If you are responsible for a for-profit corporation or a limited liability company operating in the State of Mississippi, please be aware of the upcoming April 15 deadline to file your mandatory 2015 Annual Report. Failure to timely submit this filing will result in your entity being administratively dissolved by the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office. The only exception to the filing requirement is for entities that were formed between January 1 and April 15 of 2015. (Those entities will file in 2016.)

While the annual filing requirement itself is not new, what is new is the manner in which the filing must be made. Following the launch of the Mississippi Secretary of State’s new online filing portal in late 2014, the Annual Report must now be submitted online.

The online portal has simplified the filing process and includes many features which are intended to help you avoid mistakes and a rejected filing, however there are a few logistical steps for first-time filers. Namely you will need to establish a username and password in order to access the portal, and you will also need to know the Business ID number issued to your entity.

Steps for Filing Your Mississippi 2015 Annual Report:

• Log In —Establish login credentials at the “Mississippi Corporations Registered Filer Login” on the Mississippi Secretary of State’s online filing portal. Be sure to save login information for future online filing tasks.
• Get Your Business ID —If you don’t already know it, you can obtain your Business ID number on the “Business Search” page.
• File Your Report —Access the landing page for filing LLC and Corporate Annual Reports, where you may find some or all of your entity-specific information has been pre-populated by the system. Verify the information for your entity and make any necessary changes. The system will also allow you to attach additional pages, if necessary, to ensure that your information is complete.
• Submit Your Report —Once you are satisfied with the information in the report, you will enter an electronic signature and proceed to the submission portal. If your Annual Report requires a filing fee, you will be redirected to a payment page within the portal. For Mississippi entities, the filing fees are $25 for corporations and free for limited liability companies. For foreign entities qualified in Mississippi, the filing fees are $25 for a corporation and $250 for a limited liability company. All fees paid online will also incur a convenience fee associated with the use of a credit card at the amount shown on the payment page.

Tip: If you have not done so in the past, and many clients historically have not, please consider including an email address for your entity on this year’s Annual Report. As systems become more automated, providing your email address will help ensure that you receive timely email notifications directly from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office about important announcements and reminders.