I filed my LLC renewal last night to the tune of $500.00 plus a $20.00 “expediting” fee for filing online. Since I know hiring someone to do paperwork costs more than entering the information myself, I wrote to the state to ask why there was an extra fee for doing something that presumably would save the state money. This is a question very often unanswered across industries. For example, in the banking system, why does it cost me so much to use an ATM vs. using a human teller? While multiple ATMs are serviced by a single technician, a teller requires space, light, health benefits, free mugs at HR events, etc.
So in this case, I was curious why if I’m entering my data myself into their system, why did it cost more?
Well, kudos to the state, they actually responded to my inquiry, and in a very expeditious manner at that (perhaps the 20 was a bribe). It turns out that I’m paying the bill for the servers the state already owns and maintains and bought with my tax dollars anyway. Perhaps it goes to electricity and godaddy.com domain registration fees.
So, feel free to surf on over to http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ and click away, the next 20 minute are on me.
Incidentally, and in light of a $520.00 filing fee, I’d like to remind you that you can purchase many lovely, and reasonably priced, glass items at http://munkinarts.etsy.com.
Asked:
I was just curious why it is that there's an extra fee for filing online vs. via mail. It would seem that filing electronically would actually lower the cost because of less processing involved on the state's end. Just curious. Tom
And answered (name witheld):
The expedited fee is a service charge that covers the cost of processingand maintaining online data that is made available to the public.