For the first time ever, the Kansas Secretary of State is contacting customers via email to remind them to file their business entity annual reports on time. Around 32,800 companies received the reminder before their filing due date. The email notices are sent to those firms that have provided email addresses when filing electronically.
“I believe government should reach out in a timely manner to help business owners comply with legal requirements, rather than waiting to notify them after they have failed and incurred penalties,” said Secretary of State Kris Kobach. “We want to do as much as possible to help companies that do business in Kansas stay current and avoid late fees.”
The majority of business entities have a fiscal year end date of December 31 with the annual report filing due April 15 of the following year. Failure to file an annual report in time can result in the company being forfeited. To be reinstated requires additional paperwork and costs. Before this new email notification process was created, the office would mail a notice after the annual report deadline had passed but before the entity would have been forfeited.
The new email system has already proven to be wildly effective. Today the number of annual reports filed online was more than five times any single day in March in the last decade, when online filing first became available at the Office of the Secretary of State. Additional follow-up reminders will be sent to the firms that have not filed their annual reports by the deadline.