Multistate compliance made simple.

A multistate organization is any business or nonprofit with operation in more than one state. For instance, an organization involved in any of the below activities outside its state of formation could be considered multistate:

• Hiring employees
• Opening offices
• Purchasing/owning real property
• Applying for professional licenses
• Offering services
• Selling products
• Or, bidding on contracts, just to name a few

Additionally, certain activities automatically transcend state boundaries by their digital nature. Organizations involved in any of the following activities could also be considered multistate:

• Fundraising via “Donate” buttons
• Selling products via e-commerce marketplace facilitators like Amazon, Etsy, Walmart.co, eBay, etc.

Three major macroeconomic trends are causing organizations to assess compliance in a comprehensive manner more frequently than ever before:

1. Consolidation - Mergers and acquisitions cause more organizations to review their compliance every day in preparation for acquiring or being acquired by other organizations. (Only organizations in good standing can do either.)
2. Remote Work - More employees working in different states means more businesses registering to operate in more states.
3. Sales Tax Exposure - The Supreme Court decision South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. means sellers no longer need a physical presence in a state to be required to collect sales tax. That’s exposed many sellers to sales tax registration requirements in states where they’ve never registered before.

The interconnectedness of the requirements combined with these trends make it so that virtually every business and nonprofit out there is a multistate organization. The Harbor Compliance brand position is that of being the multistate compliance provider of choice.

From a compliance perspective, every business must do four things:

1. Register its legal entity (LLC, corporation, etc.) in all states in which it does business and maintain those registrations, generally by appointing a registered agent and filing annual reports
2. Apply for and maintain general business and professional licenses
3. Register for and remit the proper taxes to the jurisdictions in which it operates

The requirements are interdependent meaning the need for one drives demand for the others. For example, registering for taxes may trigger the need to register the entity which may trigger the need to apply for new licenses.

Whether you want to enhance your in-house compliance programs with purpose-built tools or wish to outsource the process, Harbor Compliance is the ideal partner to help you meet the challenge. We offer three ways to partner:

1. Managed Services - Reduce your regulatory workload and gain peace of mind. Our team of experts manages the entity registration, licensing, and tax registration process—from preparing applications to tracking renewals.
2. Software-as-a-Service - Our Software Suite – Entity Manager, Records Manager, License Manager, Tax Manager, and Requirements Research Engine – is designed to make your in-house compliance staff superhuman. It moves their work out of spreadsheets and disjointed systems into a purpose-built system that centralizes all aspects of your organization’s compliance in a simple, intuitive interface for improve visibility, more efficiency, and higher quality decision making.
3. Hybrid - Get the best of both worlds by outsourcing filings you don’t want to manage to us and utilizing the Software Suite to manage the rest.

Regardless of engagement format, clients who’ve met the minimum investment criteria enjoy direct access to a dedicated account team of compliance specialists who understand the unique regulatory challenges they’re facing.

Whether you have an in-house accounting/legal team or you’ve retained outside counsel/CPA services, our unlimited user model allows you to add them all to your account for visibility and easy collaboration.

As a service company, we don’t provide tax, financial, or legal advice which means we’re able to partner very effectively with both accounting and legal professionals without creating wasteful overlap.

In fact, that’s why we created our partnership program, the Harbor Compliance Alliance (HCA). We invite accounting and legal professioncals to learn more about how we help firms broaden their service offerings, improve client retention, and even turn compliance into a revenue center.

Harbor Compliance offers services in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Registered agent services are also available in select Canadian provinces

Your first step towards comprehensive compliance is to request your FREE Harbor Compliance Score^™. The score assesses your organization’s entity, licensing, and tax registration status nationwide and provides recommendations for improvement. Submit a few details about your organization, and we’ll return your score in 1-2 business days.