Corporation occupation tax reports filed online with the Secretary of State’s office increased significantly in 2014. Compared to data from 2012, filings for domestic corporations alone jumped 348 percent. Filings for foreign corporations have gone up 47 percent.
“We began encouraging business entities to file online about five years ago,” said Gale. “Each cycle the number has increased, but this is by far the biggest margin.”
Domestic and foreign business corporations file their tax reports biennially. Limited liability partnerships (LLPs) file their reports annually. There are 35,018 domestic corporations, 10,863 foreign corporations and 481 LLPs registered in Nebraska.
For all three of those entities, 31,134 filings were processed online through the Secretary of State’s website. By comparison, 14,624 were mailed in with payments and processed in-house.
“At this point we’re processing nearly double the number of filings through our online portal, which is of great benefit to our office and the businesses we serve,” explained Gale. “In the past we automatically mailed paper reports to those entities at the start of the year and then waited for them to be returned to our office. This year we sent a postcard reminder informing businesses they could file directly online.”
Gale said working with a pre-populated form online allows businesses to make sure that data is entered correctly. “Any change in information can be easily updated and reviewed. Plus, businesses can immediately print off the receipt of payment.”
But Gale said the biggest benefit is that filing online allows for immediate updates to the database. “When we were processing paper forms, it could take up to a year to update that information.”
Among domestic corporations, online filings went from 3,364 in 2010 to 4,782 in 2012 and then to 21,429 in 2014.
The increase has been more gradual among foreign corporations observed Gale. He also noted that LLPs this year still received a paper report from the Secretary of State’s office, instead of the postcard reminder. However, that may change next year.
“Working with our vendor, Nebraska Interactive, the business services office has been very aggressive with offering online services across the state,” Gale explained. “It allows business entities to have 24/7 access from Harrison to Falls City, to do their filings. Online filing helps assure accurate and timely reporting by our domestic and foreign entities to maintain their good standing.”
LLPs have until June 1st to submit their occupation tax reports to the state. Business entities that do not meet the filing deadlines face administrative dissolution or the revocation of their certificate of authority. Dissolution and revocation notices to domestic and foreign business corporations were mailed out this week.
About Nebraska.gov
Nebraska.gov (http://www.Nebraska.gov) is managed by Nebraska Interactive, LLC part of eGovernment firm NIC’s (NASDAQ: EGOV) family of companies. Nebraska Interactive works with state, county, and city agencies to enable them to conduct state business online and improve public access to government information.
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