Missouri Aims to Lower Business Filing Fees

Date: March 31, 2015

Small businesses that need services with the Secretary of State may soon see their filing fees reduced as the result of a new House bill.

A bill looks to shrink business filing fees in Missouri to as low as $5, the lowest in the nation.

The bill would change specific filing fees collected by the Secretary of State from Missouri businesses, which currently pay fees ranging from $7 to $155, according to the bill’s sponsor Rep. John McCaherty. The state is able to lower fees because of its transition to an electronic filing process, McCaherty says.

“The Secretary of State has worked very hard on getting all those filings online and making it easier for folks,” McCaherty says. “By doing that, we’ve reduced the costs quite a bit, so we really don’t need to collect higher fees. We can streamline that and make them all $5. That way, folks know what is coming, and it helps them.”

Expensive filing fees can be a big burden on small businesses, particularly challenging for new business owners and entrepreneurs.

“For a small business owner that’s just getting started, any dollar that you can save is a good thing. When you consider all the other fees and licenses that a small business owner has to get, [for instance] you’ve got to have a city’s merchant license, sometimes you have to have a county license. If you’re a restaurant, you’ve got to have a liquor license and pay for it,” says McCaherty. “When you get started there is a myriad of different things you’ve got to pay for. So, if you can save some money on a few of them from the Secretary of State’s office, it’s a great thing for small business.”

Missouri businesses are currently paying filing fees up to $6 million. That figure is expected to drop to $1.2 million, McCaherty says, as the new streamlined price becomes effective.

NFIB has testified on behalf of this bill and foresees it will soon be effective.

“From a small business standpoint, any time that state government can reduce fees or paperwork, it’s a big plus for the small business community,” says NFIB/Missouri state director Brad Jones.

The law would peg Missouri as the nation’s leader with the lowest business filing fees.


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