Many community associations, which include HOAs and condominiums, will recall filing decennial reports with the Pennsylvania Department of State in 2021 to prove their continued existence. This reporting requirement has since been replaced with more recent law requiring that not-for-profit corporations report more information, more frequently. Signed into law on November 3, 2022, Pennsylvania Act 122 of 2022 repeals the decennial reporting requirements and enacts, in their place, annual reporting requirements for Pennsylvania business entities, including nonprofit entities such as community associations. These requirements went into effect on January 1, 2025, and, similarly to the former decennial reporting requirements, require community associations to submit certain information to the Pennsylvania Department of State’s Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations to prove their continued existence.

Annual reports for incorporated community associations must be submitted by June 30^th of each calendar year. Failure to file such reports on an annual basis may result in administrative dissolution of the community association by the Commonwealth. Dissolution, in turn, may result in consequences such as loss of protection from liability for a community association’s Executive Board members, officers, and homeowners; loss of protection of a community association’s name; termination of a community association as an entity licensed to do business in the Commonwealth; and required payment of a reinstatement fee, plus delinquency fees for each annual report the association has previously failed to submit, to reinstate a dissolved community association’s existence.

Importantly, community associations should recognize that the information to be submitted in connection with each annual report is more extensive than that which was submitted in connection with decennial reports. Like the now-defunct decennial reports, annual reports require each community association to submit its business name and registered office address. Unlike decennial reports, however, annual reports additionally require that each community association submit:

• its jurisdiction of formation,
• the name of at least one of its Executive Board members,
• the names and titles of its principal officers,
• the address of its principal office (whether or not different from its registered office address),
• and its EIN (federal tax identification number).

Beginning January 6, 2025, annual reports may be filed online through the Department of State’s Business Filing Services webpage, or by mail to the Department of State. The cost to submit an annual report is currently listed as (i) a $7.00 fee for community associations registered as for-profit business entities, or (ii) free of charge for community associations registered as nonprofit entities. The Department of State has stated that it intends to send notice to each community association’s registered address at least two months prior to the June 30^th reporting deadline as a reminder to file. Failure by the Department of State to provide such notification does not, however, relieve a community association of its reporting obligations. For this reason, all community associations should ensure that their registered addresses are up to date at all times and diligently calendar the June 30^th annual reporting deadline each year.

If you have questions about the Annual Reports or would like assistance in updating your information on record with the Department of State, please contact partner Stacey MacNeal, attorney Natalie Alexander or any member of the Barley Snyder Business Practice Group or PA Annual Report Response Team.