IACA – International Association of Commercial Administrators



Topic: Fees and Surcharges

Question by: Bert Black

Jurisdiction: Minnesota

Date: April 11, 2016

|Jurisdiction |Question(s) |

| |I would appreciate knowing whether your jurisdiction charges a different price for online transactions, in=-person transactions (if you accept them) and transactions |

| |submitted by mail, and what those prices are. This inquiry includes both filings and copies/certificates. If you could also provide a link to your fee schedules, that |

| |would also be very useful. |

| | |

| |Minnesota does charge a surcharge for specified online and in-person transactions, and is simply trying to determine where we stand with respect to other jurisdictions. |

|Manitoba | |

|Corporations Canada | |

|Alabama | |

|Alaska | |

|Arizona |Arizona’s fee schedules are here (at the bottom of the page): |

| | |

| | |

| |The filing fee for documents is the same for paper and online. |

| | |

| |For name reservations and certificates of good standing, which are available as online transactions, we automatically charge the expedite fee for the online transaction, |

| |because the service is instantaneous. |

|Arkansas | |

|California |For Business Filings, California has an expedite and counter service fee in addition to filing fees. |

| |See attached fee schedule. |

| |For UCC, fees are slightly lower for online services. |

|Colorado | |

|Connecticut | Here is a link to our current Fee Schedule: . |

| | |

| |Note that we do not presently charge folks to come in and make copies on their own from our microfilm machines or public computers that access the image files of more |

| |modern filings. However, this is not due to a policy convention. Rather, at some point a few years ago our halter units that charged a per-page copy price for printouts |

| |from the microfilm machines broke down and we have not been able to find replacement units to date. Also, since we went to digital image files for access copies of modern|

| |filings, we have no automated means to charge for copies on those PC stations, either (other than credit-card-only, which will not fly in a customer walk-in center). The |

| |goal was to continue to charge, but we lack the practical ability to do so. Moreover, per-page plain copies downloaded from the microfilm machine or PC in our Customer |

| |Service Center were only $0.10/page anyway, which is substantially lower in most cases than our $40 plain copy fee assessed when my staff have to pull the requested copy.|

| |So there always was a huge fee discrepancy for walk-ins, anyway. Given that the loss has been quite minimal between Zero and ten cents a page, we have prioritized other |

| |equipment purchases over trying to replace the copy halters units attached to the microfilm machines. We may at some point move the common printer behind our public |

| |counter and then count out print job pages, then pass along that charge to the customers who wish to obtain the printouts they downloaded, but that would require a |

| |full-time person out at the counter for that purpose and we are not in a position to hire someone solely to collect that meager revenue source at this time. But note |

| |that, any time my staff pulls the requested doc and makes the copy, we charge our standard copy fees of $40 for plain copy (of a whole document, regardless of the number |

| |of pages) or $55 for a certified copy (of a whole doc, regardless of the # of pages), whether they walk in or otherwise. |

| | |

| |At some point we will contract for a module to our database system that permits customers to print copies directly to their desktop printers. We are curious as to how |

| |states with this capacity structure their fees for plain and certified copies (if cert copies are available) that are downloaded online by customers themselves. |

|Delaware | |

|District of Columbia |There is no fee distinction between online and offline filings in DC. |

|Florida |Florida has no pricing differential for mail-in documents vs. online vs. in person. See fee schedule links to our most voluminous filings. |

| | |

| | l |

| | |

| | |

|Georgia | |

|Hawaii |Copies of document ordered online is $3.00 |

| |Copies purchased from our office is 25 cents per page. |

| | |

| |Certified copy ordered online is $10 + $3 |

| |Certified copy purchased from our office is $10 + (25 cents per page of document) |

| | |

| |Certificate of good standing ordered online is $7.50 |

| |Certificate of good standing purchased from our office is $5.00 |

| | |

| |LLC, corporate & LLP annual reports filed online - $ 12.50 |

| |LLC, corporate & LLP annual reports - $15.00 |

| | |

| |Nonprofit corporation annual reports filed online - $2.50 |

| |Nonprofit corporation annual reports - $5.00 |

| | |

| |Limited & general partnership annual reports filed online - $5.00 |

| |Limited & general partnership annual reports - $10.00 |

|Idaho | |

|Illinois | |

|Indiana | |

|Iowa | |

|Kansas |Online copies are free |

| | |

| |UCC paper - $20.00 plus $1.00 per page. |

| |UCC electronic - $10.00 |

| | |

| |Business entities are generally $5.00 cheaper online. |

|Kentucky | |

|Louisiana |Louisiana charges a transaction fee of $5 for online orders/submissions in addition to the mandated fees. Please find our fee schedule here: |

| | |

|Maine | |

|Maryland | |

|Massachusetts |Attached please find Massachusetts’ Fee Schedule which contains the fees for each filing and the difference if the filing is presented in paper, by fax or electronically.|

| | |

| | |

| |The expedited fee chart is also included on this fee schedule. |

|Michigan |Michigan does not charge a different amount whether UCC filings are processed online, in person, or through the mail. |

