Judges: WINSTON BRYANT, Attorney General
Filed Date: 9/13/1991
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/5/2016
The Honorable W.J. "Bill" McCuen Secretary of State State Capitol Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
Dear Mr. McCuen:
This is in response to your request for an opinion on two questions concerning Opinion No.
It is my opinion that the Secretary of State's office has the responsibility to enforce payment of the fee. The officer accepting the filing of the financial statement should not do so unless the total sum of all late fees accompanies the filing. This method will ensure that the fees will be paid, or they will continue to accumulate.
Opinion No.
Your first question regarding this topic is whether your office really has any authority to refuse to accept a report without payment of the late fees when refusing to accept would increase the liability of the filer. You ask "what authority [your] . . . office can use in order to lawfully refuse to file a document until late fees are paid."
The language from Opinion No.
Your second question is as follows:
If this office accepts a report, although late filing fees have accumulated and will continue to accumulate on unfiled reports, are we precluded from collecting fees which accumulate on the unfiled reports after acceptance of a current report?
This is also a question which is not governed by the act. The answer to this question, in my opinion, may be dependent upon the facts surrounding a particular filing, and is left to your judgment as the administrator of the act. It is my opinion, however, that in many instances your office would not be precluded, as a matter of law, from seeking to enforce the payment of late filing fees which are mandatory under the act.3 This conclusion obtains, however, only upon an attempted filing of the late report. Your authority to charge late fees is operative only upon the filing of a report. If reports remain unfiled, the applicable enforcement method under the act is to refer the matter to the prosecuting attorney so that misdemeanor charges may be instituted. See A.C.A. §
Sincerely,
WINSTON BRYANT Attorney General
WB:cyh