British Columbia Certificates of Good Standing are issued by the BC government for British Columbia companies. Sometimes these are called Certificates of Status or Certificates of Compliance and all companies registered in all jurisdictions in Canada and for that matter all countries can obtain these certificates when needed. However, in the British Columbia jurisdiction they are called BC Certificates of Good Standing.

Basically a Certificate of Good Standing is required when you need to provide someone or some other company with the assurance that your BC company is in good standing.

The Certificate of Good Standing for an BC company will provide the accurate current name of the BC company, the BC corporate number and its status.

Being in good standing means that the company is still active and has not been dissolved for non-filing of federal and/or provincial tax returns or non-filing of the BC annual reports.  A BC company must file a BC annual report each year and if it does not file this return it will eventually be dissolved.

It is very expensive to revive a company and the BC government puts the onus on the owners of BC companies to follow the statute requirements. It may not remind you that you have not filed your annual reports. Any reputable Canadian search house will be able to check for you to see that your annual reports have been filed but there is a cost for this. You will need to order what is called a BC Corporate Search for your company.

You should realize that, although the BC government will dissolve your company for non-filing of income tax returns, a BC Certificate of Good Standing does not necessarily indicate that your tax returns are up-to-date.  It only confirms that the corporate filings for a BC company are up-to-date and that the company has not been dissolved.

A British Columbia Certificate of Good Standing is not a BC Corporate Search . If you are trying to determine information about an BC company you should have a BC corporate search done rather than ordering a Certificate of Good Standing.

Similarly, you cannot obtain a Certificate of Good Standing for a partnership or sole proprietorship.  Other corporate products must be ordered in order to ascertain the good standing of those types of businesses.