Congratulations, March licensees!

Congratulations to the following Licenses, Etc. clients who were approved in March:

• Anthony Onesti at US Electrical Construction Co, Inc. DBA US Construction Group of Woodstown, NJ
• Armando Quintero at Intellisite, Inc. of St. Pete Beach, FL
• Maynard Grover at Elektro Systems, LLC of Ocala, FL
• Clifford Byrd at Specialty Building Services, Inc. of Naples, FL
• Trevor Kutz at Progressive Power Group, Inc. of Rossmoor, CA
• Ryan Hughes at Ryan Hughes Design, Inc. of Palm Harbor, FL
• William Martell, III at Martell & Slattery Construction, LLC of Sarasota, FL
• David Jones at Jones Air Conditioning & Electric, Inc. DBA R-Value Insulation Contractors of Naples, FL
• Greg Walls at Fallsafe Solutions, LLC DBA Fallsafe Walls & Ceilings of Ft. Myers, FL
• Mary Ceavers at Lefta Construction, LLC of Miami , FL
• Louis LaMarca at LaMarca Construction Managment, Inc. of Pittsburgh, PA

Any questions? Call Lisa at 239.777.8321 for more information.

Alert! BOGUS Certificate of Status Request Form

If you recently set up a new business on the Department of State, Division of Corporations website (sunbiz.org), you may be sent a 2013 Certificate of Status Request Form. Please be aware that this is NOT required to complete any registration process with the state.

These notices are NOT from the Dept. of State, Division of Corporations. The request asks you to make checks payable to Florida Center of Corporations for a fee of $54.47. Do NOT confuse these notices with the messages sent by the Division of Corporations. If you receive this letter--toss it out. This is NOT an official government document, it is a SCAM.

They cleverly are stating that “You have one step left to receive your Florida certified certificate of status.” It appears to the untrained eye that this means there is one step left to be active with the state of Florida. If you are in need of a Certificate of Status for any reason, they can be obtained directly from the Dept. of State, Division of Corporations for only $5 for an LLC and $8.75 for a Corporation.

This should also in no way be confused with your annual report. You DO need to file an annual report with the Department of State, Division of Corporations (AKA Sunbiz), but these are two separate issues. Annual Reports can be filed online directly at www.Sunbiz.org or you can call us for help with the filing. THESE MUST BE SUBMITTED BY MAY 1^ST TO AVOID A $400 LATE FEE.

As always, the team at Licenses, Etc. is here to help you in any way that we can. If you have any questions or need assistance, give us a call. We can help make sure that you don’t get scammed.

Don’t Forget: The Tax Man Cometh a Month Earlier for Businesses

Just a quick reminder from Hill, Barth and King, LLC that the deadline for corporate income tax returns (Forms 1120, 1120A, and 1120S) or to request an automatic six-month extension (Form 7004) is March 15, 2013.

What does all this mean?

Put simply, if your business is a corporation --whether a regular C corporation or an S corporation—you need to have all of your IRS forms filed no later than the last available postmark timestamp on Friday, March 15^th or at the least, you must have completed and submitted the appropriate paperwork to file for an extension.  The good news on the latter is that it’s a simple document and requires little more than your request and your signature.

Just as a quick refresher: C-corporations contain all the typical company characteristics such as possessing “legal persons” status and offering shareholders limited legal liabilities.  They are taxed on their income before distributing their earnings to their shareholders. S-corporations are a in a separate classification because they are not taxed on their income and shareholders shoulder the company’s legal status and protections evenly.

If you have any questions about business or personal income tax, feel free to contact Kevin J. Deardorff, CPA, MBA of Hill, Barth & King LLC’s Naples office by calling (239) 263-2111 or e-mailing him at kdeardorff@hbkcpa.com.

By Kevin Deardorff

Hill, Barth and King LLC® ranks as the 83^rd largest public accounting firm in the nation.  HBK LLC® employs nearly 300 professional and support staff members who serve clients in 12 offices located throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

To learn more about Hill, Barth and King LLC® visit www.hbkcpa.com.     

Congratulations, February licensees!

