Any Way To Get Free Information About A Business From The State?

[KingHippo]

My business is now "officially on file" with NJ according to a web search. There is an option on the NJ state government website to pull information up about the business but there is a fee. Is there any way I can see what this file is (since its my own business) for free?

[Business Attorney]

At this point, I believe that the only information that would be in the file is the information you supplied in your NJ Business Registration Package, so I am not sure what you think you'll see, but I believe that the short answer to your question is "no." Perhaps if you go into the Secretary of State's office you can view the information but I am not aware of any way to view the records for free online.

[orion_joel]

I have to agree with David, the information that generally would be included here is only the information that you have provided. To my knowledge the government generally doesn't put secret information in a file about your business, that you can get for free or paid for. While it would be nice of them to add a here is the secret password for your business to succeed big time, i dont think that it is going to happen.

In Australia, my business is shown on their register and that register only shows very basic information, like business name, registered address and not much else. If i was a register company, then the filings that i make each year to maintain a company status are recorded there and can be accessed for a fee. However the fee is quite high for information that i already have myself anyway.

[Marcomguy]

The secretary of the state's web site should let you see your basic company information at no charge. There's no reason for them to impose a fee - your tax dollars have already paid for the information to be listed. Unless I'm misunderstanding what they're charging you for.

In CT you can search for companies and pull up names of officers and so on, free of charge. There must be similar systems in other states.

[Business Attorney]

I am aware that a few states do seem to be charging for basic information that you would think should be publicly available without charge. From their website, it appears that NJ is now one of those.

I don't know whether the information is available for free if you go into the Secretary of State's office, but I know that the argument that some government agencies make for charging for information online is that the online service is a convenience that the people who use it should pay for. I believe that argument is bogus, since the online service in the long run should save the salaries of the people who would otherwise be needed to staff the public information counters.

[Evan]

In CT you can search for companies and pull up names of officers and so on, free of charge. There must be similar systems in other states.

In RI, you can look at the Articles of Incorporation, amendments, annual reports, and a lot with many businesses. It's a new system (relatively), and they're not going backwards with uploading copies of older documents of existing businesses.