By: Tamara Pow, Esq.
The California Secretary of State has updated business entity forms yet again this year. In July I wrote a blog referencing the changes to certain LLC forms including the Articles of Organization, Certificate of Dissolution, Certificate of Cancellation and the Short Form Certificate of Cancellation. The Secretary of State is at it again and has revised certain forms for foreign and domestic corporations.
Effective immediately, the California Secretary of State has the following new forms:
- Statement of Information (Domestic and Foreign Corporations);
- Attachment to the Statement of Information;
- Statement of Information (No Change); and
- Statement of Information (Non-Profit Corporations).
As part of this change there is now one form of Statement of Information to be used for both domestic and foreign corporations, instead of separate forms for each type of entity.
Many companies file their Statement of Information forms on their own. If you are filing your own Statement of Information, you must use the new form or the Secretary of State will reject your filing. Filings that are rejected by the Secretary of State waste time, money and if not corrected can result in late filing fees and ultimately suspension of your entity if not resolved.
Statements of Information for corporations can generally be filed online using E-file on the Secretary of State’s website. This will ensure that the correct form is being completed. However, if you must mail in your Statement of Information, be sure that you have checked the Secretary of State’s website at http://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/forms#corp to ensure that you are using the current form. Either way, don’t forget to file on time. It is critical to keep your business entities up to date to maintain your liability shield.
Tamara B. Pow is a founding partner of Strategy Law, LLP in downtown San Jose, California where she practices business and real estate law including corporate formations, operations, maintenance (including filing Statement of Information) and dissolutions. Her consistent and extensive work with business entities keeps her up to date when advising business owners of Secretary of State updates and other changes in the legal requirements of maintaining business entity liability protection.
The information appearing in this blog does not constitute legal advice or opinion. Such advice and opinions are provided by the firm only upon engagement with respect to specific factual situations. Specific questions relating to this article should be addressed directly to Strategy Law, LLP.
