Pennsylvania Annual Report Scam Texts: Is That $250 Penalty Real?
Picture a shop owner who unlocks her phone and sees a text that names her company: the Pennsylvania Annual Report is due, and she should file now to avoid a $250 state penalty. The message includes a link that looks close enough to a government page that she might almost tap it.
That illustration follows the pattern in the Department of State's warning. The Department said these texts are being sent about companies that have already filed the 2026 report, including companies that paid the official $7 fee on the Department's own website.
This article is for owners, officers, and counsel at Pennsylvania filing associations that have received a message like that, or that may receive one as the year's deadlines approach.
Is the $250 Pennsylvania annual report penalty real?
Short answer: No. On November 5, 2026, the Pennsylvania Department of State warned that texts telling business owners to "Avoid the $250 state penalty" and sending them to go.mypafilings.com are a scam. There is no $250 state penalty for missing an annual report. The official filing fee is $7 for most for-profit entities and $0 for nonprofit corporations and for limited partnerships or limited liability companies with a not-for-profit purpose. Once a transition period ends, the statutory consequence for not filing is administrative dissolution, cancellation, or termination of a foreign registration.
What the Texts Look Like
The Department's November 5 alert quotes the text that owners have been receiving: "[Company name]'s Pennsylvania Annual Report is due. Avoid the $250 state penalty, file now:" followed by a link on go.mypafilings.com. The Department identified the operation with PennsylvaniaFiling and related addresses at pafiling.com and go.mypafilings.com.
According to the Department, the link opens a page that already displays publicly available company information and warns, in substance, that the filings are overdue and that the owner should file now to avoid penalties. The page then walks the user through annual report information and asks for $149 for "Annual Compliance" or a one-time fee of $199.
The messages have been sent about companies that already filed the 2026 Annual Report. The Department noted that the $149 or $199 charge is more than 21 to 28 times the official $7 filing fee, and it stated that the texts and the PennsylvaniaFiling website are a scam.
This is not the first look-alike solicitation the Department has flagged this year. An October 9, 2026 alert described emails from pa@e.myfilingservices.com, appearing as "PA Filing Services," that claimed a 2025 annual report was more than a year overdue and steered recipients to a private site "starting at $149 + state fees." Legitimate Department reminders, the alert said, come from no_reply@pa.gov. An August 27, 2026 alert described a private site that advertised a "$35.00 state late fee." The Department said there is no state late fee for filing after the deadline.
The Department does not treat every private company that files an annual report for a client as illegitimate. It notes that law firms and legitimate service companies may submit reports on behalf of clients. What the Department objected to in these alerts is a claimed penalty that Pennsylvania does not impose, collected at many times the official fee.
What Pennsylvania's Annual Report Actually Requires
Act 122 of 2022 added 15 Pa.C.S. § 146 to the Associations Code and replaced the old decennial report for most filing associations. The Department's annual report page states that the new filing begins in calendar year 2025.
Under section 146(a), a domestic filing entity, a domestic limited liability partnership, a domestic electing partnership that is not a limited partnership, or a registered foreign association must deliver an annual report that states:
its name and jurisdiction of formation;
the address of its registered office in Pennsylvania, if any;
the name of at least one governor;
the names and titles of its principal officers, if any;
the address of its principal office; and
the entity number issued by the Department.
"Governor" is the Associations Code's word for the person who manages the entity, such as a director of a corporation, a manager or managing member of an LLC, or a general partner of a limited partnership. The Department's FAQ states that no financial information is required. The report also does not ask for Social Security numbers or bank account information.
The first report is not due in the calendar year the entity is formed or first registers in Pennsylvania. Section 146(c) requires a report "each year, beginning with the calendar year after which an entity or association first becomes subject to this section."
Deadlines depend on the type of association. The statute measures them as "before July 1" for corporations, "before October 1" for limited liability companies, and "on or before December 31" for other forms. The Department describes the same rules as filing windows:
Corporations (business and nonprofit, domestic and foreign): January 1 through June 30.
Limited liability companies (domestic and foreign): January 1 through September 30.
Other filing associations, including limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, business trusts, and professional associations (domestic and foreign): January 1 through December 31.
The fee is set in 15 Pa.C.S. § 153(a)(18): $0 when the report is delivered by a nonprofit corporation or by a limited partnership or limited liability company with a not-for-profit purpose, and $7 for other annual reports, whether filed electronically or on paper, matching the Department's published fee. Section 146(f) also provides that the Department may not charge a fee to file a same-year change to information already reported.
