Florida Registered Agent
How to Keep Your Business Private in Florida
Business Privacy in Florida
To protect your privacy in Florida, it is best to first understand how your privacy is violated.
Efforts to increase transparency in government have left small business owners across Florida with few choices to avoid exposing their personal information to anyone with an internet connection. We’ve come a long way from being warned to never use our real names or give our addresses online—but that doesn’t mean we can’t make an effort to keep our personal information to ourselves.
This guide can help you understand the basics of business privacy in Florida. Learn more:
- Understanding the Florida Public Records Act
- How the Public Records Law Affects Privacy in Florida
- Keeping Your Information Out of the Public Record
- Frequently Asked Questions
Want to stay absolutely anonymous in the Sunshine State? We’ve got a solution:
Understanding the Florida Public Records Act
The Florida Public Records Act began in 1909 with the passage of Chapter 119 of the Florida State Statutes. The law requires that all records made or received by a public agency be made available to the public when requested.
These records include all business filings made with state, county and local agencies, so any names and addresses you include on those filings (including your Florida business address) will be freely available to the public.
Known as the Sunshine Law, these statutes are not necessarily poor legislation, but it is important to realize that the law is not concerned with how to protect your privacy in Florida. The goal of the law is transparency in government. To protect your identity, business owners need a strategy that works within the law and achieves their goal of true privacy in Florida.
How the Public Records Law Affects Privacy in Florida
When you file formation documents with the Division of Corporations, you must list a principal office address or business address. This would be your place of business (or your home, if you work from there). Once filed, your address becomes public information.
Each year, you are required to file an annual report. Florida annual reports require the name of a manager or member. If you are the sole owner of your company and make its controlling decisions, that member or manager is you. Once processed, your name becomes public information.
These documents are entered into the records of the Department of State, and they can be accessed in two ways: through an online business search, or in person at the DOS office. Anyone who knows the name of your company can easily retrieve, read, copy and print these documents whenever they want.
To protect your privacy in Florida, these documents must list something other than your personal information.
Keeping Your Information Out of the Public Record
If you want to protect your identity, you need to hire a professional Florida registered agent. If you hire us, we can file your formation documents and use our Florida business address on your filing instead of your own. To protect your privacy in Florida, this is the first step.
We can also help you keep your name off your annual report. This requires that you form two Florida limited liability companies, both of which will use our Florida business address. Each LLC will be listed as manager for the other, so when the annual reports are filed, it is the companies that are listed as managers, not you. This is a Double (Private) Florida LLC structure, and it will protect your identity if properly set up and maintained.
It’s very common and not illegal for one company to own or manage another. For example, there are many holding companies throughout the US.
LLCs in the state of Florida aren’t legally required to do business.
To form a Double LLC on your own and completely keep your personal information off of your formation documents, you’d need: a registered agent, someone to act as your organizer (this can be your registered agent), and a physical street address that you can use as your principal business address. In particular, a business address unconnected to your own that you can use for free can be hard to come by.
With us, you get all of that (and more), all in one place, plus the security of our permanent business address.
Business Website & Phone:
Claim Your FREE 90-day Trial!
Order the Double LLC and receive a 90-day free trial of our web & virtual phone services!
This package allows your to build a professional, polished website and keep your personal contact information private with a business email and phone line.
Our Florida Business Presence web & phone package includes:
- Domain name of your choice (ex: “YourBusinessNameHere.org”)
- Website with SSL security built on easy-to-customize templates
- Up to 10 email addresses at your domain (ex: “[email protected]”)
- Virtual phone service & a number with a local Florida area code that you can access on your device with our free Android or iOS app (available for download in US app stores)
Plus, our web services team offers zero-cost, individualized assistance setting up your website. If you have any questions, give us a call during business hours. We’ve got REAL people standing by to help you through the process.
Domain service is FREE for a full year (up to $25 value) with affordable renewal options ($25 a year on average). All other services are FREE for 90 days, and then $9/month after that. If you keep all of the services after the trial, you get a 20% discount.
Florida Privacy FAQs
If your privacy is critical to you, your best strategy is to dissolve your company and start over. Dissolution won’t remove the records already there, but it will prevent any further records from accumulating.
When you hire Florida Registered Agent LLC, you’ll get free use of our Florida business address everywhere permitted on state filings.
Unfortunately, you cannot do this yourself. It requires a registered office address to provide on your formation documents instead of your own principal office location. Order our Double LLC package to get your private LLC.
Unfortunately, there is no way to form a completely anonymous Florida corporation and protect your privacy.
$149
Plus State fees
$49
Per Year