What it is
An annual report is the state’s regular check that your business still exists and that its record is right. It goes to the Secretary of State, or whichever office keeps the state’s register of businesses, and once it is filed it is part of the public record.
It has nothing to do with the glossy report a public company sends its shareholders. Almost no state asks for revenue, profit or accounts. It asks who you are and where to find you.
What it asks for
The details vary by state, but the form is short and usually covers:
- the business’s principal office address and its mailing address;
- the name and address of its registered agent;
- the people who run it: officers and directors for a corporation, managers or members for an LLC;
- in some states, a federal EIN, a description of the business, or figures for a franchise tax;
- the name of the person signing it.
In most states the online form opens with what the state already holds. You check it, correct what has changed, sign, and pay.
Who has to file one
Nearly every LLC, corporation, limited partnership and nonprofit registered with a state. That includes a business formed in one state and registered to do business in another, which the second state calls a “foreign” business: a Delaware corporation registered in New York files in both.
Sole proprietors and general partnerships usually file nothing, because the state keeps no record of them to update. And a few states ask nothing of some kinds of business: an LLC in Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio or South Carolina files no annual report with the state at all.
What it is called
Most states call it the Annual Report. The rest use their own names for what is, give or take, the same filing:
| Name | State |
|---|---|
| Annual Certificate | Oklahoma |
| Annual Franchise Tax Report | Arkansas |
| Annual List | Nevada |
| Annual Registration | Georgia |
| Annual Registration Report | Missouri |
| Annual Renewal | Minnesota, Utah |
| Annual Report and Franchise Tax | Delaware |
| Annual Report and Personal Property Return | Maryland |
| Biennial Report | Alaska, District of Columbia, Iowa, Nebraska |
| Biennial Statement | New York |
| Business Entity Report | Indiana |
| Business Privilege Tax | Alabama |
| Corporate Report | New Mexico |
| Franchise Tax Report | Texas |
| Information Report | Kansas |
| Periodic Report | Colorado |
| Statement of Continued Existence | Ohio |
| Statement of Information | California |
When it is due
States set the date one of two ways:
- A fixed date for everyone. Florida’s is May 1, whenever the business was formed.
- A date tied to when the business was formed. New Jersey’s falls at the end of the month the business was formed in, every year.
Some states want it every two years instead, and call it a biennial report or statement: Alaska, California, District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and New York.
Every state’s rule is in the deadline table, with a link to file it.
What it costs
The state sets its fee, and it ranges from under fifty dollars to several hundred, sometimes depending on the kind of business. In a few states, Delaware, Texas and Arkansas among them, the report travels with a franchise tax that can be far larger than the filing fee itself. If an accountant, attorney or filing service files it for you, their fee comes on top of the state’s.
Why it matters
Filing on time keeps the business in good standing: the status a bank, a lender, a landlord, a buyer or another state checks before they deal with you. Miss it and the state adds late fees, then stops showing the business as in good standing, and in the end dissolves it. What happens if you miss it goes through that in order.
Filing it
You can file it yourself on the state’s website for the state fee alone; here is how. Or have us do it: find your business, check its record, see both fees, pay, and we file it.
General information about state filings, not legal or tax advice. Express Filings is a private filing service, not a government agency. Rules and fees change; the state’s own site is the final word.