Ohio Withdrawal 2015 Form
the following information is provided for educational purposes only and in no way constitutes legal tax or financial advice for legal tax or financial advice specific to your business needs we encourage you to consult with a licensed attorney and/or CPA in your state the following information is copyright protected no part of this lesson may be redistributed copied modified or adapted without prior written consent of the author a limited liability company is a hybrid between a corporation and a partnership an LLC protects your assets in the event of a lawsuit in order to form your LLC you must file LLC formation documents with the Secretary of State once your documents are approved and sent back to you your LLC is now in existence and authorized to do business in the state we have spent considerable time to make the details of this video simple and easy to understand however we cover a lot of ground and you're going to hear a lot of new terminology we do recommend that after you watch this video you watch it a second time in order to fully comprehend all the information provided please make sure you have watched the first lesson on researching your LLC's name your desired LLC name must be available for use before you proceed with filing your LLC formation documents registered office and registered agent your LLC is required to list a registered office and a registered agent within your LLC formation documents the registered office is an address located in the state where your LLC is formed it can be an actual street address or it can be a Pio box if it is a Pio box the owner of the Pio box must be a resident of the state of Ohio a registered agent is a person or a company who agrees to accept legal mail and important documents on behalf of your LLC in Ohio they use the term statutory agent but this means the same thing as a registered agent for our purposes we will refer to it as registered agent the registered agent is located at the registered office and is generally accessible during normal business hours as we mentioned a registered agent can be a person or a company who hasn't address in the state where your LLC is formed you as an individual can be your LLC's registered agent however your LLC cannot be its own registered agent for individuals who have an address in the state it is most common that they serve as the LLC's registered agent having said that the individual person you choose as the registered agent does not need to be a member of the LLC it can be a friend or a family member or frankly anyone you know who agrees to accept service of process on behalf of your LLC service of process is a delivery of legal mail and important documents sent from the state or a law firm to your LLC correspondence from the state can include items such as business requirements late notices and copies of formation documents legal documents can include items such as subpoenas and/or complaints for legal action again the purpose of designating a registered agent is to authorize someone to accept service of process on behalf of your LLC whoever agrees to be your LLC's registered agent aka statutory agent must sign your LLC formation documents if you intend to be the registered agent for your LLC you basically appoint yourself and you will sign where indicated in your LLC formation documents if you have someone else serve as your LLC's registered agent you will need to have them sign your LLC formation documents confirming that they agree to be your LLC's registered agent you cannot mail in your LLC formation documents until you have the signature of the registered agent even if it's just yourself takeaways the purpose of a registered agent and its registered office is to be a point of contact for the state and to accept service of process for your LLC you or someone you know can be your LLC's registered agent so long as you have an address in the state if you don't have an address in the state that you can use or you don't want to serve as your LLC's registered agent you can hire a commercial registered agent using a commercial registered agent will also help protect your privacy as the information listed in the LLC formation documents will become public record a commercial registered agent is a company that specializes in receiving service of process on behalf of businesses nationwide they typically charge between 100 and 300 dollars per year if you decide to use a commercial registered agent we recommend Northwest registered agent LLC they've been the business for more than two decades and have built up a solid reputation in the industry their fees are among the most affordable and their support is top-notch we've joined forces with them in order to provide registered agent services nationwide to our clients there's a link below this video where you can find instructions on how to sign up for their registered agent services now let's discuss your LLC formation documents the name of the LLC formation document for the state of Ohio is called the articles of organization this document is not complicated and contains basic information including listing your registered office and registered agent it will also require you to list your LLC's name and the name and address of the LLC member or members no need to stress out we will walk you through the details of the articles of organization in just a couple minutes and we'll make sure that you get filled out correctly in the download section below this video you're going to find two versions of the articles of organization the first version will be used if you or someone you know will be your LLC's registered agent the second version will be used if you're going to hire Northwest registered agent its pre-populated with their address and their signature in place if you're going to use another commercial registered agent you will first need to hire them and then obtain the articles of organization from them which will have their address and signature again there's a link below this video where you can find instructions on how to sign up with Northwest registered agent you will find the filing fee amount accepted forms of payment and the address where to send your articles of organization to below this video you will need to mail your completed articles of organization along with the filing fee to the state it does not have to be the original and it can be a copy so long as it's signed by all parties including the registered agent there are no additional cost or filing fees to form your LLC once you nail the filing fee along with a copy of your completed articles of organization you can expect two things first