SHINTON
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2005
- Location
- Triad area of NC
I know we have lots of small business owners on here, guys who opened up their own shop, etc. So in case you are one of the 270,000 NC Small Biz owners who got a letter in the last couple of weeks, I wanted to follow up here and let you know what is going on and how to handle it.
First of all, this is a MONEY grab by the state, they make the laws and therefore they can choose to interpret them the way they want, etc.
Previously, when you created a small biz in NC, as a LLC, or S-Corporation, etc and you filed with the NC SOS, you would pay your initial filing fee for that first year and you were in good shape.
Then in your second fiscal year (first full year of business) you would follow up with an annual report and pay that fee to the NC SOS.
NOW, what has happened is they figured out that they can ALSO force these small business owners to ALSO file another annual report for their initial year of business!!
One of my clients formed 12/30 and they paid their $125 fee to file their article of incorporation. Then the following year they filed and paid their $25 annual report fee. They continued to pay that fee annually for the last 10 years, on time + their franchise taxes, etc.
NOW, the state is sending a letter of NOTICE OF GROUNDS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE DISSOLUTION OF: (Insert Hard working Citizen here)
So, HOW do you fix this?
http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/corporations/CSearch.aspx
Start there and search for and find your business
Look for the link that says PRINT PRE-POPULATED FORM, it will open up a nice Adobe PDF of your business annual report.
Print out that form...in the upper left corner there is a place for FISCAL YEAR. You will want to insert the fiscal year end date of your business (for the short year)
So lets assume your business filed / was accepted as corporation by the NC SOS on 12/15/2001, you would insert 12/31/2001 as your FISCAL YEAR date on this form.
You will then insert a check for $25 and mail this form, a copy of the original letter you received from them to NC SOS address on that form.
This should clear you up, and MUST be done with 60 days of the notice of that letter!!!
One other item to look at while you are on that page, is the link that says ANNUAL REPORT COUNT. That should list all your previous filings by YEAR!! I would print this out for your own records too.
ONE FINAL NOTE... in theory you can file online for $20 instead of writing them a check. I think there is a $2 processing fee for that though...plus I am not 100% sure they will apply that to the appropriate year (See FISCAL YEAR paragraphs above)
I hope this helps, NC SOS is swamped (duh, send out 270k letters expect 270k + phone calls...)
You can email me if you need a quick question answered, I am not on here very much
jeepnerd AT triad.rr.com
Thanks for doing your civic duty, I am sure the state appreciates it!!!!!
Sam
First of all, this is a MONEY grab by the state, they make the laws and therefore they can choose to interpret them the way they want, etc.
Previously, when you created a small biz in NC, as a LLC, or S-Corporation, etc and you filed with the NC SOS, you would pay your initial filing fee for that first year and you were in good shape.
Then in your second fiscal year (first full year of business) you would follow up with an annual report and pay that fee to the NC SOS.
NOW, what has happened is they figured out that they can ALSO force these small business owners to ALSO file another annual report for their initial year of business!!
One of my clients formed 12/30 and they paid their $125 fee to file their article of incorporation. Then the following year they filed and paid their $25 annual report fee. They continued to pay that fee annually for the last 10 years, on time + their franchise taxes, etc.
NOW, the state is sending a letter of NOTICE OF GROUNDS FOR ADMINISTRATIVE DISSOLUTION OF: (Insert Hard working Citizen here)
So, HOW do you fix this?
http://www.secretary.state.nc.us/corporations/CSearch.aspx
Start there and search for and find your business
Look for the link that says PRINT PRE-POPULATED FORM, it will open up a nice Adobe PDF of your business annual report.
Print out that form...in the upper left corner there is a place for FISCAL YEAR. You will want to insert the fiscal year end date of your business (for the short year)
So lets assume your business filed / was accepted as corporation by the NC SOS on 12/15/2001, you would insert 12/31/2001 as your FISCAL YEAR date on this form.
You will then insert a check for $25 and mail this form, a copy of the original letter you received from them to NC SOS address on that form.
This should clear you up, and MUST be done with 60 days of the notice of that letter!!!
One other item to look at while you are on that page, is the link that says ANNUAL REPORT COUNT. That should list all your previous filings by YEAR!! I would print this out for your own records too.
ONE FINAL NOTE... in theory you can file online for $20 instead of writing them a check. I think there is a $2 processing fee for that though...plus I am not 100% sure they will apply that to the appropriate year (See FISCAL YEAR paragraphs above)
I hope this helps, NC SOS is swamped (duh, send out 270k letters expect 270k + phone calls...)
You can email me if you need a quick question answered, I am not on here very much
jeepnerd AT triad.rr.com
Thanks for doing your civic duty, I am sure the state appreciates it!!!!!
Sam
