For Foreign Corporations Doing Business In Nevada, It's Publish Or Perish

I like newspapers, especially the hard copy versions.  I subscribe to three and usually buy a fourth during the course of the day. 

Nevada also seems to like newspapers because for more than a century it has imposed a publication requirement on foreign corporations doing business in the state.  The required contents of the annual statement are fairly minimal:

  • The name of the corporation.
  • The name and title of the corporate officer submitting the statement.
  • The mailing or street address of the corporation’s principal office.
  •  The mailing or street address of the corporation’s office in this State, if one exists.

The annual statement must be published in two numbers or issues of a paper having a total weekly circulation of at least 1,000.   If that circulation number seems low, remember that outside of Reno and Las Vegas, the state is sparsely populated.  For example, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population of Esmeralda County to be 775 as of July 1, 2011. 

The statement must be published no later than March of each year.  If, however, the corporation's fiscal year is not a calendar year, the statement must be published no later than the end of the third month after the end of the fiscal year.  The requirement also applies to nonprofit corporations.

The monetary penalty is modest - $100 for each month that the statement is unpublished.  There may be other, perhaps more serious, consequences as well.  In this opinion, the Nevada Attorney General concluded that a foreign corporation does not remain in good standing if it fails to publish.  Opinion No. 1959-16 (March 4, 1959).