Step by step
Find out when it is due
Some states use one date for every business, others the month the business was formed in. The deadline table has every state’s rule. Most states let you file well before the deadline, and nothing is gained by waiting.
Look your business up on the state’s register
Every state has a free business search. Find yours and note its file number: Florida calls it the document number, other states the entity ID, the charter number or the control number. While you’re there, check the status. If it says dissolved, revoked or inactive, an annual report alone may not put it right; see what happens if you miss it.
Have the details ready
- the principal office address and the mailing address;
- the registered agent’s name and address;
- the names and addresses of the officers and directors, or of the managers or members of an LLC;
- the federal EIN, if your state asks for it;
- a card for the state fee.
File it on the state’s website
Use the links below, which go straight to each state’s own filing page. Enter the file number; in most states the form opens with the record the state already holds. Correct anything that has changed, sign by typing your name, and pay.
Keep the confirmation
Download or print the receipt and the filed report. Check the register shows the filing once it has been processed, and put next year’s date in your calendar now.
Every state’s filing site
Each link opens the state’s own site. For the due dates as well, see the deadline table.
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
States move these pages from time to time. If one of them is wrong, tell us and we will put it right.
Worth knowing
- Some reports come with a tax. In Delaware, Texas and Arkansas, among others, the report is tied to a franchise tax that may need figures from your accounts. Texas’s goes to the Comptroller, not the Secretary of State.
- You may be able to change your agent at the same time. Some states, Florida among them, let you name a new registered agent on the annual report; others want a separate form.
- Check who you are paying. Letters that look official sometimes come from private companies charging more than the state. The state’s fee is on its own website, and the links above go straight there.
Or have us do it
If you would rather not, find your business and we will have its record ready to check. You see our fee and the state’s before you pay, we file it, usually the same business day, and we remind you before next year’s.
General information about state filings, not legal or tax advice. Express Filings is a private filing service, not a government agency. Rules and fees change; the state’s own site is the final word.