Taking Care of Your Business
Many entreprenuers know that they should incorporate their business or set up the business as a limited liability company, etc. The thought of being personally liable for the acts of one of their employees is much greater burden than the cost of paying an attorney to set up the business entity. Now the more important issue - is your business still alive?
Just as we should all get a yearly physical, your business entity needs a yearly report filed with the Department of Commerce. If you miss your physical, you probably will not die. If you business misses its annual report, it will go delinquent and then expire. If your business expires "it is only mostly dead." It can be reinstated for up to two years. After that, its dead. The downside, the entrepreneur is personally liable for the obligations of the company.
The annual report is easy to fill out. The reason so many expire is 1) the business has moved and forgot to tell the Department of Commerce its new address; and 2) the annual report looks like junk mail and inadvertently gets tossed.
If your business will be moving or you are prone to thowing away junk mail without looking at it, you may want to have your business attorney or a corporate service company receive the renewal notices for you. They will extend much more effort tracking you down than the government - as the annual fee is pretty small.
I would also recommend occasionally checking on your company on the Department of Commerce Business Entity Search to make sure everything is current.
Just as we should all get a yearly physical, your business entity needs a yearly report filed with the Department of Commerce. If you miss your physical, you probably will not die. If you business misses its annual report, it will go delinquent and then expire. If your business expires "it is only mostly dead." It can be reinstated for up to two years. After that, its dead. The downside, the entrepreneur is personally liable for the obligations of the company.
The annual report is easy to fill out. The reason so many expire is 1) the business has moved and forgot to tell the Department of Commerce its new address; and 2) the annual report looks like junk mail and inadvertently gets tossed.
If your business will be moving or you are prone to thowing away junk mail without looking at it, you may want to have your business attorney or a corporate service company receive the renewal notices for you. They will extend much more effort tracking you down than the government - as the annual fee is pretty small.
I would also recommend occasionally checking on your company on the Department of Commerce Business Entity Search to make sure everything is current.
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