More and more people every day are turning to outside services to act as registered agents for their small businesses, be it a corporation or LLC. Registered agents are required by law, and serve the purpose of receiving tax, court and other legal documents on behalf of the business.
While you can serve as your own registered agent, this can present certain problems and it's often best to have a third-party like a qualified professional company perform the service. Learn a number of important reasons to hire a registered agent service instead of acting as your own business agent, and where to find the best.
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Reasons to Hire a Registered Agent
Though there are many reasons to hire a registered agent service to represent your business, five of the most compelling are maintaining your privacy, obtaining a physical address, protecting your home or business from intrusion, getting annual compliance reminders, and ease of document access.
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Maintaining Your Privacy
When you file a business with the state, you are required by law to list the address of the business. If you work from home, this puts your private address on file as public knowledge. There are a whole range of reasons why this may not be ideal. If you use an outside service, their address will be publicly listed, which will keep your privacy intact.
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Obtaining an Address
If you're running a web-based business, you may not even have a physical address for your business. Since you're not permitted to list a P.O. Box as the registered agent address for your business. Hiring a registered agent service gives you a physical address to list for your business if you don't have one otherwise.
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Protecting You against Intrusion
Getting tax and legal documents served can be an intrusive process. Nobody wants someone showing up at the front door of their home to be served with papers regarding a lawsuit. Likewise, if you're using your physical business address, papers can show up at any time. If you happen to be working with a client at the moment papers arrive, it can undermine your credibility as a business.
Using an outside service will protect you against this intrusion. All papers will go to the address of your agent, not directly to your home or business. This allows you to operate in peace without the fear of unpleasant surprises.
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Getting Annual Compliance Reminders
As a business, you'll need to file annual reports with the state. If you fail to do so, your entity can be dissolved. This can cost you a great deal of money when you want to reinstate your business. A registered agent can automatically file these reports for you so you're always in compliance.
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Ease of Document Access
Using a registered agent gives you easy access to any and all paperwork. It will all be kept in one place, usually an online account where you can just log in and have any information you needa t your fingertips. No concerns about lost papers or information!
If you're looking for help with reasons to hire a registered agent service, contact InCorp for help today!