Foreign corporations, authority to transact business; transacting business defined.
Miss. Code Ann. § 79-11-363
in effectA foreign corporation may not transact business in this state until it obtains a certificate of authority from the Secretary of State. The following activities, among others, do not constitute transacting business within the meaning of subsection (1) of this section: Maintaining, defending or settling any proceeding; Holding meetings of the board of directors or members or carrying on other activities concerning internal corporate affairs; Maintaining bank accounts; Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange and registration of memberships or securities or maintaining trustees or depositaries with respect to those securities; Selling through independent contractors; 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; Creating or acquiring indebtedness, mortgages and security interests in real or personal property; Securing or collecting debts or enforcing mortgages and security interests in property securing the debts; Owning, without more, real or personal property; Conducting an isolated transaction that is completed within thirty (30) days and that is not one in the course of repeated transactions of a like nature; Transacting business in interstate commerce. The list of activities in subsection (2) of this section is not exhaustive.
Source: Public.Resource.Org MS CodeURL: https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ms/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.79.htmlFetched: 10/18/2026