It’s that time of year again. GBGames, LLC has to file it’s [tag]LLC Annual Report[/tag] and submit the fee associated with it. I wrote about LLC annual reports last year, but I decided to revisit the topic.
It’s still a simple process. Just sign the form that the Illinois Secretary of State sends you, enclose a check for $250, and send it back. If you need to make changes to the form, such as who is a member and where your principal place of business is, you can do so on the form. The address on the envelope is still different from the one on the form for some reason.
I’ve never had to worry about the late fee before, but I put off submitting this letter when I received it in early February and then promptly forgot about it. Looking at the form, I saw that it is supposed to be processed before the due date, and in my case, that’s March 1st. It was February 27th when I realized that I needed to send it off. The late fee is $300! Ouch!
But wait! Apparently that fee only kicks in once you are 60 days late. That is, the due date is March 1st, but I have 60 days after that date to get my annual report to the Secretary of State before I have to worry about a late fee. I even called to verify that this was the case. I don’t plan on taking great advantage of THAT much leeway, but it is still nice to know.
Also nice to know? You can file your LLC annual report online! The Official website for the Illinois Secretary of State is at http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com, and if you click on Business Services, you’ll see LLC Annual Report Filings. From here, you can read about who can and cannot file the LLC annual report online. If your situation matches any of the items in the list of exclusions, you can’t submit it online, but if you are just planning on signing the form without changes, you should be fine. The service also accepts credit card payments.
I had already placed a stamp on the envelope before I learned about online filing, so I am just going to mail off my report. Filing the annual report is still the easiest part of having an LLC. If you are interested in learning how to [tag]form an LLC[/tag] in Illinois, please read my earlier blog post Forming an LLC in Illinois. Also read through the comments, since people have asked some good questions since I’ve written that article.
[tags]business, llc[/tags]
3 replies on “Filing the LLC Annual Report Again”
I feel your (lack of) pain. $250 is pretty expensive though! S-corp annual report was only $100 for us… probably because we didn’t make any money… 🙁
-Tim
True, an S-Corp is cheaper in Illinois than an LLC, but as I understand it, you have a bit more paperwork to do. That isn’t to say that there isn’t work to do on an LLC, but an LLC just has less formal obligations than a corporation.
Still, I have no idea why it is so much more expensive to have an LLC in Illinois. Other states seems to be much less expensive.
Illinois filing is more expenive on everything since every politician gets a cut for any form that’s filed; For that matter they somehow get paid for any transaction, or anything that moves or breathes in Illinois.