FUBA Fact: Be Cautious About Notices for Your Company’s Annual Report
In FUBA’s role as the small business watchdog, we are urging our members to be cautious about mail or emails you might get about your company’s 2022 Annual Report.
All corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) operating in Florida must file an online update called an Annual Report every year with the State of Florida’s official corporate registry at Sunbiz.org. It is required to keep your company’s corporate status active with the State of Florida and is a way for you to make any changes to the information about your company the State has on file. But it’s also a money-maker for the State – the filing fee for Annual Reports is $150 for corporations and $138.75 for LLCs. Annual Reports must be filed every year even if there have been no changes to your corporate information.
The deadline to file the report is May 1st, but the State’s filing portal at Sunbiz.org opened January 1st so businesses can start filing now. Every year when the State’s filing portal opens, private companies start sending solicitations by mail and email to small businesses offering to file their Annual Report. These companies will charge you a lot of money to file your Annual Report, much more than you would pay if you filed it yourself. If you use one of these companies to file your Annual Report, you could end up paying an extra $100 or more.
Filing your company’s Annual Report is very simple and you do not need to pay extra for a private company to file it for you. You just go to the Division of Corporations Annual Report filing page and make sure the page says “An official State of Florida website” at the top. This is how you know you are on the official government web page. You can review the information on file for your company (name, address, registered agent, and officers) and note any changes. Then you pay the filing fee by credit card or check. There are detailed instructions on the website if you get stuck.
The Florida Division of Corporations will send you a reminder to file your Annual Report. The official email will be from FL_DOS_Corporations@dos.state.fl.us and will contain a link to Sunbiz.org.
FUBA members concerned about mail or emails they receive about their company’s 2022 Annual Report can reply to this email or call the FUBA offices at 800-262-4483 and ask for Karen or Mallory.