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Written by : Jonathan Calcaterra |
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welcome to the North Carolina Secretary of State's tutorial for filing a limited liability company annual report my name is mary jones and i'm the managing member of test LLC i started my company last year by filing articles of organization with the secretary of state unfollowing my first annual report online i'm filing online because I want my report to be filed with the office today and visible on the website when I'm done if I don't file online I may have to wait up to 12 weeks to get the data entered into the system and visible to my stakeholders from the Secretary of State's website I click file an annual report and the online services toolbar located in the center to bottom of the page this brings me to the main annual reports page which has a link to begin the online annual report process this page also has information regarding due dates mailing a paper filing and a summary of the process I click the get started button to begin the annual report filing process which takes me to the search page to search for my company I find out that North Carolina is a distinguishable upon the records state and one characters difference could be an entirely different company I enter the name of my company exactly as it is on file with the Secretary of State but without the ending LLC and click search a list of all companies that begin with my company name and tests appear I find my company and in the actions column I click at the monitor icon I found that if I hover my mouse over the icon it says what action it will take I choose the monitor icon to file an annual report this step in the process provides a listing of all past annual reports filed and the creation filing since this is my first annual report the only filing in the list is my creation filing the articles of organization I click the file most recent report button to begin entering my company information specific information is required in the annual report and the Secretary of State's office has broken it down into easy-to-understand sections the first page provides the company name and address and requests that I certify that the above company is the entity tend to file an annual report for and that I am authorized to file an annual report for the company to proceed to the next page I must click both certifications then click the next arrow on this page I verify the year of the report my LLC was formed in 2016 therefore my first annual report is due on or before April 15 2017 LLC annual reports are due in the current year and are not associated with the fiscal year end so I'm filing the 2017 report in 2017 and click the next arrow there are a few questions which I hear are new on the annual report regarding veteran owned businesses these questions are optional if I'm a veteran and don't want to report this information I click no or skip if available in the down-arrow menu the first questions asked whether 50% or more of the company is owned by a US military veteran I'm not a veteran but if I answer yes there are two more questions which will appear the first follow-up question asks that 50% or more of the company was owned by a disabled US military veteran and the second asked if the net receipts of the company were less than 1 million dollars I am NOT a veteran so I checked the no and the down arrow and then click the next arrow to go to the registered agent information page my registered agents name and address are already filled in because this was part of the articles of organization I filed when I created my LLC but I noticed that I can change the registered agent by selecting an entity on a drop-down list or clicking that another entity not on the drop-down list has given consent to be the registered agent if I want to change the registered agent to someone not on the list the next page asks for the email address and name of the new registered agent as well as whether the registered agent is a registered commercial entity which is a registered corporation or LLC in North Carolina I don't have a change so I go back and click the current registered agent name then click the next arrow this page asks for the registered agent street address I don't have changes to this information but if I did I can make those changes on this page if the mailing address is the same as the street address I click the box directly above the next arrow if the mailing address is different than the street address I am directed to a page to enter the registered mailing address when done I click the next arrow to go to the next section a brief description of the nature of business and a principal office telephone number are required this information was not included in my articles of organization I entered the nature of business and the principal office telephone number in the fields and he filled on this page with a red asterisk are required and if left blank the report will not be filed also on this page are two optional fields for email addresses the email addresses are not visible on the website and are used to notify the company when documents are filed when I'm done with this page I click the next arrow the next page requests principal office street address information again this information was not included in my articles of organization because I didn't have a principal office at that time by the time the first annual report is filed the company should have established a principal office the principal office is where the corporate books are located and/or where business is being conducted the principal office street address must be a physical location and the principal office mailing address must be a valid address where a mail was received the principal office Street and mailing address can be the same address I entered the principal office street address I check the box that this address is the same as the principal office mailing address if it isn't just like the registered agent mailing address I am asked to enter the different mailing address on the next page I click the next arrow and go to the company officials listing page here I enter the names and business addresses of all the company officials in my LLC one at a time if I need to add a company official I click add official then enter the name and business address in the fields provided you next year if I need to make any changes to the company official listing I'd click the circle next to the name then select the edit or delete button everything is now correct for my company so I click the next arrow and go to the certification page this page asks who is signing and certifying the annual report the company officials that I entered in the previous step are listed only those listed by clicking the down arrow or authorized to sign the document keep in mind an annual report filed online is the same as a paper annual report a company official listed on the annual report must sign it the signer is certifying that the information provided is true just as they would a paper annual report an electronic signature is the same as an original signature when you were filing online with the Secretary of State's office I make the selection then c
Thanks for your comment Mina Starcevic, have a nice day.
