A Jackson business owner is urging fellow LLC owners to read mailed filing notices carefully after nearly paying $175 for a service he says he did not need.
“It looked legitimate, and I almost paid it, but I recalled completing this filing online months ago for $78,” the reader told TLS.
The mailing is headed “2026 Annual Registration Instruction Form” and “FINAL NOTICE,” with a New Jersey outline and a request to respond by November 20. But the fine print identifies Next Step Filings as a commercial filing service, not a government agency, and says owners can file directly with the state for $75.
New Jersey’s Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services lists the annual-report filing fee for an LLC as $75. The state also cautions that private filing solicitations can appear official, and says it does not authorize mailed solicitations for private business service providers.
The $175 mailing is an offer from a private service, not a state bill.
LLC owners should check their filing status through New Jersey’s official business website before paying a mailed solicitation. The annual report remains a real state requirement, generally due on the last day of the business’s formation anniversary month, not on a single statewide deadline for every business.
