The following information is provided for educational purposes only and in no way constitutes
legal, tax, or financial advice.
For legal, tax, or financial advice specific to your business needs, we encourage you to
consult with a licensed attorney and/or CPA in your State.
The following information is copyright protected.
No part of this Lesson may be redistributed, copied, modified or adapted without prior
written consent of the author.
As we mentioned earlier, there are ongoing requirements for your LLC with the State of
Georgia.
The first of these is called the Annual Registration Fee which we will discuss in this Lesson.
The second of these is filing your LLC's State taxes.
We will discuss that further in Lesson 7.
The State requires that you pay a fee each year, as well as provide updated contact information
for your LLC.
In most states, this is referred to as your Annual Report, but the official name in Georgia
is the Annual Registration Fee.
We feel the term "Annual Registration Fee" to be a little confusing since it not only
includes a fee, but it also includes a report (your LLC's contact information).
Throughout this video, we may refer to it as the Annual Registration Fee or the Annual
Report, but they both mean the same thing.
Again, you pay a fee and file a report with your LLC's updated contact information.
The Annual Registration Fee is $50.
It must be paid every year between January 1st and April 1st.
Your Registration Fee pays for the year in which you are filing.
It is not like taxes where you pay for the prior year.
You can send your payment online, or you can mail it in to the State.
However, the State must receive payment no later than April 1st.
If the State does not receive your payment by April 1st, your LLC will be charged a late
fee of $25 (which means you'll now $75 total).
If you continue to ignore this requirement, the State will eventually dissolve (shut down)
your LLC.
The State does not send you a reminder to pay your Annual Registration Fee.
It is your responsibility to make sure that you pay and update your records on time each
year.
Because of this, we suggest you put a repeating reminder on your calendar so you can keep
your LLC in compliance with the State.
Remember, your Annual Registration Fee is due between January 1st and April 1st, so
we recommend paying as early as possible.
Paying earlier in the year will also mean that you have one less thing to worry about
during tax season.
Georgia has 3 ways in which you can file your Annual Registration Fee.
The 1st option is to go the State's website and print out your Annual Report.
You will then mail it to the State along with the $50 filing fee.
The 2nd option is to go the State's website and file the Annual Report online.
You'll pay the $50 filing fee with a debit or credit card.
The 3rd option is to call the State at the beginning of the year and have them send you
the Annual Report.
They can send it to you by regular mail, or by e-mail.
Once you receive the form from the State, you will confirm the information in your Annual
Report is correct, sign it and and mail it back to the State with the $50 filing fee.
To choose the 3rd option, you can find the State's contact information below this video.
If you prefer either of the first 2 options, you will need to create what's called a "cGov360
account" on the State's website.
The registration process is very simple, and we will walk you through the steps now.
We are now ready to register for a cGov360 account.
The link below this video will take you there.
Let's get started.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to create a cGov360 account.
Again, the link below this video should take you directly there, but let's just say if
you're having any issues, let me show you how to get there alternatively.
You can see I'm at google.com.
You can go ahead and just do a search for "GA Secretary of State".
Go ahead and click "Search".
This first one you see here ("sos.ga.gov"), you can click that.
Alternatively, you can just go directly to "sos.ga.gov", and hit "Return" or "Enter"
on the keyboard.
The 1st thing I'm going to do is I'm going to click "Corporations" at the top.
It will scroll the page down for me.
I'm going to go down here, and I'm going to click "File Online".
It takes you to a logon page.
What you're going to do here, is you're going to click directly on the "Register for a cGov360
account".
This a free account, and then this is required in order to download your Annual Registration
Fee, or in order to file and pay it online.
So what you're going to do is just simply fill out the form fields here.
You're going to enter a username and a password.
You're going to enter your first name, your last name.
On the right, you're going to confirm that password that you entered over here, enter
your email address, and then down here, you're going to go ahead and just enter your street
address right here, city, state and zip, and then go ahead and hit the "Register" button.
Once you register, it will now take you to a new page.
You'll see 4 tabs across the top, and also, please write down the username and the password
that you created for your cGov360 account (this is important information).
And Georgia will also send you a confirmation email.
That confirmation email will not have a copy of your password, but it will just give you
confirmation that you registered and it will have your username there.
Again, make sure to save that login information in an important place.
Next, we're going to discuss either downloading your Annual Registration Fee and filing by
mail, or, filing and paying the Annual Registration Fee online.
We have included that in a separate video, and you can find that video directly below
the 1 you're watching now.
And this concludes the video on how to register for a cGov360 account.