For businesses operating in New York, high rent is just the tip of the iceberg for obstacles they have to overcome to stay afloat and thrive. After all, the state has a very robust system of regulations – and it takes quite a bit of time and expertise for business owners to navigate this field and keep their company in the clear.
Primarily, you have things like safety codes, environmental regulations, and labor laws – but another regulation that gets a lot of attention pertains to publishing…
What the publication requirement means for a business
LLC publishing is mandated by the state and requires that LLCs post notices about their new company within 120 days of forming. This can be rather expensive to carry out, so some business owners choose to wait and see whether their creation is even a success before investing in publication. Still, this is a decision that’s highly recommended seeing as it’s a little more than a box that they can tick off and forget about. All the while consequences of not doing so come with bigger repercussions.
Rules of publication
As previously mentioned, the publication requirement should be fulfilled within 120 days of the LLC being formed. Failure to comply may result in the government suspending your authority to carry on. Keep in mind that this probably won’t have an immediate effect on your operations unless the company gets involved in litigation. Fortunately, even in such an event, it will be possible to go through publication and “cover” the time that the company spent not in compliance.
Another requirement you should fulfill as part of this regulation is publishing a notice about your company in two different newspapers (daily and weekly) for six consecutive weeks. The papers must be in the same county that your company operates in and be determined as eligible by a county clerk. Additionally, neither publication nor filing of paperwork will be free – and publishing fees can be quite high if your chosen county is highly populated.
To carry out the process, you will need to complete a Certificate of Publication, obtain a filing fee receipt and an affidavits from the selected newspapers – and then mail all of this to the Department of State. The only LLCs exempt from the publishing requirement are theatrical production companies.
An easier way to do things
If all the listed steps seem like a hassle, you are absolutely right. Many people consider this New York requirement antiquated and unnecessary – but unfortunately it seems like it’s not going anywhere in the immediate future. However, one way that companies have avoided the drawn out process with the least amount of effort possible is to hire an intermediary – basically another company that acts on your behalf as a registered agent.
You won’t need to provide any documents, as a good agent will get the info from state records. This approach can even sometimes be more affordable than doing it yourself, particularly if your agent operates in a county with smaller publication fees. If you are in a hurry to get the process over with, there is an option to expedite it for an extra charge (at the state level or wrapped into an agent’s fee).
