Massachusetts Corporation

Massachusetts corporation annual reports are due every March 15th or by the corporation fiscal due date with the IRS if it's different. The filing fee is $125.00 or $100.00 if filed electronically.

The Massachusetts Corporate net income tax rate is 9.5% with a minimum tax payment of $456.00. There is also a property tax of $2.60 for every $1,000.00 of assets your business owns that is located in the State.

The Massachusetts personal net income tax rate is 5.3% of regular income, distributions, dividends, and long-term capital gains. Short-term capital gains is taxed at 12%. Short-term capital gains is effective after holding the asset for more than 1 year per Massachusetts code 830 CMR 62.4.1.

The average Massachusetts sales tax rate is) 6.25%.

To form a Massachusetts Corporation, you file Massachusetts articles of incorporation. The Massachusetts articles of incorporation cost $275.00 minimum with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. These can be basic or complicated. We custom draft your Massachusetts articles of incorporation when you hire Northwest to form your Massachusetts business. The basic requirements are:

• The Massachusetts Corporation must have a corporate ending such as INC, Incorporated, Corporation or a different variety.
• The Massachusetts corporation name must be different than already registered Massachusetts corporations.
• The purpose of the Massachusetts Corporation.
• The number and value of shares the Massachusetts Corporation is authorized to issue.
• The preferences, limitations and relative rights of the class or series of shares.
• The restrictions, if any, imposed by the articles of organization upon the transfer of shares of any class or series of stock.
• Other lawful provisions.
• The effective date of organization of the corporation is the date the filing is received. If a later date is desired, you need to specify a future date, which may not be later than the 90th day after the articles are filed.
• The name and office address of the initial registered agent in Massachusetts.
• The name and address of the initial directors of the Massachusetts Corporation.
• The fiscal year end of the corporation.
• A brief description of the type of business.
• The street address of the principal office.
• The street address where the records of the corporation, required to be kept in the commonwealth, are located.
• The Massachusetts incorporator must sign and date the articles of organization.
• The address of the Massachusetts incorporator.
• Contact information.

Massachusetts requires original signatures on paper filings. The filing confirmation will be available online after filing, unless a rejection letter is sent to the contact address on the form.

1. You file the articles of organization for a Massachusetts Corporation with the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth.
2. You obtain a federal tax ID number with the IRS after you have confirmation from Massachusetts that the articles are completely filed.
3. You should be able to open a business banking account with these two items.
4. You register your Massachusetts business with the Massachusetts department of revenue if you're going to have employees or need to withhold sales tax.
5. You obtain a trade license if you actually need one. (Most businesses don't.)
6. You obtain a local City or County general license if you need one.
7. You obtain a local trade license if the City or County you're going to be working in requires it.
8. If you're going to have an office or shop you might need an approval from the City zoning for your type of business in that location.

NOW!! I always give out horrible advice at this point, and please don't take it as legal advice. It would be considered totally wrong and horrible legal advice. BUT… I always tell people, you could spend months worrying about getting your Massachusetts business off the ground and registering with every Massachusetts State agency you need to. At the end of the day, you need to pull the money in! That means, your idea, or your new service needs to get out there and get the sales, customers, or clients you need to get the money in the bank, and keep your business going. At the end of the day, Money in the bank trumps fines with some Massachusetts government agency that you overlooked paying some silly fee to. The government is always going to be broke and always looking for the next way to make us pay a fee or tax. We unfortunately see Massachusetts corporations every year that just shut down 6 to 7 months after they hired us to incorporate their Massachusetts Corporation for them, because they never got the idea off the ground. I always say, pull the money in first, deal with a Massachusetts State agency second. If you have to pay some late fees or fines, but you landed that first big client that gets your business off of the idea you have on that paper notebook, I say more power to you. Pay the late fee or fine with joy. You've done the REAL first step to starting your Massachusetts business. Get out there and pull the money in! If some Massachusetts State agency finds you're in some violation, they will send you a letter, and you can pay whatever they are asking for. It's a never-ending phone call or email I get hearing about all the effort someone's put into their website, into their letterhead, into their marketing, into their planning, and they haven't even figured out how they are realistically going to get and collect their first sale. Don't let over-planning stop your business from getting off the ground. Paying a Massachusetts incorporation service like us to do the initial paperwork is a great way to keep your brain moving on the important items like pulling in the money and getting it into your new business bank account.

We pay taxes in Massachusetts. We operate a corporation in Massachusetts. We're not an incorporation website. We're an incorporation and registered agent Massachusetts business. There's lots of websites out there that are just websites with generic domain names and smart programmers that can make them rank in Google.

