Massachusetts

This guide is outdated and will be removed on 1 November 2026. The up-to-date Massachusetts reference is on the Massachusetts country page.

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This guide contains public integration notes for Massachusetts. Use it for identifier formats, search behavior, and country-specific caveats. The live source of truth for coverage, pricing, data sources, documents, legal forms, roles, and status values is the pricing page.

Massachusetts coverage, pricing, and sources

Open the current catalog for supported datapoints, documents, sources, identifiers, and availability.

This jurisdiction may be in preview or limited availability. Check the live pricing page or contact support before relying on it in production.

Country details below are preserved as integration notes. If a table or example conflicts with the live pricing page, use the pricing page as the source of truth and contact support.

Data Sources
Company Identifiers
Search Capabilities
Quirks & Gotchas
Mappings
Data Availability

API access: US-MA is accepted by /v2/search and /v2/company, but it is not yet listed in the countryCode enum of the OpenAPI specification.

Data Sources

Massachusetts uses two data channels:

Massachusetts Corporations Division (company profiles, authoritative). The Secretary of the Commonwealth operates the online corporation search at corp.sec.state.ma.us. The live register covers every corporation, LLC, LP, LLP, professional entity, and nonprofit on file with the Commonwealth. It exposes the full entity profile: 9-digit internal ID, entity type, jurisdiction, filing date, status, addresses, registered agent, and the officer/director/manager roster from annual reports. Every company profile, in both modes, is read live from this register.
Massachusetts Corporations Book (DOR/DLS) (name search only). The Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services publishes an annual “Corporations Book” under G.L. c.58 §2. The book lists every entity subject to MA corporate excise, with name, location (city or home state/country for foreign entities), and an M/R/D excise-class flag. It backs name search and does not serve company profiles.

Both modes read the live register. Prefill (mode: "prefill") and verification (mode: "verification") return the same authoritative data: status, registration date, legal form, principal office address, officers and registered agent. They differ only in speed and guaranteed delivery. Prefill is optimized for low latency and may be briefly unavailable under heavy load. Retry, or use verification, which always returns.

Name search coverage. The Corporations Book only includes entities currently subject to Massachusetts corporate excise. Dissolved, inactive, and many pass-through entities are excluded. If an entity does not appear in name search, search by its MA SoC ID, which queries the live register.

Company Identifiers

Query Identifiers

Identifier Type	Format	Example	Notes
MA SoC Entity ID	9 digits, leading zeros included; some trusts carry `T` followed by 8 digits (observed)	`000804945`	The Identification Number assigned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Corporations Division. Send it with its leading zeros.
DLS identifier	12 lowercase hexadecimal characters	`19dcdd187b79`	Synthetic identifier returned as the `id` of name-search results, derived from the entity name and city in the annual Corporations Book. It changes when either changes in a later edition. Searching on it returns that entity.

The MA SoC Entity ID is the canonical identifier for direct lookups. Name search returns a synthetic DLS identifier instead. See the note below on identifier promotion.

Identifiers in API Response

Identifier	Format	Example	Found in
`maSocId`	9 digits, leading zeros included, or `T` + 8 digits for some trusts	`000804945`	All company profiles
`dlsId`	12 lowercase hexadecimal characters	`19dcdd187b79`	The `id` of name-search results

dlsId is a placeholder derived from the entity’s name and location in the annual bulk publication. It carries no official register meaning. You can pass it as id to /v2/company: the entity is matched on the live register and the response carries its official maSocId.

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)

GLEIF is the supplementary data source for this identifier. company.identifiers.lei is returned when a company identifier has a unique match against this jurisdiction’s registration or validation references in GLEIF. An LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) has 20 uppercase letters and digits, ending in two check digits. Coverage varies by entity. The field is omitted when no unambiguous match is available. Lapsed or retired LEIs may be returned; annulled records are excluded.

Search Capabilities

Search Type	Pattern	Example	Match type	Expected results
By Name	2-200 chars	`"Liberty Mutual"`	Full-text (case-insensitive)	Multiple results
By MA SoC ID	1-9 digits (zero-padding added), or `T` followed by 8 digits for trusts	`000804945`, `804945`	Exact	Single result (`matchType: id`)

Name search uses the Corporations Book. Name search covers the entities in the annual publication. Dissolved or inactive entities are not included. For entities absent from name-search results, search by MA SoC ID, which queries the live register directly.

