Georgia Entity Annual Registrations Due: Important to file your entity annual registration by the April 1st deadline.
By C. David Lumsden, Esq.
Georgia entities, such as corporations and LLCs, must file their annual registrations with the Georgia Secretary of State by the April 1st deadline. This can be done easily on-line on the Georgia Secretary of State website using a credit card to pay the $50 annual registration fee. TFH Legal can file one on behalf of your entity if you would like for a small processing fee (reach out to us by March 1st if you would like TFH Legal to do this filing for you).
You might have received in the mail a letter or form that at first looks like an official mailing from the Secretary of State about filing your annual registration. But this is a solicitation of service from a company which would like you to pay them to file your annual registration. We suggest you disregard this solicitation of service and file it on your own or ask us to do it for you.
When you file your annual registration, it is an opportunity also to update or change any information of public record which might have changed since your last filing such as your mailing address, your registered agent and/or registered office, or, for corporations, your officers. Review the existing details as you do the filing and make any needed changes as part of your filing.
You will have the option to file the annual registration for one year, two years or three years (with the filing fee being $50 for each year you choose – so there’s no discount for filing for multiple years). While it might seem like a convenience to file for multiple years, we suggest filing only for one year at a time for two reasons. First, if you file annually, you will easily remember that you need to file on an annual basis, but if you file for multiple years, you might forget which is the next year for which you will later need to file it again and could incur late fees if you forget it that particular year. Second, if you file for two or three years, if any of your public information (such as address or registered agent or officers) changes during this period, you will still need to file an amended annual registration to change that information for an additional fee. But if you file annually, you will have an opportunity each year from January to March to file the annual registration with your updated information for the same $50 annual fee.
If you miss the April 1st deadline, you can still file your annual registration but will be charged an additional $25 late fee. If you are too late in filing it, you will receive a Notice of Administrative Dissolution with a limited additional period to make your late filing. If you still fail to do so and your entity is administratively dissolved, you can have it reinstated within a short period for an additional higher filing fee, so you want to avoid that.