§ 15.01. Authority to transact business required
(a) A foreign corporation may not transact business in this State until it obtains a certificate of authority from the Secretary of State.
(b) The following activities, among others, do not constitute transacting business within the meaning of subsection (a) of this section:
(1) maintaining, defending, or settling any proceeding;
(2) holding meetings of the board of directors or members or carrying on other activities concerning internal corporate affairs;
(3) maintaining bank accounts;
(4) maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange, and registration of memberships or securities or maintaining trustees or depositaries with respect to those securities;
(5) selling through independent contractors;
(6) soliciting or obtaining orders, whether by mail or through employees or agents or otherwise, if the orders require acceptance outside this State before they become contracts;
(7) creating or acquiring indebtedness, mortgages, and security interests in real or personal property;
(8) securing or collecting debts or enforcing mortgages and security interests in property securing the debts;
(9) owning, without more, real or personal property;
(10) conducting an isolated transaction that is completed within 30 days and that is not one in the course of repeated transactions of a like nature;
(11) transacting business in interstate commerce. (Added 1995, No. 179 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1997.)