Anyone could throw up a website, hire sales people to answer the phones with scripts, and pay a document filer $10.00 an hour to file the Massachusetts articles of organization with the State for you. If you've found this page by searching online, most the other sites you'll find don't operate in Massachusetts, don't pay taxes in Massachusetts, and generally speaking, don't have any idea what it's like in Massachusetts. The only people here helping you form a Massachusetts corporation are the owner, our in-house, non-practicing attorney, and our paralegal. This is all we do, and when you hire us and pay us $100.00 to form a Massachusetts Corporation, the owner pays Massachusetts tax at the end of the year off that $100.00, and the $125.00 Massachusetts registered agent corporation service fees.

When we form a Massachusetts Corporation, we'll be your Massachusetts corporation agent. That means our Massachusetts office is in Boston, Massachusetts, and we have a physical presence in Massachusetts, so we have to pay income tax off the money we derive from doing business in Massachusetts. It's called "Nexus." If you're shopping around for a Massachusetts incorporation service, we would challenge you to call one of our competitors and ask the person that answers the phone if they have nexus in Massachusetts. If they don't, or don't have any idea what that word even means, that would be kind of like hiring a real estate agent in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to sell your home in Springfield, Massachusetts. Just doesn't sound right does it? If they do have nexus in Massachusetts, then that's Great… At least you're then comparing us with another company that should know what they are doing, and you've ultimately done yourself a favor. While you're on the phone comparing apples to apples, you should ask the company what the name and address will be of the registered agent in Massachusetts, and how much the renewal bill will be. If they can't tell you the name, the town the office will be in, and if it's not their own name, it means you're ultimately signing up with someone you don't know.

We've seen other sites with packages that include Massachusetts Corporation agent service, or offer it free for 6 months or a year, or it's just built into a "Package." But you're paying a website, and they then list another company as your agent. Then you get a bill at the end of the 6 months or year from some random company you've never heard of for a lot of money. Our Massachusetts registered agent corporation service is $125.00 a year, has no hidden weird fees, and the first year is included in our service to incorporate your Massachusetts Corporation.

• 1 year of service from the time of hire.
• Annual report reminders.
• Annual report calendar in your online account to track your due dates.
• Online account for contact info, corporate documents, documents we receive on your behalf, annual report dates, calendar, and end of service dates.
• Any lawsuits or service of process are uploaded to your account immediately, in full, for your viewing. We can notify your attorney at the same time if you would like. We can notify up to 5 different people and your attorney of your lawsuit instantly.
• Added privacy and identity protection.
• All junk mail is shredded
• Same day complete scan of received documents. (Other registered agents forward items received locally to their National headquarters by mail, and then scan them. You get everything the same day with us.)
• No cancellation fees
• No forwarding fees
• We don't keep your credit card on file and automatically charge you for anything.

The requirements of a registered agent are being open during normal business hours for someone (A process server or Sheriff) to walk in and hand deliver a document or notification to you. Assigning someone, or a website you don't know to this role means that if you get a notification by mail or someone delivers a letter or a lawsuit to that person or business, its legal proof that you've been notified, regardless of if it actually gets to you. There are only 5 national registered agents, and there's thousands of Massachusetts incorporating websites, so the odds are that if you pay one of the thousands of Massachusetts incorporation websites, they've got a discounted referral fee plan to dump you on one of the national agents to collect a referral fee, and you'll be taking a big chance that the agent they list will get the documents they receive for you to the incorporation website, and then the incorporation website you hire will get it to you. Worse yet is if you're continually being billed from a national incorporation website you signed up with and they aren't the actual business or person that is listed as your registered agent. With us, you know who you're counting on from day one. As far as we know we are the only service that uploads complete documents instantly, from our local location to your account.

We will form a Massachusetts corporation for you right away. No weird Massachusetts corporation expedite packages. No weird tables with checkmarks showing what's included and what you're missing. Our sign up form is one page. After filling it out, our owner, our non-practicing attorney, or our paralegal will call you right away, go over everything with you, and we'll get your new Massachusetts Company formed right away. We'll be listed as your Massachusetts registered agent, not some random company you don't know. Most States have a change of agent fee, so not only could you be connected with a company you don't really know, it will cost you to get rid of them after you get a crazy renewal bill you weren't expecting. We make our living by keeping your business in compliance with Massachusetts, year after year. Not off weird misleading one time package fees and up-sells.

Shouldn't you trust a Massachusetts business that actually operates and pays taxes in Massachusetts instead of a website with a 500 filing backlog that you have to upgrade a package with to get some quick attention?

If you want to form a Massachusetts corporation yourself, you can just hire us as your Massachusetts registered agent, and you'll instantly have the Massachusetts forms to file and filing instructions on the quickest, cheapest, and most efficient way to incorporate a Massachusetts Corporation. We also will look over your filing for free if you would like us to. You'll get the ongoing support of our online tools, reminders and the support of a professional Massachusetts Corporation Agent service.