BE WARY OF EMAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPANY’S FLORIDA ANNUAL REPORT

Because you have a business in Florida, you probably have been getting dozens of emails each day about filing your company’s Annual Report for 2026. These emails are solicitations from private companies. They are not official notifications from the government.

Why am I getting these emails? Every January, private companies start sending advertisements to small businesses about the Florida Annual Report filing requirement. While these emails sometimes look like they are from the government, if you look closely, you will see that the sender is a company with a name like “Florida Filing Services,” “File Florida Co.,” or “Florida Business Renewal Center.” These entities are not affiliated with the State of Florida.

Here are just a few of the email addresses FUBA has gotten annual report solicitations from so far this year:

renew@myfloridacorporatefiling.com
fl@e.myfilingservices.com
info@myfilefloridaco.com
notices@sp.e-filemycorp.com
alerts@floridarenewalcenter.com
alerts@flbusinessrenewal.com

Is the requirement to file an Annual Report real? Yes. Florida law requires all corporations and LLCs to file an Annual Report each year by May 1st with the State Division of Corporations. While the filing requirement is real, these emails are merely solicitations.

Before clicking on the links in these emails, understand that these companies will charge you a lot of money to file your Annual Report. If you pay one of these companies to file your Annual Report, it will be more expensive than filing yourself.

Can I file my company’s Annual Report myself? Yes! It’s not hard; you don’t need to be a lawyer or an expert. The Annual Report is just a way for you to verify that the basic information the state has on file for your company (name, address, officers, etc.) is correct.

Will the State of Florida send me a reminder to file my Annual Report? Yes. It will be an email from the Florida Division of Corporations, sent from the email address noreply@sunbiz-notify.dos.fl.gov. This is the only legitimate email you can trust about your Annual Report.

The email will have your company’s name and record number (you’ll need this number to file) and a green box that says File 2026 Annual Report. You can safely click on the link in this email to file your 2026 Annual Report.

But you don’t need to wait for this reminder email. The state’s official filing portal called Sunbiz is open now at: https://dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/. You can file your company’s Annual Report yourself here. All you have to do is verify the information the state has on file for your company and pay the filing fee, which is $150 for corporations and for $138.75 for LLCs.

What is the filing deadline? May 1st. We’re not sure if filing now will stop these solicitation emails, but at least it will give you peace of mind knowing that you can safely delete them.

Can FUBA help me determine if an email is from the State? Yes. FUBA members with questions can call our offices at 800-262-4483 or email fuba@fuba.org. We’ve been filing Annual Reports in Florida for over thirty years and can help you make sense of it. This service is free of charge for FUBA members!

DO EMPLOYEES HAVE TO BE PAID WHEN A BUSINESS IS CLOSED DUE TO WEATHER?

The short answer is maybe: some employees do have to be paid, and some do not – it depends on the employee’s status.

Hourly employees who are paid only for the hours they work do not need to be paid when the business is closed.

Some salaried employees do not have to be paid, but some salaried employees do have to be paid even if the business is closed. It depends on whether or not the employee is eligible for overtime pay. 

It is a common misconception that salaried employees do not have to be paid overtime, but only salaried employees meeting specific criteria are exempt from overtime.

To be exempt from overtime pay, a salaried employee (a) must be paid at least $684 per week and (b) must have specific management-level job duties.

The trade-off is that salaried employees exempt from overtime must be paid for a full week if they work any part of that workweek. For example, if your business is normally open five days a week but was closed for four days due to weather and only open one day, an exempt employee who works that one day must be paid for the full week.

Salaried exempt employees do not have to be paid if the business is closed the entire workweek and no work is performed for the entire week.

When a business is closed for bad weather, employers can generally require both exempt and nonexempt employees to use their employer-paid leave/PTO (if offered).

If a nonexempt employee has exhausted his or her PTO, absences or early departures due to the employer’s business closures generally do not have to be paid.

If an exempt employee has exhausted his or her PTO, an employer must still provide exempt employees guaranteed salaries for closures of less than a full workweek in these situations.

FLORIDA LEGISLATURE MAY REQUIRE ALL EMPLOYERS TO USE E-VERIFY

Currently, Florida employers with 25 or more employees are required to use the federal E-Verify system to verify that new employees are eligible to work in the United States. Employers must certify their compliance with this requirement each year on their Florida reemployment tax return (RT-6) that is due in April.

Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee are currently debating expanding the requirement to use E-Verify to all private employers in Florida starting July 1, 2026. Employers who hire new employees without using E-Verify could be fined up to $1,000 per day until they comply.

FUBA will keep our members updated on the progress of this proposal in future editions of this newsletter.