I formed an Alaska LLC about 14 months ago for an idea I was developing. I never got a single customer and the business never launched. Now I have two years of Biennial Reports due, plus the registered agent fee, and I don't know what to do. I haven't done any of the paperwork. I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a company that doesn't do anything, but I also don't want penalties. Anyone dealt with this?
LLC Filing
My Alaska LLC has no customers yet, but the annual paperwork is piling up
Are you still set on using the LLC or is the idea dead? That changes the answer a lot.
Alaska Biennial Reports are are due every two years. Missing one puts you in bad standing, but the state isn't going to send a SWAT team. If the business really never operated, dissolution is probably cheaper than catching up.
The registered agent fee is the part that annoys me. You're paying someone to be a physical address and they don't care that you have no customers.
I went through almost the exact same thing in a different state. Two years of reports, no revenue. I ended up filing articles of dissolution. There was a small fee but it stopped the clock. Call the Alaska Division of Corporations and ask for the exact steps and current cost. Be clear that it never did business, sometimes that matters.
Why did you form it before having customers? Not trying to be rude, genuinely curious.
Getting ready to launch is a normal reason. A lot of people form the entity first. The paperwork burden is just poorly matched to pre revenue businesses.
Makes sense. I just see a lot of posts from people who formed first and ask questions after.
Don't just ignore it and assume it will go away. Alaska will eventually administratively dissolve the LLC, but that is not the same as filing it yourself. You can end up with unpaid fees and a bad record. Clean dissolution is the better route.
Also watch the registered agent's contract. Some companies auto renew and keep charging until you cancel in writing. Your two year bill may include a renewal, not just the original term.
If there are literally no assets and no customers, dissolution is usuall the sane choice. Pay the dissolution fee, file the final report if required, and move on. From your side it feels like a pile of mistakes. From the state's side it's paperwork number four thousand this week.
Do you have a business bank account or a credit card tied to it? That's what would worry me more than the reports. If you do, close those first so the dissolution doesn't get messy.
One more thing. Keep a copy of the dissolution filing and the confirmation. Sort of a paper trail you won't touch again, so you don't need to worry about what was or wasn't filed.