Arkansas Secretary of State Corporations Division

Corporations and LLC filings are handled by Arkansas Secretary of State, Corporations Division, Business Department, whose address is State Capitol, Room 012, Little Rock, AR 72201.

The Division processes filings for the foreign and domestic companies doing business in Arkansas; collects corporation franchise taxes; registers home inspectors and notaries public in the state; and records trade marks. Processing of incorporations is subject to availability of corporation name requested. Filings are not final until satisfactory completion of statutory requirements is verified by the staff in the Division office. A file-marked copy of a successful filing will be returned to the filer by mail.

All domestic for-profit companies are subject to the Corporate Franchise Tax requirements. Franchise Tax Report forms are mailed each year on or about February 1. Active companies in good standing which are required to pay franchise tax annually should receive forms for the filing of taxes for the year ended the previous December 31. Provisions of law require that an entity contact the staff in the Division office if the entity does not receive a tax reporting form by March 20. Taxes for the prior year must be paid by June 1, to avoid penalty and interest. Franchise Tax Report forms may be downloaded from the official Division website.

For matters not unique to Arkansas, but common to many states, see common concerns.

As in most states, the question is what to put in the articles and what to reserve for the bylaws (or for the operating agreement in the case of a limited liability company). While there is no hard and fast rule on this question, the fact that amendments to the articles must be filed with the Division (incurring additional costs) is an argument in favor of deferring as much as possible of the optional provisions for the bylaws (or the operating agreement), rather than putting those optional provisions in the articles. On the other hand, where there are multiple participants in the company, including those optional provisions in the articles can provide an added measure of security to the minority participants.