Rhode Island Offers Online Business Registration

New businesses in Rhode Island that have employees or sell goods and services on a retail basis can now complete the Business Application and Registration (B.A.R.) application and send it to the Division of Taxation over the Internet.

The Division of Taxationmanually processes nearly 8,000 new business registration forms each year, which had diverted agency staff time from providing other valuable services to the Rhode Island business community. Missing or incorrect information on paper forms also caused frequent processing delays, and kept businesses from operating legally in the state. The online application has built-in error checking to ensure that submitted forms are complete and accurate. "Businesses expect and deserve to have this convenient registration option available to them," said Kenneth Iavarone, principal revenue agent at the Division of Taxation. "The state also benefits by electronically collecting business registration data because it can be directly transferred into our computer system, thereby saving staff time and eliminating potential data entry errors." Certain types of business and business activities require statutory fees, and the online application is designed to automatically make those fee calculations. Visa, MasterCard, and Discover Card payments can be made through RI.gov's secure payment server, and the system will generate receipts via e-mail. "We often had to contact business owners because they simply did not fill in the form correctly, which resulted in a processing delay," said Nancy A. Telford, another principal revenue agent at the Division of Taxation. "The online application checks to make sure that the applicant has completed all the necessary parts of the form and hides information that is not required for their type of business, making the form as simple as possible for our business users." Online business registration is one of many online services created without taxpayer expense as part of a zero-dollar partnership between the state of Rhode Island and New England Interactive, a subsidiary of e-government firmNIC that manages RI.gov on behalf of the state.