You Still Have Time to File Your Georgia Annual Registration
June 6, 2022
By Jackson R. Nock
April 1st has now passed us by and, with that, annual registration season for Georgia businesses has officially concluded. If your business has yet to file an annual registration, do not panic. Though your business is currently noncompliant, which can prevent your business from undertaking certain actions and can eventually lead to the administrative dissolution of your business, there is still time to file your annual registration for 2022, although you will be assessed a $25 late fee on the filing, in addition to the usual $50 filing fee. The State of Georgia allows for a sixty-day window to file an annual registration beyond the April 1st deadline without being subject to any administrative action. Thus, businesses in Georgia are only just beginning to receive notices of administrative dissolution. If you continue to neglect the filing of your annual registration, you may need to take costly steps to have your business reinstated.
Timely filing of your annual registration should only take you about twenty minutes, and you only need limited information to effectuate the filing. This limited information includes your control number or the name of the business, the name of the person filing the annual registration, an email address, the name and address of the business’ registered agent, the mailing address of the business’ principal office, and the name and address of each officer such as the CEO, CFO or Secretary (if a corporation).
Despite the relative ease of filing your annual registration, there are companies who will prey on business owners around the time that annual registration season begins. This predatory action often involves an official-looking mailer stating that the deadline to file a business’ annual registration is imminent and urging business owners to complete and send a form, along with an exorbitantly high fee, back to the sender. Many are duped into thinking the mailer is an official state mailing, however, in reality, the mailer is actually sent on behalf of a private company looking to profit off of unsuspecting business owners. Worse yet, these mailers also often lack solicitation language as required by Georgia law, making it difficult to determine their legitimacy. While these companies will indeed eventually file your annual registration, it is much more cost-effective to immediately discard these mailings if you should come across them.
Should you ever need assistance with your business’ annual registration or if you need help determining whether any annual registration mailing you receive is legitimate, do not hesitate to contact an attorney at Flint, Connolly & Walker who can provide your business with the guidance it needs.
Jackson R. Nock is an associate attorney with Flint, Connolly & Walker, LLP currently representing clients in various corporate and transactional matters, including business formation, mergers and acquisitions, commercial contractual matters, and corporate governance and compliance.