What is an annual report?
An Annual report is a filing that details a company’s activities throughout the prior year. Annual reports are intended to give state governing authorities information regarding the names and addresses of directors or managing members of a corporation or LLC as well as the company and registered agent address. In some state the annual report is filed at a pre determined date for all entities regardless of the date of formation while other states require that the annual report is filed on the anniversary date of formation.
If you’re a business manager, director, or owner, you have a requirement to follow certain rules and regulations. One of those is filing an annual report for your business. We’ll explore what an annual report is, how to file it, what it should contain, and other useful information.
One important point — When we discuss annual reports, we’re talking about formal requirements to produce a report and file it with your Secretary of State. However, you may also produce additional annual reports for your investors, shareholders, and other stakeholders. We cover those later in this piece.
If you’ve incorporated as a business — As an LLC, LLP, S-Corp or C-Corp, you must file an annual report, normally with your state’s Secretary of State. This applies no matter how big or small your business is. Typically, sole proprietors and partnerships do not have to file an annual report.
Annual reports vary in complexity and typically include the following:
The purpose of an annual report is to keep your state informed on any changes to the details or ownership of your business — For example if the business has changed locations or has new directors or managers.
If you do need to file an annual report for your LLC or corporation, you can normally do so online, through your state’s website. In addition to filing your annual report, you will also need to pay a fee — These fees do vary from state to state and could range between $50 and $400.
In some states, the annual report is filed on a predetermined date for all entities regardless of the date of formation. Other states require the annual report is filed on the anniversary date of formation. The due dates for corporate annual reports do vary from state to state, so find your filing date from your state’s website and put it in your calendar.
In addition to formally filing a corporate annual report, you may also produce business and financial reports for investors, directors, managers and other stakeholders. Although there are no “legal” requirements for what these reports should contain, there are certain conventions for what’s included.
Every business exists to make a profit, so finances are most often at the heart of a business annual report. Ways to present this information include:
An annual business report can also include several other areas:
Whether you’re filing a formal corporate annual report for your LLC, S-Corp or C-Corp, or you’re creating other business and financial reports, ensure you understand exactly what’s required from you. Here at Incfile, we’re experts at making sure your annual reports are perfect. Save yourself the time and effort of preparing and filing your annual report, and let us take care of things.
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If you would like to use our services to facilitate the filing of your annual report please place the order and a representative from Incfile will contact you to obtain specific information required to complete and file the annual report in your state of formation.
The filing time is dependent on the governing state agency. Filing times vary by state it is therefore important that the report is filed well in advance of the due date in order to avoid any potential late filing fees.
In the event that the entity has been administratively revoked or otherwise dissolved or the report is not due within a close proximity to the order being placed our policy is to contact and inform the client and issue a full refund.
The state fee varies by state our service fee to file the report is $88. To review the fee in your state click on the “order now” button and select the state and entity type.
The governing state agency will typically return a filed copy of the Annual Report which is then mailed to the client.
As your business grows we'll be there every step of the way to make sure that you have the resources at hand to service your companies ongoing needs.
Filed if a company requires changes to membership, addresses or company name.
Used to formally terminate the existence of a entity.
Filed when you need to expand your entity to new states.
Filed if a company requires assumed business/fictitious name.
