California Incorporation

Increased Times for Business Document Processing

The time to process customer filings and to respond to records requests at the Secretary of State's office has increased a result of cutbacks that reduced the agency's budget by 25%, or 8.9 million, over the past two years.

The state budget cuts have meant difficult changes including:

• Closing offices in San Francisco, San Diego and Fresno, meaning more documents are filed in the remaining Sacramento and Los Angeles offices.
  
• Eliminating the use of paid overtime and significantly decreasing the use of temporary staff and student assistants.
  

What This Means to You

The traditional filing by mail for Name Reservation and Incorporation can take 7 to 8 weeks and 12 to 15 weeks respectively.

You may want to consider using our QUIK-Incorp ($200 Extra). This automatically includes your Name Reservation.

With our QUIK-Incorp, you can then choose (none of the following fees are paid to us):

Standard 15-20 Business Days Over-the-Counter in Sacramento (add $15 for the Secretary of State and $70 for our independent courier).

OR

Expedited 24 hours (One Business Day) Over-the-Counter in Sacramento (add $350 for the Secretary of State and $125 for our independent courier).

These fees are in addition to the $10 filing fee for Name Reservation (included in our QUIK-Incorp) and the $30 filing fee for Articles of Incorporation.

California is the only state with its own equivalent to the IRS—the Franchise Tax Board—with its own application for tax-exempt status. The tax-exempt status is 23701d (instead of 501c3).

You must apply within six months of filing your Articles of Incorporation or pay a minimum franchise tax of $800 per year.

Most clients sign up for this when incorporating and filing for the 501c3, and you save $100 if you do so ($400 now or $500 later).