Incorporate in New York State

Law Won | Blog | September 28, 2010

Incorporating Quickly and Efficiently in New York

Need to hit the ground running on your new business in New York? Even though incorporating typically takes a week or two, there are a few tricks that the savvy business entrepreneur can use to speed up the incorporation process–perhaps to even a few hours.

Tip #1: Consider Do-it-yourself

Here’s an irony: You’ll very probably increase the time it takes to incorporate if you work through a third party. In other words, if rather than filling out and filing the paperwork yourself, you collaborate with an attorney or with a paralegal service (including one of the online incorporation services), you’ll probably only delay your incorporation.

This delay is due to two reasons. First, a third party takes extra time to schedule and process the document preparation. And second, working with a third party inherently increases the amount of paperwork necessary to form the corporation; there’s another person to pay, another contract to sign, more documents to read, etc.

In comparison, if you take a do-it-yourself approach, you cut out the extra paperwork and the extra processing time (including the waiting around for the attorney or paralegal service to start).

One final quick comment about the do-it-yourself technique as a time-saver: While you might think the New York incorporation paperwork too complicated to prepare on your own, the Secretary of State’s web site actually supplies free, very simple, pre-printed forms you can use. The forms let you take a “fill in the blanks” approach to preparing the documentation. And most people will find the forms very easy to work with.

The exact web address of the New York Secretary of State’s free pre-printed forms changes. But if you use a search engine like Google to search on the phrase, “New York secretary of state division of corporations,” the Secretary of State’s website pops up with its easy-to-find free forms.

Note: New York state typically takes about seven days (not including mailing time) to process a paper filing.

Tip #2: File Your Articles Online

While you can mail, fax or hand-deliver the articles of incorporation, you can typically use another optional technique to shave time off the filing process. New York allows you to file the articles of incorporation online. The online process collects the same information that the pre-printed paper form does–only using web pages. The current website address of the state’s online incorporation is www.nys-opal.com.

Note: You’ll need to make sure your browser supports JavaScript and allows for pop-up messages and dialog boxes.

Tip #3: Pay Extra for Expediting

One final option deserves mentioning. New York allows incorporators to pay extra for accelerated processing. The extra “expedited processing” fee depends on the degree of, well, expediting you want.

For just $25, your documents will be processed within 24 hours (provided that your request is made during normal office hours–between 8 am and 4 pm Monday through Friday).

For $75 your documents will be processed the same day if you make your request by noon, either in person or by fax.

Finally, you can also receive super-expedited, “two hour” processing for $150 as long as you make your request by 2:30pm on a business day.

---

Stephen L. Nelson is a Seattle CPA and a best-selling author who has sold millions of copies of books in more than a dozen languages. Nelson is the co-author of two do-it-yourself kits for New York entrepreneurs: Forming a Corporation in New York and Forming a New York LLC.

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

Permalink: http://www.submityourarticle.com/a.php?a=112784