Welcome to the Annual Report Video Lesson.
What is an Annual Report?
The Annual Report is used to keep your business records updated with the Division of Corporations.
An Annual Report must be filed each year for your business to maintain an "active status".
The Annual Report is required each year what do you need to make changes or not.
When is the Annual Report due?
The report must be filed every year and it is due between January 1st and May 1st.
A non-negotiable $400 late fee is imposed if you forget to file your Annual Report by
May 1st.
If this is your first year filing an Annual Report, Annual Reports are due between January
1st and May 1st of the calendar year following the year of formation.
For example, if your LLC was formed on April 1st 2010, your first Annual Report would be
due between January 1st and May 1st of 2011.
How much does the report cost?
If you're LLC's Annual Report is filed before May 1st, the fee is $138.75.
If you file after May 1st, you will be charged the non-negotiable late fee of $400 and you
will end up paying $538.75.
Since you have between January 1st and May 1st to file, we recommend filing as early
as possible so that you are not late.
The Division of Corporations does send out Annual Report reminder notices to the email
address you listed when you formed your LLC, but even if you don't receive the reminder
notice it is still your duty to file.
We recommend setting a repeating reminder on your phone, email or outlook calendar so
that you can be automatically reminded each year.
Or when it's time to make your New Year's resolutions, it's also time to file your Annual
Report.
What happens if I don't file?
Failure to file an Annual Report by the 3rd Friday of September will result in the administrative
dissolution or revocation of your LLC.
Simply put, they will shut down your LLC.
LLCs that have been administratively shut down may be reinstated by submitting the proper
paperwork and necessary fees.
However, the names of these shut-down LLCs will be made publicly available to new businesses
after 1 year.
Said another way, if you wish to stay in business, don't forget to file your Annual Report.
Can I make changes on the report?
Yes, the purpose of the Annual Report is to confirm or update your records with the Division
of Corporations.
The Annual Report will allow you to: add, delete, or change the names and/or addresses
of the LLC members, change the Registered Agent and Registered Agent's address, change
the Principal Office Address and/or Mailing Address and the LLC, and add or change your
EIN (Employer Identification Number), also known as your Federal Tax ID Number.
The Annual Report will not allow you to change the name of your LLC.
If you wish to change the name of your LLC, you must file what is known as an "Amendment".
What are my payment options?
Payment may be made online by credit card or debit card.
If you are paying with a credit card, you must use a Visa, MasterCard, American Express,
or Discover.
If you are paying with a debit card, your debit card needs to have a Visa or MasterCard
logo on it.
Although credit and debit cards are the easiest, we will also discuss the 3rd option, which
is to pay with a check or money order by using a "payment voucher".
How long will it take to process?
If you pay using a debit or credit card, your payment and your Annual Report will be processed
within 24 hours.
If you pay by mail with a "payment voucher" and check or money order, your payment and
report will be processed within 3 weeks.
How do I sign and get a copy?
For the purpose of filing documents online,the typed name of the individual signing the dark
is sufficient under Florida law.
Electronic signatures have the same legal effect as original signatures.
Note: taking someone's name or signature without their permission constitutes forgery.
Once the Annual Report is processed, it will be available for download on www.Sunbiz.org.
If you pay with a debit or credit card, again allow 24-48 hours before you can download
a copy.
If you paid by mail with a check or money order, please allow up to 3 weeks.
The online application.
Remember, the Annual Report can only be filed online.
You can click the link below this video or go to www.Sunbiz.org to access the Annual
Report online filing.
Let's move forward to the online filing.
The 1st thing you will need to do is go to www.Sunbiz.org.
You will first need to find your LLC's document number.
In order to do that, you're going to scroll down, and on the left, you're going to click
on "Search Our Records".
You're then going to click underneath the "Corporations, Trademarks, Limited Partnerships,
& Limited Liability Companies".
You're going to click "Inquire by name".
You're then going to enter the name of your LLC (don't worry about putting in the letters
"LLC", just enter the 1st part).
For this example, I've entered "cleaning to perfection janitorial".
I'm now going to click "Search Now".
I'm going to look for my LLC in the list of names, and then once I find it...if you look
to the right, you'll see the document numbers there.
You have 2 options: you can either write down that document number, or for a faster way
you can click the link, double-click your document number and then right-click and select
"Copy".
Once you've written that number down or have copied it, then click on "Home".
Underneath "E-filing Services", go to the 1st option which is "Annual Report Filing".
You're then either going to fill in, or you can right-click and hit "Paste your LLC's
document number" and then hit "Submit".
If you scroll down, you'll find the information that was already filled in and associated
with your LLC.
Let's start at the top.
The 1st thing you're going to do is enter your EIN number.
If you need a Certificate of Status and you haven't gotten 1 already, you can click this
check-box here, agree to pay $5, and your Certificate of Status will be emailed to you.
If you're not sure what a Certificate of Status is, you can watch the video on our website.