Congratulations to the following Licenses, Etc. clients who were approved in February:

• Adam Johnson at Air Jam Cooling & Heating, LLC at Port of St Lucie, FL
• Thomas DiTommaso at BBT Construction, Inc. of North Miami Beach, FL
• Arnulf Albrecht at Arnulf Albrecht General Contracting, Inc. DBA Pelican Bay Remodeling of Naples, FL
• David Arent  at Build, LLC of Naples, FL
• James D. Martin at HLM Environmental Remediation, Inc. of Rockledge, FL
• Todd Woodall at Todd Woodall Enterprises, LLC of Vero Beach, FL
• Marc Lerdon, Florida Design and Remodel, Inc. of Port St Lucie, FL
• Jeremy Earl at Signature Bridge, Inc. of Willougby, OH
• Rigoberto Rangel at State Plumbing, Inc. of Miami, FL
• Lawrence Campbell at Best Electric and Air, Inc. DBA Best Home Services of Bonita Springs, FL
• Leland Redfern at Redfern Real Estate Services, LLC of Fort Myers, FL
• Alejandro Vidal at Right Now Air Solutions, LLC of Miami, FL
• Barry W. Ahern at Barry's Cooling and Heating Services, LLC of Naples, FL

Any questions? Call Lisa at 239.777.8321 for more information.

Registered Vs. Certified

With all this talk about grandfathering of registered licenses, we have gotten calls from many registered license holders. One of the state’s stipulations to this application is that the applicant must have a valid county competency card. Unfortunately some of the individuals that we have spoken to have let their county license lapse thinking that keeping the state registration current was all that they were required to do. This is not the case.

To fully understand a registered license, let’s start with the actual definition as given in the Florida Statutes:

“Any contractor who has registered with the department pursuant to fulfilling the competency requirements in the jurisdiction for which the registration is issued. Registered contractors may contract only in such jurisdictions.”

In laymen’s terms, first, you get a county license and then, second, you just tell the state that it exists by registering it. The license actually resides in the county. Letting the county competency card expire is letting the license technically expire.

So remember, keep the county competency card current and keep your state registration current. To be legally licensed both of these needs to be kept up to date. If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to call. We are always here to help you.

Get Yourself a Website

About half of the contractors we meet through our firm don’t have a website.  Most of these contractors are small one-man operations who don’t understand why a website is necessary.  If you’re in the same boat, we would like to share what a website can do for you:

• A website will act as an online calling card. This means that people can find information that will allow them to contact you for quotes and dates of availability

• A website will give you an online presence. This is particularly important as fewer and fewer people are hitting the phone books and newspapers to find contact information for contractors like you. Think about it: why would they bother flipping through the Yellow Pages when they can simply type “Plumber in Naples” into Google and get an immediate result?  

• A website can be your very best selling tool. You can tell people about yourself, what you offer, and show them examples of your previous jobs. Include customer testimonials, too!

Don't stay behind the times. Make sure you are a presence where your customers are searching. 

Congratulations, January licensees!

Congratulations to the following Licenses, Etc. clients who were approved in January:

• Andrew Waters at QJ, Inc. DBA Ace Air Conditioning of Lantana, FL
• Stephen Brillati at Brillati Carpentry, LLC of Macomb, MI
• John C. Gratton at Keys Contracting Services, Inc. of Marathon, FL
• Chester Forbes at Forbes Can Fix It, L.L.C. of Melbourne, FL
• Rollo C Page, II at Reel Construction Enterprises, L.L.C. of Santa Rosa Beach, FL
• Robert Hine at Morca Construction Services, Inc. of Marco Island, FL
• Jason Sain at Deangelis Diamond Healthcare Group, LLC of Naples, FL
• Nicolas Costabile at High Rock Builders, LLC of Boynton Beach, FL
• Shawn Beckman at Air Cool Inc of Naples, FL
• Adam Eckelbarge at Mader Southeast and EB Builders, Inc. of Edgewater, FL
• Kristopher Belligan at Sentry Metals, LLC of Nokomis, FL
• Dennis Kaiser at DK of Naples, Inc. of Naples, FL
• Garland Weis at Inlet Pools & Spas Corp. of Naples, FL
• Reid Kessel at Central Florida Site Development, Inc. of Orlando, FL
• Robert Bisbee at Advanced Technology Solutions Ocala, LLC of Ocala, FL
• Lance Jones at Clear View Security Group of Orange Park, FL
• Jorge Vaca-Ribera at JVR A/C Services, Inc. of Naples, FL
• James McCann at The Posh Plumber, Inc. of Naples, FL
• Richard Lowisz at Services 4 All Seasons, Inc. of Jacksonville, FL
• John El-Koury at All Tropical Construction, LLC of Islamorada, FL
• Kenneth Pence at Pence Plumbing, Inc. of Jupiter, FL

Any questions? Call Lisa at 239.777.8321 for more information.