within three to seven business days the state will send you back an approval certificate stamped with their seal that shows the name of your LLC and the registration number assigned to it by the Secretary of State your LLC is now a legally formed business in the state of Ohio until you have confirmation that your LLC has been officially approved do not order your EIN also known as your federal tax ID number or start to use your LLC for any business purposes also included with the approval certificate will be an insert that details your next steps it provides instructions on how to register your LLC with the Ohio Department of Taxation if you're unsure on how to register with the Ohio Department of Taxation we recommend you speak with an accountant or tax professional for guidance it is a good idea to start looking for a tax professional once your LLC is formed so you can find someone that you are comfortable with that will help you keep your business tax compliant most states require LLC's to file annual reports with the Secretary of State but the good news is that Ohio does not have any annual reporting requirements for LLC's you will however still need to file your taxes on an annual basis let's get started you're now ready to fill out the articles of organization you can download this document below the video let's get started here we are inside the articles of organization this is a six page PDF page one is the cover letter pages two three and four are the actual form and pages five and six have instructions feel free to read through the instructions if you'd like we've already covered all the information in this video this form can be filled out on the computer or it can be printed out and filled out by hand if you fill it out by hand please use blue or black pen and make sure to print the document on white paper that is letter-sized which is your standard eight-and-a-half by eleven inches please note that I have a professional version of Adobe Acrobat you may just have a simple version called Adobe Reader and you may not have as much functionality in order to edit and type inside the document if you have any issues with trying to type inside the document on the computer simply print it out and fill it out by hand alright let's get started with the cover letter the purpose of the cover letter is to give the state an address for where they can send back your documentation here we have some sample data and information for example purposes what you're going to do at the top next to name simply list your name where it says to the attention of you can leave that blank that's for business if a business we're filing next you're going to list your address your phone number and your email address below the email address there's two checkboxes for different email lists the first one is for general isn't services from the Ohio Secretary of State feel free to check this off if you'd like to subscribe to that email list if at any point that email list becomes annoying you can always unsubscribe via the unsubscribe link at the bottom the next box is a little bit more pertinent to your information this is the filing notification system what that means is when any documents are sent in and approved on behalf of your LLC or for your LLC that you'll get an email notification so feel free to check these boxes off if you'd like to subscribe to those email lists next let's go down to the type of service being requested in this example we've selected regular service because Ohio is pretty fast with a three to seven business day turnaround they do also offer expedited service so if you need expedited service they offer it in three levels service one two and three feel free to just check the box and the one that you'd like and you'll see there's an additional cost to each of these so make sure to include that along with your filing fee when you send in the documentation one important thing to make note of is that actually only service one is available if you're sending the documentation via mail service two and three are only applicable you'll see that the last sentence says this service is only available to walk-in customers who hand-deliver the document to the client service center so this would only work if you live close and you can go ahead and stop by and drop off the documentation so if you're going to be signing this in by mail and you need expedited service would be service one if you're close by you can go ahead and select service two or service three for almost an immediate one day or for our processing let's go on to the next page one very important thing to make note of is that the most up-to-date mailing address filing fee amount and who to make the check payable to is actually listed below the video the reason being is that you may be watching this video in the future so the address is up here may have changed and because of that we recommend that you double check the address and look below the video where you're going to find the most up-to-date address now it might just be the same but again this is just a double check to make sure that you're sending it to the right place all right let's get started under the first area where it says check only one box this is basically a for-profit or a non-profit LLC in our example this is a for-profit company so we're going to check off box number one next under the name of the limited liability company you're going to enter the name of your LLC make sure to include the abbreviation LLC or l dot L dot C dot Ohio also has some additional abbreviations down here if you'd like to use those now in this example I have not used a comma sometimes you'll see a comma here the comma is optional so you can put one in if you'd like or you can leave it out if you prefer all right let's move on to the next section the effective date you see where it says optional in our case we're going to leave this blank and what that means is that this LLC will become effective once the state approves the filing one reason why you may actually want to include a date here is let's say that you're completing this document in the month of December but you don't actually need the LLC to be doing business this month what we recommend doing is we recommend dating this document in January and actually sending it and then the reason being is if your LLC is approved in the month of December technically you're going to owe a tax return for that entire tax year so go ahead and leave this date blank and that means it'll just be kind of the default it'll be accepted and they'll have an effective date once it's approved by the state if you do want to date it however