Once a report for the year has been filed, an update during that same calendar year is made on the Annual Report Update (Change in Information) form, which has no fee.
The Department must send notice of the filing requirement at least two months before the report is due, usually a postcard to the registered office. A commercial registered office provider receives a list rather than a postcard. Associations can also add email addresses for courtesy notices. Failure to send or receive notice does not excuse the filing. Section 146(g).
Two related filings are easy to mix up with this one.
The Certificate of Annual Registration that limited liability partnerships, limited liability limited partnerships, and restricted professional companies file by April 15 is a separate requirement. The Department states that the section 146 annual report does not replace it.
The corporate net income tax "annual report" under 72 P.S. § 7403 is a tax return filed with the Department of Revenue, on a different form and a different calendar. It is not the Department of State association report and is not filed at file.dos.pa.gov. A text about a $250 "state penalty" for the association report is not a notice about corporate net income tax.
How to Verify a Notice and File the Real Report
The official filing site is file.dos.pa.gov. Type that address yourself. Do not reach it by tapping a link in a text, an email, or a QR code on a letter.
The Department recommends filing online. After you log in and search for the company, you can open the Annual Report without a PIN, confirm or update the information already on file, and pay the $7 fee (or $0, if no fee applies). Online reports are approved automatically and are available within minutes. The Department says the process typically takes five to ten minutes.
A few checks separate an official reminder from a look-alike:
The web address is file.dos.pa.gov or another pa.gov page, not a look-alike such as go.mypafilings.com, pafiling.com, secure.filingservices.com, or busfile.org.
The fee the state itself charges is $7, or $0 for a nonprofit or a not-for-profit LP or LLC, not $149, $175, or $199.
There is no "$250 state penalty" and no "$35 state late fee" for this filing.
Official email reminders from the Department of State come from no_reply@pa.gov, not from an address such as pa@e.myfilingservices.com.
You can confirm the company's status, and whether it is marked compliant for the current year, by searching at file.dos.pa.gov/search/business.
If the company already filed this year's report, you do not need to pay anyone to file it again. If something on the record has changed, use the Annual Report Update on the Department's site. If the company has not filed and the deadline has not passed, file there directly. After a calendar year ends, the Department has said, that year's report can no longer be filed; filers file the current year's report during that same calendar year. An email that offers, in a later year, to "catch up" a prior year's missed report is describing a filing the Department will not accept.
What Happens If You Do Not File
The Associations Code does not impose a $250 civil penalty for a missed annual report. That figure does not appear as an annual-report fee or late penalty in section 146, in the annual-report and reinstatement lines of the fee schedule in section 153, or in the administrative dissolution provisions discussed below. The Department's November 5 alert states the point directly: "There is no '$250 state penalty.' The penalty for failure to file the Annual Report is administrative dissolution by the Department."
15 Pa.C.S. § 381 allows the Department to start a proceeding to administratively dissolve a domestic filing entity, or to cancel the registration of a domestic limited liability partnership or the election of an electing partnership, if the entity does not deliver an annual report within six months after the report is due. That authority applies "with respect to annual reports due on or after January 4, 2027." 15 Pa.C.S. § 419(e), as amended by Act 20 of 2024, uses the same January 4, 2027 date for terminating the registration of a foreign association that misses its report by six months.
The 2025 and 2026 report years fall in the transition period that Act 122 required the Department to provide. Beginning with reports due in 2027, a missed report can lead to administrative action six months after the due date, and the Department may then commence a proceeding under the notice procedure in section 382.
If the Department does start that process, section 382 requires it to send notice of its determination to the registered office and to the principal office shown on the most recently filed annual report. The entity then has 60 days to deliver the missing report or show that it was already delivered. Only after that window does the Department file a statement of administrative dissolution or cancellation.
A domestic filing entity that has been administratively dissolved continues to exist, but it may not carry on activities except as needed to wind up or to apply for reinstatement, and it is not "currently subsisting" for purposes of a subsistence certificate. Its name becomes available to other associations. A domestic limited liability partnership whose registration is cancelled continues as a general partnership and loses its limited liability status. A foreign association whose registration is terminated ceases to be registered to do business in Pennsylvania.
