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Secretary of State’s office to simplify business fees

In a move designed to lower the cost and simplify the process of going into business in Montana, the secretary of state’s office is cutting and streamlining a number of required licensing fees.

By JOHN HARRINGTON, IR Staff Writer

Secretary of State Bob Brown’s office announced this week that starting in the spring, a number of fees companies must pay to hang out a shingle here will be trimmed. Among them:

— The registration schedule for corporations will be simplified. Currently, corporations pay between $70 and $1,000 to register with the secretary of state’s office. The amount varies based on whether the corporation is headquartered in Montana or elsewhere, and how many shares of stock the corporation issues. Under the new plan, all corporations will pay a flat $70 fee. (Non-profit corporations will continue to pay a $20 registration fee.)

— The registration fee for limited liability partnerships will be trimmed $50, from $70 to $20.

— The $5 fee for canceling registration of limited liability partnerships and assumed business names will be eliminated.

— The cost of ordering certificates of existence and authorization online will be decreased by an unspecified amount.

The lower fees will mean around a $120,000 reduction in annual revenue to the department.

The secretary of state’s office isn’t funded out of the general fund, but instead takes its budget from the fees it collects. The proposed cuts are a result of efficiencies in the way the department processes business registrations.

"As we’ve worked toward greater efficiency, we’ve discovered that our business fees are beginning to exceed our costs," said Brown in a press release. "So we need and want to return those efficiency savings to our customers."

Brown said better technology has helped lower his department’s costs, as has the move toward doing more business on the Internet.

"We’re all concerned about trying to help strengthen the economy and get it headed in the right direction," he said. "To the extent that we can do something to decrease the cost of doing business and lower the frustration level with government in doing business, we want to do that."

The changes are expected to take place this spring, after public hearings to revise the agency’s rules.

Close to 60,000 businesses are registered to do business in Montana, including around 5,000 businesses that registered in 2002.

The secretary of state’s office is on the Internet at http://www.sos.state.mt.us.

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