Every year, BC companies are dissolved by the Registrar not because they failed, but because nobody filed a one-page confirmation that the company still exists. Here's how the trap works and how to make it structurally impossible to fall into.
The 2-month rule
Every BC company must file an annual report with BC Registries within two months of its recognition date anniversary (usually the date you incorporated). If you incorporated on March 14, your window runs to May 14 — every single year, forever, whether the company made $2 million or sat dormant.
The annual report is not a financial statement and has nothing to do with your taxes. It confirms the registry's information — offices, directors — is current. Filing takes minutes and the government fee is $43.39. Which is exactly why it's dangerous: it's too small to remember.
The 2-strike rule
Miss one annual report and your company drops out of "good standing" — visible to any bank, lender, or lawyer who searches you. Miss two in a row and the Registrar can begin dissolution. A notice goes to your registered office (see the problem if that's an old address), and if nobody responds, your company is struck from the register and ceases to exist.
What dissolution actually breaks
- Your bank account. Banks run periodic registry checks. A dissolved company's account can be frozen.
- Your assets. Property of a dissolved company can ultimately escheat to — become property of — the provincial government.
- Your contracts and lawsuits. A company that doesn't exist can't enforce a contract or defend a claim.
- Your liability shield. Carrying on "business as usual" through a dissolved company is personal-exposure territory.
Restoration is possible — Minuted restores BC companies for $699 flat plus government fees, typically a matter of weeks — but dissolution is usually discovered mid-transaction, when weeks are exactly what you don't have.
Why owners miss it
The anniversary date is arbitrary trivia. The reminder postcard goes to the registered office — which is an old accountant, a former law firm, or the house you sold in 2023. And the person who incorporated the company (you, at midnight, on Corporate Online) is also the person responsible for remembering — with no system behind them.
The fix: make it someone's actual job
Minuted files annual reports for every client, every year, as part of every plan ($249 or $399/yr). Your recognition date is tracked by our system and checked by a person; the report is prepared and filed early, not at the deadline; and you get a confirmation after it's done — never a panicked to-do before. Your registered office address is ours, so the government's notices reach a desk where reading them is the whole job.
Not sure if your company is in good standing right now? Email hello@minuted.ca with your company name — we'll check the registry and tell you for free, along with anything else your minute book is missing. Details of the filing itself are on our BC annual report page.
Minuted is a corporate records and filing service, not a law firm. General information, not legal advice.