- Jonathan Calcaterra, Staff Member
the following information is provided for educational purposes only and in no way constitutes legal tax or financial advice for legal tax or financial advice specific to your business needs we encourage you to consult with a licensed attorney and/or CPA in your state the following information is copyright protected no part may be redistributed copied modified or adapted without prior written consent of the author in this video we are going to teach you how to research and choose your desired LLC name the purpose of this video is to help you avoid infringing upon someone else's name rights to help you differentiate your business name from existing entities and to make sure your desired LLC name is available for use in order to make sure your desired LLC name is available for use you will need to search it against the existing organized entities on the state's online database we will first walk you through some requirements and restrictions and then later we will show you how to perform your search name requirements your LLC name must end with the words limited liability company or the abbreviations LLC dot or LLC using the abbreviation LLC is the most common for example Joe wants to start a company by the name Joe's landscaping services since he has formed an LLC he must file under the name Joe's landscaping services LLC again using the abbreviation LLC or the full word limited liability company is a requirement when forming an LLC name restrictions your LLC name cannot imply that it is a corporation you are not allowed to use the words corporation or incorporated or the abbreviations Corp or Inc anywhere in your LLC name let's look at our example again since Joe wants to form an LLC he cannot call his company Joe's landscaping services Inc LLC or Joe's landscaping services incorporated LLC your desired LLC name must we'll be distinguishable this means it cannot be too similar to the names of existing organized entities that are found in the results during the search of the database we will now illustrate several examples of distinguishability and we will provide examples you may see while performing your search differences in designators which are the identifier x' at the end of a business name do not create distinguishability examples of designators would be ink or corp for corporations and LLC or LLC for limited liability companies there are other designators as well but these are the most commonly used for example your desired LLC name is Smith Investments LLC but during the search of the database let's say you found the business under the name Smith Investments Inc in this example your desired LLC name would not be available for use you would have to think of an alternative name that is unique and different an example would be Smith Financial Group LLC grammatical differences the following do not create distinguishability differences in variables and singular plural and possessive forms of a word for example your desired LLC name is apple farm LLC let's just say during the search you found the business under the name apple farms LLC or let's say you also found a business under apples farm LLC with an apostrophe s both of these names although slightly different are too similar and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an example of an alternative name would be bob's apple orchard LLC the following do not create distinguishability differences in articles such as a and or the for example your desired LLC name is print shop LLC let's just say that during the search of the database you found a business called the print shop LLC or you found the business called a print shop LLC again although they seem different these names are all the same in the eyes of the state and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an alternative name would be printing solutions LLC the following also do not create distinguishability the use of conjunctions such as and or and the ampersand symbol let's say your desired LLC name is night and day LLC with the ampersand symbol but during your search you find a night and day LLC or you found that night day LLC again both of these examples are too similar and your desired LLC name is not distinguishable and therefore not available for use an example of an alternative name would be moon and sunshine LLC the following also do not create distinguishability the use of certain punctuation such as hyphens slashes periods commas etc let's say your desired LLC name is peter paul and mary studios LLC but during your search you found Peter - Paul - Mary Studios Incorporated or you found a Peter comma Paul comma and Mary studios Incorporated again both of these examples are too similar and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an alternative example would be ppm productions LLC alphanumeric differences in numerical or written numbers does not create distinguished ability for example let's say your desired LLC name is three teachers Consulting LLC with the number three spelled out but during your search of the database you found the company called three teachers Consulting LLC with the number three again these are deceptively similar the state does not look at these as any different and therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an alternative example would be a few good teachers Consulting LLC deceptively similar names that are too similar to existing organized entities also do not create distinguished ability for example your desired LLC name is speedy delivery services LLC but during your search let's say you find a speed delivery services LLC or you find a super speedy delivery services LLC again these names are too similar therefore your desired LLC name would not be available for use an example of an alternative name would be at your door quake LLC takeaways as you can see just filing your paperwork with your desired LLC name is not as straightforward as you may have originally thought the most important takeaways from showing you all these examples are as follows it's important to make sure your name is truly unique and not too similar to the names of existing organized entities if your desired LLC name is unavailable for use either by its exact match already being used or by it being too similar to an existing name we recommend using some creativity and coming up with the variation of your original LLC name so that the name is now unique and is distinguishable and stands apart from other businesses some additional tips to think of when creating your LLC name are make your LLC name easy to spell you want to make sure people can find you when they're looking for you make your LLC name short shorter names are easier for people to remember make your LLC name have a positive connotation leave people with a good feeling when they hear about your business you are now ready to search your desired LLC name against the state's online database we showed you a number of examples where the desired LLC names were not available for use but don't worry in the next part of this video we will provide plenty of examples of names that are availa
Thanks espantall3 your participation is very much appreciated
- Jonathan Calcaterra
About the author
I've studied strategy at Jamestown Business College in Jamestown and I am an expert in political economic anthropology. I usually feel sad. My previous job was database administrator I held this position for 4 years, I love talking about canoeing and zebra watching. Huge fan of Lindsey Vonn I practice modern pentathlon and collect bicycles.
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