Active companies only

Search can return companies that are no longer active, but their status is not known at search time, so activeOnly=true has no effect. Check company.status on the company profile. Name searches draw on the state’s corporate tax roll, which mostly lists active companies but can still hold entities dissolved since the last annual edition. Search results carry no status, and registration-number lookups return the company whatever its status.

Quirks & Gotchas

Quirk	Details
Identifier promotion	Name-search results carry a synthetic `dlsId`. When you fetch the entity with `/v2/company`, the response carries the official `maSocId`. Update your records to the authoritative identifier after the first profile fetch.
Annual publication lag	The Corporations Book is published once a year. Entities incorporated after the last publication date will not appear in name-search results. Search by a known SoC ID for recently incorporated entities.
Status is inferred, not a register field	The live register does not publish a discrete status field. Status is derived from merger and inactivity signals on the corporation summary page. The two observable values are `Active` and `Merged / Inactive`.
Excise-class flag is not an industry code	The M/R/D flag in the Corporations Book (manufacturing, revoked-manufacturing, R&D) is a Massachusetts corporate excise exemption indicator, not an industry classification. The company-register sources used here publish no NAICS, NACE, or ISIC codes. Tax classifications are not returned as `activityDescription`.
Officer data comes from the annual report	Both modes map the officer and director roster parsed from the live annual-report summary. Completeness of separate LLC manager and filing-authorized-person sections has not been verified on the current parser.
Members of LLCs are generally not disclosed	Massachusetts LLCs disclose only managers and persons authorized to validate documents in their annual reports. Members of member-managed LLCs are not disclosed unless they also hold a manager role.
No shareholders or UBO register	Massachusetts does not collect shareholder lists or beneficial-ownership data for any entity type. Federal BOI (FinCEN) is not accessible to private parties.
DBAs are city-level filings	Business certificates (doing-business-as names) are filed with the individual city or town clerk, not the state. There is no central DBA registry.
Free-form officer titles	MGL c.156D §8.40 mandates only President, Treasurer, and Secretary (or Clerk). Known statutory and observed titles map deterministically; unrecognized free-form titles use the existing parser.

Mappings

Legal Forms

Legal form is sourced from the entity-type label on the Secretary of the Commonwealth Corporations Division. The vocabulary is derived from Massachusetts General Laws Title XXII (c.156D, c.156A, c.156C, c.180, c.109, c.108A). The full table with standardized categories and ISO 20275 codes is on the pricing page.

All Massachusetts entity types

SoC Entity Type	Standardized
Domestic Profit Corporation	Corporation
Foreign Profit Corporation	Corporation
Domestic Professional Corporation	Corporation
Foreign Professional Corporation	Corporation
Domestic Nonprofit Corporation	Nonprofit Organization
Foreign Nonprofit Corporation	Nonprofit Organization
Domestic Limited Liability Company	Limited Liability Company
Foreign Limited Liability Company	Limited Liability Company
Domestic Limited Partnership	Partnership
Foreign Limited Partnership	Partnership
Domestic Limited Liability Partnership	Partnership
Foreign Limited Liability Partnership	Partnership
Foreign Corporation	Corporation

Legal form is populated from the live register in both prefill and verification modes.

Officer Roles

Massachusetts law (MGL c.156D §8.40 and §16.22) mandates a small set of statutory officer titles. Known statutory and observed titles map deterministically. Filed titles remain open text; unrecognized titles use the existing parser. Officer powers depend on bylaws and board authorization under MGL c.156D §8.41; a role does not establish sole or joint signing authority.

Role	Standardized	Notes
President	President	Statutory officer under MGL c.156D §8.40
Treasurer	Treasurer	Statutory officer under MGL c.156D §8.40
Secretary	Secretary	Statutory officer under MGL c.156D §8.40
Clerk	Secretary	Massachusetts-specific synonym for Secretary on for-profit corporations
Director	Board Member	Other Key Person; a board seat does not establish individual signing authority
Registered Agent	Registered Agent	Service-of-process contact under MGL c.156D §5.01; classified as Other Key Person

President, Treasurer, Secretary, Clerk and other filed executive offices are potential Legal Representatives, subject to appointment powers. Directors, board chairs and departmental Director of Tax are returned under otherKeyPersons; Registered Agent remains a service contact. Known LLC manager and filing-authorized titles preserve their distinct office and limited source scope.