people often do ask if it needs to be the exact date that they send it in and no it does not if you need to you can forward or backward date this but I wouldn't do so more than a week in either direction let's move down to period of existence in our example we're going to leave this blank and what that means is that this LLC is in existence for perpetual period perpetual means that it's ongoing until the members of the LLC decide to close aka dissolve the LLC under purpose we're also going to leave this blank as this is optional and leaving a blank denotes the general purpose Ohio general purpose simply states that an LLC may be in existence for any and all lawful activity if you would like to include some information feel free to leave a brief description of the nature of your business all right let's move on we're going to go down to the original appointment of agent and remember I'm going to be using the words registered agent but in Ohio it's called statutory agent they're the same thing so at the top you're going to list the name of your LLC now I'm going to show you two examples in this first example here I myself am going to be the registered agent for this LLC which is a very common scenario so if this is the case you're simply just going to list your contact information here now your registered agent may also be someone that you know whether it be a family or a friend and if that's the case you're going to list their name and their address here then below this document whoever agrees to be the registered agent their name goes here for for the name of your LLC and once you print this document they're going to simply sign on this line so again this is either going to be you or someone you know and depending on who that is you'll simply just change the contact information right here and right here in this example John Doe for example purposes he is the registered agent for this LLC and he's also the owner of the LLC now let's look at another example if you need a commercial registered agent in the state we recommend Northwest register and if you decide to use those services there's actually a different document because of the signature box rather than you delay in time and having to send the document to them and have them sign it and send it back we already have one ready for you let's jump over to that document over here and again this is an example if you were to use Northwest registered agent as a registered agent for your LLC remember there are two forms of this document below this video one is a regular one whether it's you or someone you know as your registered agent another one is pre-populated with Northwest registered agents address and most importantly their signature now you'll notice that this document looks a little bit different than this one this one has three boxes and this one has two don't worry they're both completely acceptable so let's just review this page if we're going to be using Northwest registered agent so the address and their signature and the president and keen's information will be here all I've done is I've put the name of the LLC at the top once I've put it again here under the acceptance of appointment and that's all I need to do on this page so let's jump back to our example document here hopefully that made sense again there's two forms of this PDF one is for whether you or someone you know will be the registered agent the other is going to be if Northwest registered agent is the registered agent for the LLC because it's basically Ohio requires that the registered agent sign before you send in the documents so if you decide to go with another company you'll actually have to go ahead and contact them after you sign up and get the articles of organization that's pre-populated and signed by them then you'll go ahead and complete it and mail it off to the state hope that all made sense let's move down to the next section which is just simply the signature page now there's three areas here for three different signatures however only one person needs to sign and it's most likely going to be the person forming the LLC in this case I've put John Doe under printer name where it says by if applicable that's not going to be applicable in your situation that's a business is forming this LLC on behalf of somebody else so all you'll need to do is simply put your name here where it says print name then once you print this document out I'll go ahead and just sign where it says signature if you're forming this LLC and you have somebody else with you as well if you'd like to you can put their name and they can sign here but again it's not required only one person needs to sign this document and let's just take a look at our other document here you can see that this page is exactly the same again sign and print your name alright let's just do a quick review make sure at the top for the cover letter you list your name your address and contact information check the boxes for the email services that you'd like go ahead and request your service regular service from in most cases is going to be just fine with a three to seven day business turnaround time remember to check below this video for the most up-to-date mailing address filing fee amount and who to make your check or money order payable to check box one for profit LLC put the name of your LLC effective date and period of existence and purpose you can leave those all blank the only difference here would be if you were forming this in December and we recommend you go ahead and date this in January and send it and then under the original appointment of agent you put the name of your LLC at the top you're going to list your name or someone you know and their contact address has to be in the state of Ohio remember then down below is their acceptance of that appointment so you put their name your LLC name again and if it's you you sign here or if it's a friend or family member they sign there and then this page simply if you're using Northwest registered agent it'll be filled out with their address and their signature all you have to do is simply plug your LLC name at the top once and then underneath the acceptance of appointment you'll put it there and then simply sign here once you print this out and print your name there and you don't need anything on this line so hopefully this video is helpful for you everything makes sense again if you do a regular filing that's going to take three to seven business days to get back to your approval and then once you get back your approval you can then move on to the next step which is going to be your LLC operating agreement and that concludes this lesson