The Pennsylvania Department of State is most often associated with elections and professional licensing. But did you know that the department's business also includes business?
Through the Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations (BCCO), the department assists Pennsylvania business owners and entrepreneurs with starting, sustaining and expanding their companies.
Under state law, for-profit and nonprofit enterprises — including professional corporations, partnerships, municipal authorities and foreign entities — must register with BCCO to conduct business in the commonwealth.
As Pennsylvania's official repository for documents relating to business registration and organization, BCCO maintains records for more than three million companies authorized to do business here and serves as the commonwealth's centralized filing office for Uniform Commercial Code financing statements.
For customers' convenience, BCCO offers a
PA Business One-Stop Shop guide and
online registration forms. And for the public's convenience, BCCO provides information on all registered businesses in Pennsylvania through a searchable database at
corporations.pa.gov/Search/CorpSearch.
BCCO also administers the state's charitable solicitation law and maintains registration and other records on more than 13,000 charities and 450 professional solicitors and fundraising counsels that raise money in Pennsylvania.
The public can search for information on a registered charity at
www.charities.pa.gov. Complaints against charities can be filed at the Division of Charities Investigation Unit, 401 North St., Room 212 North Office Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120 or by calling 717-787-0700 or emailing
RA-STBEICIU@pa.gov.
Business applications may be submitted electronically to BCCO through
the Penn File website or via mail or hand-delivery. To further accommodate customers, BCCO recently added a new business registration kiosk in its reception area at 401 North St., Room 206 North Office Building, Harrisburg.
BCCO's staff strives to provide accurate, courteous and timely service to the public, businesses and charities. Generally, we can process business filings within seven to 10 business days.
We offer expedited services on hand-delivered filings for additional fees. Documents received before 10 a.m. can be processed the same day for an additional $100. Documents received before 2 p.m. can be processed within three hours for $300. And documents received before 4 p.m. can be processed in one hour for $1,000 additional.
BCCO is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The customer service telephone number is 717-787-1057 and the facsimile number is 717-783-2244. For more information,
visit our website.
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