Pennsylvania DSCB:15-412, item by item

Before item 1 the form takes a name and mailing address for the return of the filed document. Add an email address and the Department sends a link to download the copy instead. Whatever you enter there joins the filed record and is public.

Item 2 repeats the company's name just as the home state spells it, commas, periods and designator included. It must be a name outside Pennsylvania's own jurisdiction. Item 2A is filled in only when that name will not do in Pennsylvania, either because another name on the Department's records is too close to it or because it lacks a designator the law needs. An LLC's name needs the term company, limited or limited liability company, an abbreviation of one of those terms, or words of like import used in the home state, and it may not read as a business corporation.

Item 4 is the street and mailing address of the principal office, which need not be in the home state. Item 4A is the address of any office the home state makes the company keep there, for example a registered office in the formation state; it is required only if the home state imposes such a rule. When that office is held through a provider, give the provider's number and street.

Item 6 asks whether the association may have one or more series. The answer comes from the formation state's law. A company with series registers once, as one entity; the series do not register separately. A series that does business under a name of its own needs a fictitious name registration on DSCB:54-311.

Only LLCs answer item 8. The first box says the company is not organized to render a professional service. The second says it is a restricted professional company, and then at least one service must be ticked from: chiropractic, dentistry, law, medicine and surgery, optometry, osteopathic medicine and surgery, podiatric medicine, public accounting, psychology and veterinary medicine. A restricted professional company owes an annual registration each April, separate from the annual report.

The fee is $250, paid by a check or money order payable to the Pennsylvania Department of State. The check is signed, pre-printed with the holder's name and address, and no more than six months old. A paper filing goes to P.O. Box 8722, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8722; the form also says it can be submitted online at corporations.pa.gov. Veteran-owned and reservist-owned small businesses tick the box for the fee exemption and attach proof.

The instructions flag these problems: an address that is only a post office box, a name with no designator or one too close to a name already on file, a check that is not pre-printed or has gone stale, a retroactive effective date, a missing signature or a missing docketing statement. Fees are nonrefundable even then, so each of these costs the fee again.