For this example, I do not need a Certificate of Status.
Scrolling down, you will next enter your email address, then re-enter it to make sure there
are no typos.
And continuing on you'll see that your Principal Place of Business and your Mailing Address
information has been pulled up.
If you need to make any changes, this is where you will do so now.
If everything looks fine, you can continue on.
The next section is the name and address of your Registered Agent.
If you need to make changes to your Registered Agent, you can change their name and address
here, and then underneath the Registered Agent signature, you're going to type the name of
your Registered Agent.
The name you type in this box cannot be the name of a business or a company.
It needs to be of an individual who represents that company, or it could be somebody you
know, or it could be yourself if you are your LLC's Registered Agent.
Make sure you have the consent of the Registered Agent before typing their name in the box.
In the next section below, you'll see the title, the name and the address of the LLC's
members.
If you need to add or remove any of the members of the LLC, you can do so now.
If everything looks good, you can scroll down to the bottom where you're going to enter
your title, and you're going to be entering your name which in essence you're signing
this document, and then you're going to click "Continue".
I'm going to enter "MGRM", and I'm going to enter my name and then click "Continue".
On the next page, it says "Please review the filing for accuracy".
If you need to make any changes, hit the back button, go and click "Okay".
I'm now going to scroll down, make sure that my email, my address, the address of the Registered
Agent and the names and addresses of all the members is correct, and then I'm going to
click "Continue".
On the next page, you'll have the option to select a credit card payment or a cheque payment
by mail.
For our example, the LLC I'm using did not file their Annual Report before May 1st, so
you can see that their amount due is $538.75.
Again, if you file a report before May 1st, you won't have this issue and you will only
be paying $138.75.
For this option I'm going to select "Credit Card Payment".
You're then going to enter your credit card information, as well as your billing address
and hit "Continue".
On the next page, you'll receive a confirmation that your payment has been processed.
Please print that page as a confirmation for your records.
We will now show you how to make a payment by mail if you want to choose that option,
and then immediately afterwards we will show you how to access a copy of your Annual Report.
If you would like to pay via a check or money order, go to the bottom and click "Check Payment
By Mail."
On this page, you'll receive your payment voucher.
Make sure to print this page out, and you will mail this along with your check made
payable to "Florida Department of State" for $138.75.
At the bottom of your payment voucher will be instructions for the mailing address.
Make sure your check or money order is made payable to "Florida Department of State".
Make sure to staple your check in the top left-hand corner of this voucher and then
mail it to the Division of Corporations, PO Box 6198, Tallahassee, Florida, 323014.
Feel free to pause this video for you to write down that address.
The State recommends that you send in your payment along with your payment voucher within
10 business days.
Although you can see here, it says this voucher and your check must be received by the Division
of Corporations within 30 days, or it will be considered abandoned.
This concludes the application process.
Let's now look at how we can obtain a copy of our Annual Report.
Once payment is sent...if you paid via a debit or credit card, you will need to wait 24-48
hours before you can download a copy of your Annual Report.
If you've paid via mail with a check or money order, please allow up to 3 weeks.
We will now show you how to download a copy of your Annual Report.
The 1st thing you will need to do is go to www.Sunbiz.org.
Just like before, we're going to scroll down on the left and click "Search our Records".
Underneath the 1st option for "Corporations, Trademarks, Limited Partnerships & Limited
Liability Companies", we're going to click "Inquire by Name".
You will then enter the name of your LLC, and again don't worry about including the
words "LLC" or "Limited Liability Company".
For this example, I've entered "John Scott Investments" and I'm now going to click "Search
Now".
I'm now going to look for my LLC in the list of results and then click on the link.
If you scroll down to the bottom, you will see document images.
Underneath document images will be a copy of your Certificate of Organization and all
the Annual Reports.
I'm then going to click "View image in PDF format".
Then I'm going to click the link in the middle that says "Click here to view your image".
Here is a copy of their Annual Report.
I can either print this directly from my browser by going to file-print, or I can also save
this as a PDF.
If I hover my mouse over the image and towards the bottom, you'll see there's an icon that
looks like a disk.
If you click that, you'll be able to save the document to your desktop.
The Annual Report is now downloaded to my desktop.
If you're unable to download the PDF from the screen, there's another option.
You have go back to the tab where it says "Click here to view your image", and now instead
of clicking the link, I'm going to right-click it I'm going to hit "Save Link As".
I'm on a Mac.
If you're on a PC, you will click "Save Target As".
Once I click "Save Link As", it'll bring up a save-screen again and I can save as PDF
to my desktop.
If you have any issues or questions.
If you have specific Annual Report filing questions, please call the Annual Report Section
at 850-24 5-6056.
If you have any technical questions concerning the online application process or making a
payment online, please call the Internet Support Section at 850-245-6939.
This concludes the Annual Report video.
Don't forget to file your Annual Report each and every year you remain in business.