The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-04-10

FILING FEES
HOW THE CHANGES MADE BY
LEGISLATURE ARE WORKING.
MORE HOME COMPANIES
There Is No lnducement for Montana
People to incorporate Out
side the State.

Helena, April 8.-The changes made
by the last legislature in the law regu-
lating the filing of articles of incor-
poration in the state of Montana are
having the effect OF making more
work in the secretary or states Of
flee, this being due to the fact that all
the articles OF domestic corporations
must be recorded, while the articles
OF the foreign companies are merely
filed and indexed so that they can be
reached in a moment.
Under the new law there will natur-
ally be a larger number OF domestic
corporations to file articles. The law
as it stood before the last legislature
met provided that foreign corporations
should pay a fiat filing fee of $sf
while the domestic corporations
should pay under a graduated scale,
so much per thousand dollars of the
company's capitalization, the maxi
mum filing fee being $1,000. AS the
law then stood the temptation was
great for those who wanted to incOr-
porate to go into another state and
organize the company, after which
they would file their articles in Mon
tana under the foreign corporation
clause and save $780,, 800 or $500 in
incorporation fee, as the case might
be.
Under the New Law.
1t was to meet this condition that
the legislature revised the schedule OF
fees to be charged in the secretary OF
states office, and the effect is already
noticeable. The number of domestic
corporations is larger in proportion,
and there have been several of large
Capitalization that would no doubt
have come in under the foreign cor
poration clause if the old law had
been in force.
While the fee is reduced in the case
of domestic corporations it is believed
that in the end the average that was
made under the old law will be kept
up, inasmuch as the foreign corpora
tions that enter the state will be com.
PEELED to pay more than they formerly
paid, thus going far to make up for
the loss in the amount paid in by the
domestic companies under the reduc'
ed fee.
An Illustration.
Deputy Secretary of State David
Marks said yesterday that, Judging
from the present outlook, the only
difference the change in the law would
make would be in the work of the OF.
flee force, who would have more arti'
cles to record. "An illustration OF
how the new law works." said Mr.
Marks, 'was furnished today One OF
the companies incorporating was cap
italized at $5,OO0,0O0. Ii the old law
had been in force, this company
would probably have been organized
in another state and afterwards had
it's articles filed here, in which case
the state would have received a filing
fee of only $50. But the new law
places the foreign and domestic cor
porations on an equal foting and
naturally company that is to operate
in the state would prefer to be incor.
porated here, so this one was made
a domestic company, and the state re-
ceived fee of $342.50 for filing.
1.-The people have not yet become
familiar with the provisions of the
new fee law, and ,ne consequence is
that we have to make rebates nearly
every day to persons who send their
articles here for filing and send re-
mittances to cover the fee under the
old law"