When you are considering a business relationship in Iran, the first question is often simple: what do the official records say about this company? Finding a useful answer takes more than searching a name. Different authorities record different parts of a company’s history, and each entry has its own date, scope and limitations.

Iranlook prepares English-language company reports from Iranian official and other reliable business records. Our legal specialists monitor relevant sources daily, identify records for the right legal entity and review the available evidence before it is presented. This article explains the main source groups we use and how we interpret them.

Online availability does not mean every record is public, complete or up to date. We use information that is publicly available or otherwise lawfully accessible to us. We distinguish an official record from an inference, and we explain when a source can answer only part of a question.

1. The Official Gazette of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Official Gazette is a central source for published legal notices concerning companies. Depending on the company and the event, notices may record incorporation and certain changes to a company’s name, registered office, capital, articles, directors or legal status. Iranian commercial law sets publication requirements for a range of corporate events.

Our specialists review notices in context. An appointment or change recorded in a newer notice may alter how an older entry should be read. We therefore pay attention to publication dates, the event dates stated in the notice, later notices and corrections. This chronology helps us present the recorded position more clearly.

A Gazette notice is evidence of what was registered or published in that notice. It is not, by itself, proof that a company is actively trading, that every statement in a commercial proposal is accurate, or that no event has occurred since the latest available publication. Publication and retrieval can also happen after the underlying company event.

2. Tax-related official sources

Iranian businesses may have obligations under direct tax and value-added tax rules, depending on their activities and circumstances. The existence of a filing or payment obligation does not make every company’s tax return, assessment, account balance or transaction record public. Taxpayer information is subject to confidentiality requirements and rules about who may access it.

Iranlook uses tax-related information only when a record or verification result is lawfully available through a public or authorised channel. We identify what the information represents and do not describe confidential tax files as public company data. We also do not treat the absence of a public tax notice as proof that a company has no tax liability or is fully compliant.

This distinction matters. A government authority may hold extensive information for tax administration while making only a limited set of records or verification services available for a particular purpose. A company report should reflect the access and meaning of the specific information used, rather than imply access to an entire taxpayer file.

3. The Intellectual Property Center

Iran’s Intellectual Property Center, within the State Organization for Registration of Deeds and Properties, administers industrial property records, including trademarks. Official search services and publications can provide information about a mark or application, such as the name recorded for an applicant or owner, the relevant goods and services classes, filing or registration details, and available status information.

These records help us understand the brand names associated with a company and identify relevant applications or registrations. We read each record according to its status and date. A pending application is different from a registered mark; a registration entry does not, on its own, show that a mark is currently used in commerce, that products bearing it are made by the company, or that the company owns rights beyond those reflected in the record.

Not every name used in the market is a registered trademark, and not every intellectual property record will appear under the English spelling a researcher expects. We compare Persian names, available identifiers and transliterations where possible.

4. Securities and Exchange Organization disclosures

Companies whose securities are listed or that otherwise have reporting duties under applicable securities rules may be required to publish financial statements and other business disclosures. Codal, the official issuer disclosure system, is a key source for these filings.

Depending on the issuer and filing, disclosures may include periodic or annual financial statements, audit reports, material events, shareholder meeting decisions and other information required by the rules. The scope and timing differ by issuer and filing type. Some filings may later be corrected or replaced, so the relevant reporting period, publication date, audit status and any amended version all matter.

Codal is not a complete source for every Iranian private company. A listed company’s filing is also not an independent Iranlook audit of its accounts. We use available disclosures as source material, note their stated period and status, and avoid extending their conclusions beyond what they report.

5. Other official business and sector records

The records that help explain a company depend on the question being asked. We may consult official legal-entity and company registration services, national identification records, licensing or permit registers, and relevant sector regulators or public bodies. These sources can help confirm an entity’s identity or provide context about a particular activity.

No single register answers every due-diligence question. A licence record, for example, is relevant to the activity and period it covers; it does not guarantee product quality or future performance. We select sources that relate to the company and the issue under review, then keep their scope visible in the report.

How Iranlook turns records into a clear report

The work involves more than collecting search results. Our legal specialists monitor relevant official sources daily and review new or updated records as they become available. For a report, they identify the company using Persian legal names and available identifiers, compare records across sources, and organise the evidence in a useful sequence.

The review pays attention to details that can change the meaning of a record:

  • The company’s national ID and registration number, so similarly named entities are not confused.
  • The difference between the date an event occurred, the date it was registered or published, and the date the record was checked.
  • Persian names, English transliterations and Iranian calendar dates.
  • Later notices, corrections, status changes and differences between records.
  • Whether a statement is directly recorded, reported by the company, or inferred from several entries.

Where information conflicts or remains unclear, the report should make that limitation visible. A director’s appointment is not automatically evidence of share ownership. A shared address does not, by itself, establish control. We present the record and its context so that the reader can decide what follow-up is needed.

Daily monitoring improves the chance of identifying newly available information, but it does not make every official source real-time. A company event may not yet have been filed, processed or published. For that reason, each report is a dated view of the information available to the team when it was prepared.

What official records can—and cannot—establish

Official records can help identify a legal entity, understand recorded management and changes, review available intellectual property entries, or examine required disclosures by a reporting company. They give your team a stronger documentary basis for asking questions about a proposed customer, supplier, distributor or other counterparty.

They do not automatically establish a company’s current operating condition, financial strength, product quality, ability to perform a contract or ultimate beneficial ownership. Public records can be incomplete, delayed or limited to a specific legal purpose. A company report supports an assessment; it does not replace confirmation from the counterparty, document review, an audit or advice for a particular transaction.

Official portals

The following portals are useful starting points for the source categories described above. Each portal may have its own search process, access conditions and publication scope:

Iranlook’s legal specialists review relevant records from these and other official sources, then prepare a structured English report with dates and context. If you are assessing a specific Iranian company, start with its Persian registered name and national ID where available. Request a sample to see how the information is presented, or order a report for the company you are considering.