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Electronic corporate filings increase by 413%

State Department headquarters in Old San Juan (Credit: © Mauricio Pascual)

Just four days before this year’s April 15th filing deadline, the number of corporate annual report filings at the State Department through Sunday had increased by 413 percent in comparison to the same date last year, which Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock attributed to the almost mandatory electronic filing requirement.

“This evidences that the market is happy with the new electronic filing system and that the economy is growing, or a combination of both,” he said Monday.

As of Sunday, the agency had received 20,271 annual reports, in electronic form. In contrast, as of the same date a year ago, the agency had received 3,953 reports from profit and nonprofit corporations registered to do business in Puerto Rico, said Eduardo Arosemena, the State Department’s deputy secretary in charge of services.

“Put another way, five days before the April 15 deadline, less than 4 percent of the corporate entities had filed their report a year ago, while this year 40 percent of them have already done so,” Arosemena said.

Corporations still have a few days left to file their reports, through www.pr.gov or www.estado.gobierno.pr. “The decision to only accept electronic filings brings us closer to the day when almost all of our corporate services, from creating a corporate entity, to obtaining the certificates of good standing will be available electronically without going through the traditional long lines of people seeking services in person,” said McClintock, who is known for pushing the integration of technology into every day processes and services.

April 15th is the last day corporations have not only to file their annual reports without penalty, but to also request a filing extension. Last week, the Office of Management and Budget reported that in 2011, pr.gov has received more than 2.5 million visits, doubling the 1.2 million transactions made throughout the government’s online portal last year.

Aside from filing annual reports, Puerto Rico residents can access more than 50 services online, including getting license and tag renewals, paying for traffic tickets, applying for unemployment insurance, and obtaining birth, marriage, and death certificates, among others.

Author Details
Author Details
Business reporter with 30 years of experience writing for weekly and daily newspapers, as well as trade publications in Puerto Rico. My list of former employers includes Caribbean Business, The San Juan Star, and the Puerto Rico Daily Sun, among others. My areas of expertise include telecommunications, technology, retail, agriculture, tourism, banking and most other segments of Puerto Rico’s economy.
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