If you are the proud owner of a Minnesota Public Benefit Corporation, it is time to provide the Minnesota Secretary of State with your Annual Benefit Report.
Before April 1 of each year “a public benefit corporation must deliver to the secretary of state for filing an annual benefit report covering the 12-month period ending on December 31 of the previous year and pay a fee of $35 to the Secretary of State. The annual benefit report must state the name of the public benefit corporation, be signed by the public benefit corporation’s chief executive officer not more than 30 days before the report is delivered to the secretary of state for filing, and must be current when signed.”
Typically, Annual Benefit Reports are due on the last business before April 1. Since that day falls on a weekend this year, the Annual Benefit Reports will be due on April 1, 2019. You will have until the end of business on that day to deliver the report to the Secretary of State. If you plan on mailing in your report, plan accordingly since it must be in the hands of the Secretary of State on April 1, not post-marked April 1.
Don’t think of the Annual Benefit Report as a burden; think of it as a chance to celebrate your social business and all that you have accomplished (or worked at accomplishing) in 2018.
Included with this article is a template that can be used to craft your Annual Benefit Report.
Remember, if you do not file the report by April 1, 2019, the Secretary of State will revoke your public benefit corporation status. The Secretary of State will send you notice of this revocation. After missing the deadline, you have two options (and you must do one of these):
- Within 30 days of the revocation, you can file an Annual Benefit Report and pay a $500 fee with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of State will reinstate your public benefit corporation status; or
- you MUST amend your articles of incorporation to change the name of your business to an “Inc.” or a “Corp.” or “Corporation.”
Its important to remember, that if you miss filing your Annual Benefit Report, YOU MUST DO ONE OF THE TWO STEPS ABOVE.
As mentioned above, think of report as a celebration of your social business!
