August 28, 2023
SEC Fee Rate Advisory: Filing Fees to Rise Sharply
The SEC issued its first fee rate advisory for the 2024 fiscal year and if you’re registering securities or engaging in another transaction for which a filing fee is required, you may get a serious case of sticker shock. Fiscal 2023 filing fees increased by 19% over the prior year, reversing several years of significant declines in filing fees. For fiscal 2024, the SEC says that filing fees will rise again – and by an even greater percentage than they did in fiscal 2023. Effective October 1, 2023, the filing fee will increase by 34%, from $110.20 per million dollars to $147.60 per million dollars.
The fee rate advisory points out that the SEC doesn’t set filing fees arbitrarily:
The Commission must set rates for the fees paid under Section 6(b) to levels that the Commission projects will generate collections equal to annual statutory target amounts. The Commission’s projections are calculated using a methodology developed in consultation with the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. The Commission determined the statutory target amount for fiscal year 2024 to be $839,771,535 by adjusting the fiscal year 2023 target collection amount of $815,557,629 for the rate of inflation.
– John Jenkins