing for tax accounts. The Secretary of State's certificate is not conditioned on it.

Certificates carry a verification number. 'To verify a Certificate of Good Standing: Go to the Certificate Search page. Enter the "Record Number" and "Certificate Number" number (bottom corner of certificate).'

Vermont's statute conditions issuance on status rather than on a checklist. The Secretary of State issues for a business that is currently active and in good standing as of the date the certificate is issued, as reflected in that office's records. So the question is not whether you have ever missed anything, it is what the record says on the day you ask. A lapsed annual report is what usually puts a Vermont LLC on the wrong side of that line, and the fix runs through the same office and the same portal: bring the filing current, then re-request. Because the certificate is limited to the Secretary of State's records, a clean one tells a reader nothing about whether the Department of Taxes would issue its own.

How Long It Stays Good in Vermont

Vermont publishes nothing about how long the Certificate of Good Standing stays current. Whoever asked you for it does: banks, lenders and other states' filing offices each set their own recency rule, and that window is theirs, not Vermont's. Ask what it is, and order the certificate once you know.

Immediate delivery makes this easy in the ordinary case. Generate it the day you send it, and generate a fresh one if the closing slips, rather than forwarding the copy sitting in your downloads folder. Where timing genuinely bites is the overseas route. Authentication is a mailed request handled by a different office and it carries its own processing window, so a foreign registry that wants a recently dated authenticated certificate is asking for two sequential steps, not one. Start that request early and let the certificate be produced as part of it, instead of ordering a certificate now and discovering weeks later that it has aged while the authentication was in the post.

Using It Outside the United States

For use abroad, The Vermont State Archives and Records Administration will authenticate the certificate with an apostille for $10 per document.

Who to Ask in Vermont

The Vermont Secretary of State's Business Services Division, in Montpelier, issues the certificate, runs the Online Business Service Center where you order it, and operates the certificate lookup a recipient can use to confirm one is genuine. That office answers questions about active status, annual reports and reinstatement. It does not answer tax questions. The Vermont Department of Taxes issues the tax-side document under the same name, and that is the office to call if a lender's request is really about tax accounts. Authentication and apostilles involve the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration alongside the Secretary of State, so a document headed overseas touches both.

Sources

• sos.vermont.gov/business-services/copies-certificates/certificates-of-good-standing
• sos.vermont.gov/business-services/fees-statutes
• legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/11/003/01657
• legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/11/025/04028
• sos.vermont.gov/business-services/copies-certificates/apostilled-or-authenticated-copies
• outside.vermont.gov/dept/sos/Business%20Services%20Division/misc-1b_apostilled-or-authenticated-copies-request.pdf

Every figure on this page was read from a Vermont government source, not from a formation service. Confidence in this record: medium. See our editorial policy for how these are verified and corrected.