Ensure your business does not lose access to its naming rights via the Pennsylvania Decennial Reporting Requirement

Once per decade, the Pennsylvania Department of State undertakes a purge of business names from their rolls that are no longer in use so that they may be reissued to new businesses seeking to claim them. To avoid such a loss of name rights, the state requires existing businesses to file a Form DSCB 54-503 – Decennial Report of Association Continued Existence.

There are multiple entity types required to file this form. Per the Pennsylvania Department of State, “All domestic and foreign business corporations, non-profit corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships that are not also limited partnerships, business trusts as well as insignias and marks used with articles and supplies that have not made a new or amended filing with the Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations (Bureau) from January 1, 2012 thru December 31, 2021 must file a report that they continue to exist.”

If your business began operation before January 1, 2012 and is organized as one of the entity types listed above, you may be required to complete this filing by December 31, 2021.  If your business began operation after December 31, 2011, you are already protected from losing your business name for the upcoming reporting decade by virtue of making a new filing within the timeframe mentioned above.

Pennsylvania gave notice of this filing requirement to affected entities by means of mailing notices dated January 15, 2021. If your company did not receive this notice and you are unsure if you are required to file, Pennsylvania has also released a complete list of businesses to which the filing applies for this period, which you can find here: https://www.dos.pa.gov/BusinessCharities/Business/Resources/Pages/Decennial-Filing.aspx

The filing fee for this report is $70, payable to the PA Department of State. Should you have questions about whether you must file, the process of filing this form, or would like assistance in filing, our tax specialists at Boyer & Ritter can be reached by calling 717-761-7210 and are happy to assist you or answer questions you may have.

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