Filing a Rhode Island foreign LLC registration yourself

Collect the LLC's exact name, its home state and formation date, who the resident agent is and where in Rhode Island the agent can be found, an office the home state requires (if there is one), a mailing address, what the LLC will do in Rhode Island, whether members or managers run it, the managers' names and addresses if it is manager-managed, and the filer's contact details. Order the home certificate last so its date stays inside the limit.

Pick a Rhode Island resident or an entity qualified to do business in the state who has a Rhode Island street address where the agent can be found during normal business hours to accept service of process. Boxes, postal-company addresses and virtual addresses are rejected.

The online application takes the articles in order: the company name and the Rhode Island name if different, the home state and date, the resident agent, the purpose, the appointment of the Department of State as backup agent for service, the home-state office, the mailing address, the management choice, and the filer's contact details. Then you upload the certificate and pay $150.

Employers and retail sellers complete the Division of Taxation's Business Application and Registration form online; everyone else gets an account on filing a first return. Either way the minimum tax of $400 is owed.

File it online, by mail or in person, between February 1 and May 1 each year after the registration year, listing the true principal place of business and not the agent's address. The report is short, includes a brief survey stripped of identifying information, and asks for a NAICS code.

Ordering the certificate too early, naming a virtual office as the agent, forgetting the engineering approval where it applies, and leaving the confirmation step undone.

A Connecticut LLC with one member is opening a salon in Newport. The owner searches the database and finds the name free, hires a Rhode Island agent with a street address, orders a Connecticut certificate of good standing, fills in the online application with Connecticut as the state of organization, states the purpose as personal services, ticks member-managed, uploads the certificate and pays $150. After the Department processes it, the owner confirms acceptance and opens a sales tax account because the salon has retail sales.

Read the reason, fix that point, and file again. The usual reasons are the certificate date, the name and the agent address. An incorrect filing already accepted is fixed with a certificate of correction for $50 on paper or an amendment for $50.

Name searched. Agent chosen with a street address. Certificate ordered and dated within 60 days. Purpose written. Management choice made. Signer identified. Contact details ready. Fee ready. Tax account plan made. Annual report window noted.

The Department's stated processing time is between one and three business days, after which the filer confirms that the filing was accepted.

A courtesy reminder goes to the resident agent each January, and a reminder returned undeliverable starts revocation proceedings, so the agent's address on file has to be one that receives mail.

Filing unaided suits one LLC with an available name and an agent already arranged. A name needing a reservation, a hunt for an agent, a slow home state or several companies at once are the cases we take over.

If an afternoon with a state website is not how you want to spend the week, we prepare Form 450 for $199 plus the state fee.

$199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.