It recently came to my attention that a company posing as an official record keeper for corporations has been hitting up corp owners for some cash. As a bookkeeper and accountant, I can tell you that as corporation owner or when setting up a corporation, fees, nickel and dimes, and other charges will apply. However, this is not one of them.
The perpetrators of this bookkeeping attempt to collect are someone called Corporate Records Service and claim to be operating out of Austin, Texas. In this case, they are asking for corporation owners to fill out an annual minutes form that looks official but is not. And of course, they are asking for a mere $125 to process the request to “satisfy the annual minutes requirement for your corporation.” Rest assured, this is unnecessary, and you are free to trash this letter.
Remember that your corporation, its address, and some of the info surrounding it can be obtained by any number of vendors, scammers, etc. A good rule to remember is that if it is not from an official government agency, such as the IRS or state, it is probably a bookkeeping scam and is not limited to Houston corporations.
If unsure about a letter you receive regarding your corporation, run the company or individual name through a search engine to see if scamming sites have spotted it or if they have gotten bad reviews. The Better Business Bureau also keeps tabs of disreputable companies out for bookkeeping and other scams. In fact, Corporate Records Service was flagged on this site as a scammer.
And as always, if you live in the Houston area and are interested in learning what a bookkeeper can do for you, please feel free to contact us at 281-894-6494.