A domestic entity dissolved or cancelled in that process may apply for reinstatement under 15 Pa.C.S. § 383. The statute does not put a time limit on the application. The filing must include either a showing that the grounds never existed, or the most recent missing annual report plus the section 153 fees. The reinstatement application is $35 online or $40 on paper, plus $15 for each missing annual report. Reinstatement generally relates back to the date of administrative dissolution, except as to a name another association has since taken and the rights of a person who relied on the dissolution.
The Department's guidance is that a foreign registration terminated for failure to file an annual report cannot be cured by reinstatement. The association files a new Foreign Registration Statement and receives a new entity number. If another association has taken the name in the meantime, the foreign association must choose a new name to reregister.
If You Already Paid
If you paid the $149 or $199 charge, or any similar fee collected through one of these sites, take these steps promptly.
Contact your bank or card issuer and ask to dispute the charge. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection has reminded consumers that, under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, a written dispute generally must reach the card issuer within 60 days after the first bill that showed the charge was sent. A complaint to the merchant, or to a government agency, does not by itself preserve that billing-error right.
Report the text, email, or website to the Department of State at ra-corps@pa.gov or (717) 787-1057. The Department collects current examples on its scam alerts page.
File a complaint with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection. The Bureau accepts complaints online and by mail, and its consumer protection line is 1-800-441-2555.
Report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Then check the company's record at file.dos.pa.gov. Do not assume the third party filed anything, or filed it correctly, just because you paid. If this year's report is still due, file it yourself on the Department's site. If the report is already on file, you do not need to pay again. If you created an account or entered card details on the third-party site, watch the card and any reused passwords.
What Legal Claims May Be Available
A made-up government penalty and a look-alike website that charges many times the official fee raise questions under consumer-protection and fraud law. The available theories depend on who paid and what the recipient was told.
Pennsylvania's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law makes it unlawful to engage in "any other fraudulent or deceptive conduct which creates a likelihood of confusion or of misunderstanding." Section 2(4)(xxi) of the Law (Act of Dec. 17, 1968, P.L. 1224, No. 387). The Attorney General or a district attorney may sue in the public interest and seek an injunction (Section 4) and, for willful violations, recover a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation, or up to $3,000 per violation when the victim is 60 or older (Section 8(b)). That public-enforcement authority does not depend on whether the person who paid bought the service for household use.
The Law's private right of action is narrower. Section 9.2 allows "any person who purchases or leases goods or services primarily for personal, family or household purposes" and suffers an ascertainable loss to sue for actual damages or $100, whichever is greater, and authorizes treble damages and attorney's fees in the court's discretion. The Superior Court has repeated that statutory limit when describing who may bring a private claim. Zajick v. Cutler Grp., Inc., 169 A.3d 677, 680 (Pa. Super. 2017). Whether a purchase qualifies depends on the "purpose of the purchase, not the type of product purchased." Valley Forge Towers S. Condo. v. Ron-Ike Foam Insulators, Inc., 393 Pa. Super. 339, 574 A.2d 641, 648 (Pa. Super. 1990), aff'd per curiam, 529 Pa. 512, 605 A.2d 798 (Pa. 1992). A payment made to keep a company in good standing with the Department of State is usually a business expense, not a purchase for personal, family, or household use. A business that paid one of these third-party filing charges should not assume it has the same private claim that a consumer would have after a household purchase.
A private plaintiff also has to show that he "justifiably relied on the defendant's wrongful conduct or representation and that he suffered harm as a result of that reliance." Yocca v. Pittsburgh Steelers Sports, Inc., 578 Pa. 479, 854 A.2d 425, 438 (Pa. 2004) (citing Weinberg v. Sun Co., 565 Pa. 612, 777 A.2d 442, 446 (Pa. 2001)).
Common-law claims may still be available, including fraud, depending on the representations and whether the payer relied on them. A common-law fraud claim is not limited, as Section 9.2 is, to purchases made primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. Those questions have to be evaluated against the particular text, web page, and payment, which is not something a general article can do.
Reporting the incident remains useful even when a private lawsuit over a $149 or $199 charge is not practical.
The Practical Takeaway
Pennsylvania does require most corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, and registered foreign associations to file a yearly report with the Department of State. The report is a short information filing, with no financial statements, and the state's fee is $7 or nothing. A text that adds a $250 "state penalty" and a triple-digit processing charge is not how the Department collects that report.
If a message names your company, that is not proof it came from Harrisburg. Formation and annual-report information is public, so anyone can put a company name in a text. Type file.dos.pa.gov yourself and compare any demanded fee with the amount the Department publishes.
