Registered Agent Annual Fee › Is this letter a scam?

Is this annual report letter a scam?

Maybe not a scam in the legal sense, but probably not your state either. Owners of new LLCs report official-looking letters about a “mandatory” annual report or “renewal” with a fee well above the state’s. Treat it as a private company’s offer until the sender proves otherwise, and compare its price with your state’s real fee.

1. Read the sender’s name, not the headline. The real report is requested by your state’s filing office, named in the table on this page. A private company’s name in the return address means a private offer.
2. Find the state’s fee and compare. Look your state up here. If the letter’s total is several times the state fee, the difference is the company’s charge.
3. Look at the payment instructions. A state takes payment on its own website, which ends in .gov in most states. A different web address or a payment form on a letter is not the state.
4. Check your status yourself. Type the state’s address into your browser and use its business search to see whether a report is actually due and when.
5. Read the small print. Many of these mailings say somewhere that they are not from a government agency, or that the product is a filing service. That makes them an offer, not an invoice.
6. Wait before you pay. A deadline on the letter is the sender’s, not the state’s. The state’s due date and late fee are on your state page.

Why they look so accurate

When you form an LLC, your company name, address and registered agent are public record. Anyone can read them and print them on a letter. Accuracy does not prove the sender is the state.

What to do instead

Find your state in the table, go to its site yourself, and file there or hand the report to a provider you chose. Mainstay Filing files the annual report as part of its $199 a year package. See also if you already paid.