Company Status

Status is inferred from signals on the corporation summary page, not from a discrete register field. Two values are possible:

Status	Meaning
Active	No merger record and no inactivity marker detected on the SoC summary
Merged / Inactive	A merger record or inactivity marker is present

Data Availability

Data point	Available	Notes
Company name	Yes	Current legal name
Company status	Yes	Inferred from the live register summary
Registration date	Yes	Filing date from the live register
Legal address	Yes	Principal office address from the live register
Legal form	Yes	Entity type from the live register
Legal representatives	Yes	Representing officer offices from the parsed annual-report roster; governance directors are Other Key Persons
Other key persons	Yes	Governance roles and other nonrepresenting filed offices, alongside the registered agent
Registered agent	Yes	From the live register corporation detail page, returned under `otherKeyPersons`
Activity codes	No	Not collected by the Commonwealth
Shareholders	No	Not published
UBOs	No	Federal FinCEN BOI is not publicly accessible
Documents	Roadmap	Annual reports, articles of organization, and certificates are accessible on the live register; document retrieval is planned for a future release
Financial data	No	Not collected
DBAs / assumed names	No	Filed at city/town clerk level; no central registry

Example API Responses

Search by Name

curl -X GET "https://api.topograph.co/v2/search?country=US-MA&query=Liberty+Mutual" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

[
  {
    "id": "19dcdd187b79",
    "legalName": "SAMPLE HOLDINGS INC.",
    "countryCode": "US-MA",
    "matchReason": {
      "matchType": "default"
    },
    "address": {
      "city": "BOSTON",
      "region": "MA",
      "countryCode": "US"
    }
  }
]

The id returned by name search is a dlsId. Pass it to /v2/company as is: the profile carries the official maSocId.

Search by SoC ID

curl -X GET "https://api.topograph.co/v2/search?country=US-MA&query=000804945" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

[
  {
    "id": "000804945",
    "legalName": "SAMPLE HOLDINGS INC.",
    "countryCode": "US-MA",
    "matchReason": {
      "matchType": "id"
    }
  }
]

Company Profile

curl -X POST "https://api.topograph.co/v2/company" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"countryCode": "US-MA", "id": "000804945", "dataPoints": ["company", "legalRepresentatives"], "mode": "prefill"}'

Prefill and verification return the same response shape and data.

{
  "company": {
    "id": "000804945",
    "countryCode": "US-MA",
    "identifiers": { "maSocId": "000804945" },
    "legalName": "SAMPLE HOLDINGS INC.",
    "registrationDate": "1998-03-15",
    "status": { "localName": "Active", "active": true },
    "legalForm": {
      "localName": "Domestic Profit Corporation",
      "standardized": "Corporation"
    },
    "legalAddress": {
      "addressLine1": "123 State Street",
      "city": "Boston",
      "region": "MA",
      "postalCode": "02109",
      "countryCode": "US"
    }
  },
  "legalRepresentatives": [
    {
      "entityId": "person_001",
      "type": "individual",
      "role": { "localName": "President", "standardized": "President" },
      "individual": { "name": { "fullName": "Jane Smith" } }
    }
  ]
}

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Massachusetts coverage, pricing, and sources

Table of Contents

Data Sources

Company Identifiers

Query Identifiers

Identifiers in API Response

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)

Search Capabilities

Active companies only

Quirks & Gotchas

Mappings

Legal Forms

Officer Roles

Company Status

Data Availability

Example API Responses

Search by Name

Search by SoC ID

Company Profile

​Start here

Massachusetts coverage, pricing, and sources

​Table of Contents

​Data Sources

​Company Identifiers

​Query Identifiers

​Identifiers in API Response

​Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)

​Search Capabilities

​Active companies only

​Quirks & Gotchas

​Mappings

​Legal Forms

​Officer Roles

​Company Status

​Data Availability

​Example API Responses

​Search by Name

​Search by SoC ID

​Company Profile

Start here

Table of Contents

Data Sources

Company Identifiers

Query Identifiers

Identifiers in API Response

Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)

Search Capabilities

Active companies only

Quirks & Gotchas

Mappings

Legal Forms

Officer Roles

Company Status

Data Availability

Example API Responses

Search by Name

Search by SoC ID

Company Profile