Is this notice real?
Within weeks of forming a company you will get official-looking letters asking $90–$250 for an “annual report”, a “certificate of status” or “labor law posters”. Most are private mailers copying the state seal. Here is what the states themselves say, and what the real fees are.
Snap the letter. We read it.
Take a photo of the first page. We pull out who sent it, what it asks for and how much, then compare that with what the states themselves say. Nothing is stored — the photo is discarded the moment you get your answer.
- ✓ Company name vs. an actual agency
- ✓ The fee vs. your state's real fee
- ✓ The small-print "not a government agency" line
- ✓ .gov website or not
Educational, not legal advice. We describe what the letter says and what the state charges; we never accuse a sender. Five checks per 10 minutes per connection.
1. Who is it from?
A real notice comes from your Secretary of State, Comptroller or the IRS, on a .gov site and a state mailing address. A vague name — “Business Filing”, “National Filing Corp”, “Compliance Department Services” — with a P.O. box or a commercial URL is a private company.
2. Does the fee match?
Most states charge $0–$50 for the real annual report (Pennsylvania $7, Connecticut $20, Mississippi free). A $110–$250 invoice for the same filing is the tell. Certificates of status are never required to stay in business; labor law posters are free.
3. Does the deadline match?
Mailers invent urgent dates. Your real due date is on the state's site and — if your company is on our account — already in your deadline reminders. When in doubt, type the .gov address yourself and look it up.
The mailer's price vs. the state's price
Same filing, two invoices. Navy is what the mailer asked; gold is what the state actually charges, from the agency alert linked in the table below.
What state agencies have said
We do not judge mailers ourselves — every row quotes a state agency, the FTC or a licensed firm, and links the alert. Amounts are as published on the linked page.
| State | What the alert describes | The real fee | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | Fake “Secretary of State” notices with the state seal and a Sacramento return address; “billing summary” over $200; at least 40 complaints in a month. | Real: file directly with the WA Secretary of State. | WA Attorney General, Dec 2024 |
| Pennsylvania | “National Filing Corp” $136 (LLC) / $171 (corp) annual report plus a “$35 state late fee” that does not exist; “Business Poster Compliance” $97.58 posters; “National Business Services” $185 EIN, $89.95 “Certificate of Status”. | Real PA annual report fee: $7. Posters: free from PA L&I. EIN: free from the IRS. Subsistence certificate: $40 from the state. | PA Department of State, Jan–Aug 2026 |
| North Carolina | “Business Filing LLC”, “NC Certificate Service” ($74.50 for a certificate nobody requires), “Filing Labor Compliance Department Services (FLCD)”. | Real NC annual report: $203 LLC / $21 corporation, filed on the SOS site. | NC Secretary of State alerts; MPC CPAs, Feb 2026 |
| Connecticut | “Annual Report Instruction Form” demanding $110. | Real CT LLC annual report: $20 (at the time of the alert) to the Secretary of the State. | Brody Wilkinson PC, Jan 2019 |
| Mississippi | Private mailers offering to “prepare 2026 annual reports for a fee”, styled as government correspondence. | Real: domestic LLC annual reports are free on the SOS site, due April 15. | MS Secretary of State, 2026 |
| Texas | Mailers demanding $90–$250 for “compliance” filings, typically arriving weeks after formation. | Real: Texas has no annual report fee; the franchise-tax Public Information Report is filed free with the Comptroller. | Texas AG warning via LLC Geek, Jul 2026 |
| Nationwide (labor posters) | “Failure to comply with posting regulations can lead to fines of up to $17,000” — $84 posters sold to 9,000+ businesses. | Real: federal posters are free from the U.S. Department of Labor; state posters free from your state labor agency. | FTC & Florida AG, Jul 2018 |
| New England | Fake annual-report notices asking up to 500% of the statutory fee. | Real: ME $85, NH $102, RI $52.50, MA $110 corp / $520 LLC. | National Law Review, Nov 2025 |
Checked 2026-08-28 against the linked pages. Report a suspicious mailer to your Secretary of State or Attorney General. Educational — not legal advice.
What we already handle
If your company is on a Vermilion Vitez account, the filings these mailers sell are either free, already tracked, or one click away at the real price.
- Deadline remindersIncluded60 / 30 / 7 days before every state filing, with the real state fee.
- Annual report filing$120 + state feeWe prepare and file; the state fee is quoted live and charged at cost.
- Certificate of good standing$82.50 + state feeOnly when a bank or another state asks for one. Wyoming issues them free online.
- Registered Agent Service$74.25 / yrOfficial notices scanned to your dashboard — so you can tell the real ones from the mailers.
- Forward-to-verifyFreeMembers: forward any notice to My Mail and we tell you whether it is real.
Questions new owners ask
The letter has my state file number on it. Doesn't that make it official?
No. Formation filings are public record; mailers pull the file number, company name and address the day your company is approved. Washington's Attorney General notes the fakes even reproduce the state seal.
I already paid one. Can I get it back?
Sometimes — many of these companies do file something, just at a large mark-up. Ask them for a refund in writing, dispute the charge with your card issuer, and file a complaint with your state Attorney General; several of the alerts above came from those complaints.
Is the IRS EIN letter a scam?
The IRS CP575 confirming your EIN is real and free. Any company charging $185 to “obtain” an EIN is reselling a free IRS service — though non-U.S. founders without an SSN do sometimes use a preparer for the SS-4 by fax.