Help Repeal NY State's Antiquated LLC Publication Requirement | Hacker News Reader

Help Repeal NY State's Antiquated LLC Publication Requirement

davidblerner.com

16 pointsdavidblerner8 comments

Those of us who have set-up LLC's in NY State know well of the antiquated 'publication requirement' the State still imposes on so many of its entrepreneurs. (In 2007 alone, 50,000 LLC's were formed in NY State!).

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A cheap hack in the meantime could be to form in a borough with lower publication fees (in Brooklyn, the two papers cost ~$350, versus Manhattan's ~$2K), submit your Certificate of Publication, and then 'move' to Manhattan, and submit your Certificate of Change.

Would that work?

thanks! perhaps you could also post this on the blog post.... have you actually tried this?

This is law in many states. I set up an LLC in Maricopa county in AZ and it was required to publish an ad in at least two local newspapers. I asked repeatedly about doing an online ad, but they said it was a law so too bad.

The problem in NY State is not the publication requirement per se, it is that you must publish in 2 newspapers for 6 consecutive weeks, and one of those 2 papers must be this one specific law journal that exists for the sole purpose of taking your $1,500.

The 6 weeks requirement is arbitrary and onerous - if the public was not sufficiently informed after 2 weeks or 4 weeks, is it going to be informed after 6 weeks? Likewise, the law journal requirement is arbitrary and onerous - the journal has no public readership whatsoever so it cannot claim to achieve the purpose of informing the public about your new LLC, nor can it justify the exorbitant advertising fee.

Over the years, there have been multiple lawsuits to repeal the requirement but nothing has changed. It's a money issue, as usual - the media lobby is strong and wants to hang on to these bogus fees. By the way, it takes exactly two minutes to find any LLC on the official NYS website, and it's free.

Just saw this: "While there once was a historic purpose to such legislation, 47 states (including the two states our community most directly competes with, California and Massachusetts) recognize that such a requirement is no longer in the public’s interest."

Is that actually true? The last person I know who formed an LLC in California had to publish an announcement of his "doing business as" name in the local paper.

not sure.... the more I hear, the less I believe it!

Hmm, some googling turns up that the state of California doesn't require any newspaper announcements for incorporating the LLC, but it delegates the "doing business as" registration to the counties, many of which do require an announcement. Can't seem to find any quick info on which do and which don't, though.

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