I’ve been operating my Texas business for months without knowing it was forfeited. How serious is this?

This is fixable, but you should act quickly. The most significant risk is that during any period your LLC was forfeited, you lose the limited liability protection that shields owners and managers from personal liability. Any debts, lawsuits or obligations that arose while the entity was forfeited could expose you personally. 

A forfeited LLC may also lose the legal authority to sign contracts, open bank accounts or sell property held in the company’s name. We’ve worked with clients whose LLCs had been forfeited for years. In one case, a client couldn’t sell a property her LLC owned because she no longer had the authority to sign on the company’s behalf. 

So the sooner you reinstate, the more you limit your exposure.