For companies without a full-time in-house legal department, an experienced Fractional General Counsel/Outside General Counsel can help review entity filings and suspicious notices, and can coordinate a compliance review if a third party has already been paid or has been given account information. To discuss your company's situation, you can contact Todd.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a $250 penalty for missing a Pennsylvania annual report?
No. The Department of State has said there is no "$250 state penalty." The Associations Code does not impose that fine. Beginning with reports due on or after January 4, 2027, the Department may start an administrative dissolution, cancellation, or foreign-registration termination proceeding if a report is not delivered within six months after it is due.
How much does the official Pennsylvania annual report cost?
$7 for most for-profit corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships, and $0 for nonprofit corporations and for LPs or LLCs with a not-for-profit purpose. A same-year update to a report already on file has no fee.
When is the annual report due?
Corporations (business and nonprofit, domestic and foreign) must file before July 1, which the Department describes as January 1 through June 30. Limited liability companies must file before October 1 (January 1 through September 30). Other filing associations must file on or before December 31. A newly formed or newly registered association files beginning the following calendar year.
Where should I file?
File online at file.dos.pa.gov. Type the address yourself. Do not use a link from a text, email, or mailed flyer.
What if I already filed and still got a text?
That has happened to companies that are already compliant for 2026. The Department's November 5 alert specifically notes that these messages are being sent about companies that have already filed. Check the company's record on the Department's site. If the report is on file, you do not need to pay anyone to file it again.
What should I do if I already paid a third party?
Dispute the charge with your bank or card issuer, report the incident to the Department of State, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection, and the FTC, and then confirm on file.dos.pa.gov whether the current year's report is actually on file. If it is not, file it there.
About Todd B. Nurick
Todd B. Nurick is a business attorney based in Plymouth Meeting (Montgomery County), Pennsylvania, admitted in Pennsylvania since 1996 and New York since 2010, with nearly 30 years of experience advising businesses on contracts, transactions, corporate governance, investigations, compliance, technology, employment-related business issues, and risk management. He is a retired and decorated Army officer. Through the Law Office of Todd B. Nurick, he serves businesses as Fractional and Outside General Counsel, providing experienced legal oversight without requiring a full-time in-house legal department. Law Office of Todd B. Nurick is a fictitious name (DBA) of Nurick Law Group, LLC. Learn more at ToddNurickLaw.com and ToddNurick.com.
Sources
Pennsylvania Department of State, "Business and Charities Scams," including the November 5, 2026 PennsylvaniaFiling alert and the related October 9 and August 27, 2026 alerts. Department of State source
Pennsylvania Department of State, "Annual Reports in Pennsylvania" (requirements, fees, deadlines, and 2027 dissolution timing). Department of State source
Pennsylvania Department of State, Business Filing Services. Official filing site
Pennsylvania General Assembly, 15 Pa.C.S. § 146 (Annual report), added by Act of Nov. 3, 2022, P.L. 1791, No. 122. Pennsylvania General Assembly source
Pennsylvania General Assembly, 15 Pa.C.S. § 153(a)(18)-(19) (Fee schedule: annual report and reinstatement). Pennsylvania General Assembly source
Pennsylvania General Assembly, 15 Pa.C.S. § 381 (Grounds for administrative dissolution or cancellation), including the transitional rule for reports due on or after January 4, 2027. Pennsylvania General Assembly source
Pennsylvania General Assembly, 15 Pa.C.S. § 382 (Procedure and effect). Pennsylvania General Assembly source
Pennsylvania General Assembly, 15 Pa.C.S. § 383 (Reinstatement). Pennsylvania General Assembly source
Pennsylvania General Assembly, 15 Pa.C.S. § 419 (Termination of registration), including subsection (e) as amended by the Act of June 10, 2024, P.L. 381, No. 20. Pennsylvania General Assembly source
Pennsylvania General Assembly, Act of Nov. 3, 2022, P.L. 1791, No. 122 (amending Titles 15 and 54, including the annual report requirement). Act 122 of 2022
Pennsylvania General Assembly, Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, Act of Dec. 17, 1968, P.L. 1224, No. 387, as amended, Sections 2(4)(xxi), 4, 8, and 9.2. Pennsylvania General Assembly source
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Bureau of Consumer Protection, consumer complaint form. Attorney General source
Federal Trade Commission, ReportFraud. FTC source
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Annual-report filings, scam reports, payment disputes, and any claims arising from a deceptive solicitation are highly fact-specific, and businesses should obtain legal advice concerning their particular circumstances.