| | |

| |Our price structure can be found here: |

| | |

| | |

|Minnesota | |

|Mississippi | |

|Missouri |For Missouri, when certified copies are ordered online the customer is charged a flat fee of $10.00. If a certified copy request is mailed into the office or hand |

| |delivered the fee is $10.00 + .50 a page. For non-certified copies when the request is mailed into the office or hand delivered the fee is just .50 a page. |

| | |

| |Here is the link to the Missouri filing fees: |

|Montana | |

|Nebraska | |

|Nevada | |

|New Hampshire | |

|New Jersey | |

|New Mexico | |

|New York | |

|North Carolina | NC UCC fees are as follows: |

| | |

| |Paper/in-person filings = $38 for 1-2 pgs, $45 for 3-10 pgs, $45 + $2 for each additional page over 10 |

| | |

| |Online filings = $30 + $2 transaction fee for unlimited pages |

| | |

| |Copies = FREE online, $2 per page for UCCs printed in office |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| |There are only two types of filings or orders which have a different fee structure. They are: |

| | |

| |Annual Reports for Business Corporations. Paper is $25, Online is $18 + $2 electronic transaction fee for total of $20 Certified Documents. Paper $15 plus $1 per page |

| |and Online is $10 + $1 per page. |

| | |

| |A link to the fee schedules is (lower portion of the page) |

|North Dakota | |

|Ohio |Ohio has the same fee for online and paper (mail/in person) filings – the fees are listed in Ohio Revised Code 111.16 ( ). |

|Oklahoma | |

|Oregon | |

|Pennsylvania | |

|Rhode Island |Attached is Rhode Island’s fee schedule. We recently revised it to identify filings that can be remitted electronically and the enhanced access fee that applies to |

| |online filings. We do not have expedited filing fees. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. |

|South Carolina | |

|South Dakota | |

|Tennessee | |

|Texas |Texas charges the same filing fee for business entity documents regardless of delivery method. The same charges are applied with respect to certificates of fact and |

| |certified copies of business entity records whether the request is made online, in person, by mail, by fax, or by phone. A person using SOSDirect (our online system) to |

| |search business entity or UCC financing statement records online has a $1 fee per name searched. However, once records meeting the parameters of the search are |

| |retrieved, the user can print-out a plain copy of any imaged document in the filing history with respect to the business entity/debtor/secured party at no additional |

| |charge. The Business Entity and Trademark Fee Schedule URL is: |

| | |

| | |

| |Texas has differential pricing with respect to UCC filings and UCC information/search requests depending on delivery/submission method (electronic versus paper-based). |

| |The UCC fee schedule URL is: |

|Utah |Utah charges the same price no matter how the filing is delivered. Here is the link to our fee schedule: |

| | |

|Vermont | |

|Virginia |See additional comments below |

|Washington |See additional comments below |

|West Virginia | |

|Wisconsin | |

|Wyoming | |

Additional comments:

VIRGINIA:

Sorry for this delayed response. I wonder if we should maintain all of our fees in one documents.

Corporate charter and entrances fees:



New Virginia and Foreign LLCs, BTs, LPs, and LLPs: $100

Amendment and corrections – all entity types: $25

Virginia and Foreign LLCs, BTs, LPs, and LLP cancellations: $25

Partnership statements: $25

UCC statements: $20

Certificates of good standing or fact: $6

Certified copies: $3 + $0.50 per page

WASHINGTON:

In Washington State, if a customer comes to the front counter, we will provide a regular copy free of charge. If they place an order online or by mail it starts at $5 up to $20 per document. With our replacement system, our goal is to have all entity documents available for free and in real time for the customer to print form home. Certified copies and Certificates will still be a manual fulfillment, at least initially.

Photocopies of Recorded Documents

Any single document $ 10

Charter documents $ 20

Annual Reports $ 5 each

Trademark documents $ .15 per page

Certified copies $ 10 + copy fees

Certificates of Status

Certificate of Status $ 20

Certificate of Existence $ 20

Certificate of Authority $ 20

Certification of no record $ 20

Certificate of Status Long Form $ 30

The current price structure for Washington State is:

• $200 for online filing (2 business days processing)

• $180 paper filings (FIFO about 2 weeks processing)

• $230 can expedite paper filing ($180 filing, $50 expedite) 2 business days processing

• $ 71 for annual reports regardless of method delivered

We hope to revisit that structure in the future once our replacement system is live and stable.

Full text of email:

Dear Colleagues,

Minnesota is doing some research on differential pricing for filings and copies. I would be glad to share the ultimate data product, which I imagine will be a spreadsheet of some kind.

I would appreciate knowing whether your jurisdiction charges a different price for online transactions, in=-person transactions (if you accept them) and transactions submitted by mail, and what those prices are. This inquiry includes both filings and copies/certificates. If you could also provide a link to your fee schedules, that would also be very useful.

Minnesota does charge a surcharge for specified online and in-person transactions, and is simply trying to determine where we stand with respect to other jurisdictions.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the IACA Conference in Columbus, O.

Thanks for your assistance in this research!

Bert Black

Legal Advisor

Office of Minnesota Secretary of State, Steve Simon

180 State Office Building, 100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

St. Paul, MN 55155

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