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Colorado Secretary of State's On-line Services
By: John Burrus, Esq.

During her two-year tenure as Colorado Secretary of State, Donetta Davidson has implemented a number of valuable on-line services to the public through its Business Division. The Secretary of State’s website may be found at www.sos.state.co.us/. From this main page, customers of the Secretary of State may do any of the following on-line:

Entity Searches and Forms.
 
Customers may search the Secretary of State’s business database for a particular business entity, entity tradename, and trademark. The search results provide the user with the entity’s registered agent, principal address, filing history and scanned copies of filed documents, including, for example, an entity’s articles of incorporation or organization, any amendments thereto, periodic statements, and changes in its principal address, registered agent, and registered agent’s address.

The Secretary of State also offers various forms on-line, in either PDF Adobe Acrobat® or a downloadable word-processing format, for the creation of entities in Colorado. For example, the forms available for corporations include, among others, Application for Reservation of Name, Articles of Incorporation, Articles of Amendment to Articles of Incorporation, Articles of Dissolution, and Application for Authority to Transact Business (for foreign corporations). Limited liability companies (LLC) may use the Application for Reservation of Name, Articles of Organization, and Articles of Amendment to Articles of Organization. There are also forms available for limited partnerships (LP), limited liability partnerships (LLP), and limited liability limited partnerships (LLLP). 

Good Standing Certificate.
 
An invaluable resource provided by the Secretary of State is the ability of an on-line user to search an entity’s current status with the Secretary of State and view and print a Certificate of Good Standing for such an entity without cost. This Certificate of Good Standing includes a validation number which, if typed into the website’s Certificate of Good Standing validation query window, will validate such Certificate by providing the user with a date and time matching that found on the Certificate itself. 

Periodic Reporting.
 
An entity may also file its periodic report on-line with the Secretary of State. Pursuant to the new law, C.R.S. § 7-90-501(4)(c), periodic reporting for certain entities is required annually as of January 1, 2002. Failure to timely file such reports may affect the entity’s standing with the state and the entity’s ability to conduct business and obtain loans. To accommodate this new law, the Secretary of State has dramatically reduced the fees for e-filing compared to paper filing to encourage e-filing. Fees may be paid by credit card or by establishing a pre-paid account with the Secretary of State using the form available on-line.

UCC Financing Statements: Search, Forms, and E-Filing.

With regard to liens against personal property filed with the Secretary of State, an on-line user may search, by entity name or tradename, for any Colorado Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and EFS (farm products) financing statements filed with the Secretary of State. UCC and EFS forms, including instructions for use, are also available on-line and many may be completed and filed on-line. As with the periodic reports, the fees for searching and filing such financing statements may be paid by credit card or pre-paid account.

Additional Services.

In addition to the above services, the Colorado Secretary of State will launch the following on-line services in 2002: (i) prepaid account establishment and replenishment; (ii) additional forms which may be completed and filed on-line; (iii) additional UCC search options; (iv) implementation of on-line credit card payment system for applications, searches, and filing. 

Contact John Burrus at jeb@bsblawyers.com

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