That "annual report" letter: how to tell a state notice from a paid solicitation

The short answer

If the letter's fine print contains any version of "this is a solicitation," "not a bill," "not a government agency" or "not affiliated with" the state, you are holding an advertisement. You are not obligated to pay it, and paying it does not by itself file anything with the state. The filing itself is done on your state's own website, for the state's own fee, and you can get to that website without using any address or QR code printed on the letter.

That does not mean every paid filing service is a scam. Registered agents and filing services are legitimate businesses, and some owners are glad to pay one. The problem the states are warning about is narrower: a paid offer dressed up to look like a government demand, often with the wrong deadline or for a document you do not need.

What four states have warned about in 2026

These are the Secretaries of State's own words and figures. We have not examined the mailers ourselves, and nothing here is a finding that any named sender broke a law — it is what the state offices told businesses.

Why the fine print says what it says

The disclaimers on these letters are not courtesy. In many cases a statute put them there, and knowing which statute tells you what the disclaimer does and does not mean.

The "not a bill" sentence is federal postal law. Under 39 U.S.C. § 3001(d), mail that "reasonably could be interpreted or construed as, a bill, invoice, or statement of account due" but is in fact a solicitation is nonmailable unless it carries, conspicuously, this notice (or one to the same effect the Postal Service prescribes):

"This is a solicitation for the order of goods or services, or both, and not a bill, invoice, or statement of account due. You are under no obligation to make any payments on account of this offer unless you accept this offer."

If you find that sentence, the sender has told you — in words the law chose — that nothing is owed.

The "not a government document" envelope line has a federal version with a gap. § 3001(h) requires a nongovernmental solicitation that could be construed as implying a Federal Government connection to carry "THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT" on the envelope and a not-approved-or-endorsed notice inside. As written, that subsection is keyed to federal connection. A letter styled to look like it comes from a state office is left mainly to state law.

What a state rule looks like: California. Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17533.6 extends the same idea to federal, state and local government lookalikes. A nongovernmental solicitation using content that could imply a government connection must, among other things:

• print "THIS PRODUCT OR SERVICE HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED OR ENDORSED BY ANY GOVERNMENTAL AGENCY, AND THIS OFFER IS NOT BEING MADE BY AN AGENCY OF THE GOVERNMENT." on the front and back of every page, and "THIS IS NOT A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT." on a mailed envelope;
• not use a title or name implying a government connection — the statute lists words including "agency," "board," "bureau," "commission," "department," "division," "state" and "county";
• not specify a payment date using terms like "due date," "remit by" or "pay now" unless the same sentence explains what is being provided and to what agency;
• not state or imply that paying the sender is mandatory or that penalties follow if you don't.

Violations are a misdemeanor, and a person harmed can recover three times the amount solicited. California's list is useful even outside California as a checklist of the design choices that make a paid offer look like a state demand: an official-sounding "division," a due date, a penalty warning. [Our reading: we are using the California statute as an illustration of what lawmakers treat as misleading, not asserting that any mailer described on this page is subject to or violates it.]

The five-check test

Run these in order; any one of the first three is usually enough to settle it.

1. Who is it from? A real notice names the state agency (usually the Secretary of State or Division of Corporations) and its official address. A company name — even one containing "Compliance," "Business Filings" or "Division" — is a company.
2. Read the smallest print on the page and the envelope. Look for "solicitation," "not a bill," "not a government agency," "not affiliated," "advertisement." Any of these ends the question.
3. Compare the fee with the state's fee. Look up the state's own fee on its official site or on our 50-state table (each row links to the state source). Several states charge $0 for an on-time LLC report; a letter asking $150–$250 for that report is not the state.
4. Ask whether you need the document at all. A certificate of good standing (Tennessee calls its version a certificate of existence) is something you order when a bank, landlord or another state asks for one — it is not a recurring filing, and nobody is required to buy one on a schedule. Our good-standing guide covers what each state calls it and what it costs from the state directly.
5. Check the date against the real one, on a site you typed yourself. Do not follow a web address or QR code printed on the letter. Type your Secretary of State's address, search your entity, and read its status and next due date from the record. If the state record shows you current, the letter's urgency was manufactured.

If you already paid one

1. Check whether anything was actually filed. Look your entity up on the state's site. If the service did file your report, you are current, just overcharged. If it did not, file directly now — the state's deadline did not move. If you are already past it, our missed-annual-report guide covers late fees, lost good standing and reinstatement.
2. Report it. Every state warning above asks for reports, to the Secretary of State and the state Attorney General's consumer-protection office. The contact details for Tennessee and Mississippi are in their sections above.
3. Ask about getting the money back. You can contact the company to cancel, and if you paid by card you can ask your card issuer about a dispute. [General information: whether a refund or chargeback succeeds depends on the facts and the issuer's rules; we are not able to predict an outcome.]

A note about us — we are a third party too

EntityMinder is not a government agency, is not affiliated with any Secretary of State, and does not file anything on your behalf. It is a deadline reference and reminder tool. That is exactly why every date and fee we publish links to the state's own page: the right way to use any third party, including this one, is to check it against the official record. The free deadline lookup and the 50-state table currently hold LLC records for all 50 states and D.C.; if your entity is a corporation, see where the two filings diverge before relying on an LLC date.