What is the Maryland LLC annual report fee?

$300 a year, filed on Form 1, the combined Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return, due April 15. You can request a 60-day extension to June 15. A business approved by MarylandSaves for a waiver pays no Annual Report filing fee for that year.

Do all Maryland LLCs have to pay the $300 annual report fee?

Yes. SDAT's 2026 Form 1 sets $300 for every domestic or foreign Limited Liability Company, the same as for stock corporations, limited partnerships, LLPs and statutory trusts. The only breaks are an SDAT Certified Family Farm at $100, non-stock corporations at $0, and a MarylandSaves-approved fee waiver.

How long does Maryland take to approve an LLC?

SDAT states standard non-expedited review is 6 to 8 weeks. Paying the $50 expedite fee gets review within 7-10 business days. Same-day service costs $325 if submitted online by 2:30 PM or $425 for documents dropped off by 10 AM.

Maryland LLC Cost (2026)

By Edmond Hui · Fees verified July 29, 2026 against the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation fee schedule

In Maryland, the first-year state cost of an LLC is $400, before any registered-agent service. Forming an LLC in Maryland costs $100 to file the Articles of Organization with the state, the Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return (Form 1) costs $300 every year.

Bar chart of LLC costs in Maryland: $400 in unavoidable state charges in the first year and $300 a year after that. Maryland charges $300 for its annual report. — The recurring figure covers the annual report plus any flat state entity tax. Source: Maryland's published filing fee schedule, verified July 2026.

Articles of Organization$100

Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return (Form 1)$300

First-year state cost$400

Five-year state cost$1,600

How much does it cost to form an LLC in Maryland?

Maryland LLC filings go to the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, not the Secretary of State. Articles of Organization are $100, but standard non-expedited review takes 6 to 8 weeks. You pay $50 more for expedited review within 7-10 business days, $325 for same-day online review, or $425 for same-day paper review. The recurring cost is the real story: every domestic and foreign LLC owes a $300 Annual Report (Form 1) by April 15, three times the formation fee, with a 60-day extension to June 15 available on request, requested electronically by April 15 or by paper document by March 15 under Maryland law. Filing online through Maryland Business Express adds a 3% service/convenience fee, and a business approved by MarylandSaves can have its Annual Report filing fee waived.

Which fees does a Maryland LLC pay, and how often?

Cost	Amount	How often	Charged by
Articles of Organization	$100	One time	Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation
Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return (Form 1)	$300	Every year	Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation
Required state cost, first year	$400	N/A	N/A
Registered agent service (optional)	$50 to $300	Every year	Commercial provider
Expedite and special handling fees in our record: Expedited review (7-10 business days) ($50), Same-day review, filed online by 2:30 PM ($325), Same-day review, paper delivered via dropbox by 10 AM ($425)	$50 to $425, by option	One time	Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation
Name reservation (optional)	$25	One time	Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation
Certificate of good standing (optional)	$20	Per copy	Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation

$100 either way, but "This electronic government service includes a 3% service/convenience fee for payments processed through the Maryland Business Express portal," so an online filing costs $103.

: Maryland imposes no franchise tax or minimum entity tax on LLCs; the recurring state charge is the $300 Annual Report filing fee, and business personal property is assessed and taxed at the county level.

SDAT's Articles of Organization form and instructions impose no newspaper-publication requirement for an LLC. (Articles of Dissolution, by contrast, are filed at $0 "including cost of publication.")

Registered agent is listed separately because it is a commercial service, not a state charge. Commercial registered-agent services, not a state charge. Range and $125 midpoint match the assumption used by /tools/llc-true-cost. Most states let you serve as your own registered agent at no cost if you have a physical in-state address. Run your own numbers in the true-cost calculator. For what formation services charge on top of these state fees, see the best LLC services in Maryland.

Next steps for an LLC in Maryland

What does a Maryland LLC cost over five years?

State charges only in the first column; the second adds a registered-agent service at the $125/yr market midpoint.

Period	State cost only	With registered agent
Year 1 (formation + first filing)	$400	$525
Each year after	$300/yr	$425/yr
Five-year total	$1,600	$2,225

First filing timing: SDAT's 2026 Form 1 states that "All domestic and foreign business entities should file their 2026 reports, or request a 60 day extension to file, on or before April 15, 2026"; an approved extension moves the due date to June 15. Maryland law sets two request cutoffs and the form states only the electronic one: the Department may extend "until June 15" if a request is submitted "electronically on or before April 15" or "by paper document on or before March 15". SDAT does not state a separate first-year rule on the form.

Is Maryland expensive compared with other states?

Maryland ranks 43rd cheapest of 50 states on first-year cost , $167.84 above the $232.16 national average. On ongoing annual cost it ranks 44th.

Cheaper state	First-year cost	You would save
Montana	$35	$365
Arizona	$50	$350
Missouri	$50	$350

A cheaper filing fee elsewhere rarely saves money if you live and operate in Maryland. Doing business here with an out-of-state LLC generally means registering it as a foreign LLC in Maryland anyway. Paying both states. See foreign qualification in Maryland before forming elsewhere to save on fees.

When is the Maryland filing deadline, and what happens if you miss it?

Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return (Form 1)

Frequency	every year
Due	April 15th
Fee	$300

There is no flat late fee. An entity that files an annual return postmarked after the April 15th due date receives an initial penalty of 1/10 of one percent of the county assessment, plus interest at the rate of two percent of the initial penalty amount for each 30 days, or part of 30 days, that the return is late. SDAT instructs filers not to prepay any anticipated penalty. It bills for it.

"Entities which fail to file this report will receive estimated assessments which will be twice the estimated value of the personal property owned. In addition, failure to file this report will result in forfeiture of the Maryland charter or the right to do business in Maryland." Articles of Reinstatement cost $100 (plus $50 to expedite).

Full Maryland annual report filing guide · Deadline calculator

What cost traps are specific to Maryland?

The $300 annual report is triple the formation fee

Maryland charges $100 to form an LLC but $300 every year on Form 1, one of the highest annual charges in the country. Only an SDAT Certified Family Farm pays less ($100), and non-stock corporations pay $0. Ordinary LLCs get no discount.

Six to eight weeks unless you pay to jump the queue

SDAT states standard non-expedited review is 6 to 8 weeks. Expedited review costs $50 and takes 7-10 business days; same-day service costs $325 online or $425 for hand-delivered paper. Budget the expedite fee if you need an EIN or bank account soon.

Late penalty is percentage-based, and non-filing doubles your assessment

A late Form 1 draws an initial penalty of 1/10 of one percent of the county assessment plus 2% interest on that penalty per 30 days. Fail to file at all and SDAT issues an estimated assessment at twice the estimated value of your personal property, then forfeits your Maryland charter.

Frequently Asked Questions

: Articles of Organization cost $100 filed with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation. Filing online through Maryland Business Express adds a 3% service/convenience fee, so about $103. Standard review runs 6 to 8 weeks; expedited review costs an extra $50 and takes 7-10 business days.
: $300 a year, filed on Form 1, the combined Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return, due April 15. You can request a 60-day extension to June 15. A business approved by MarylandSaves for a waiver pays no Annual Report filing fee for that year.
: Yes. SDAT's 2026 Form 1 sets $300 for every domestic or foreign Limited Liability Company, the same as for stock corporations, limited partnerships, LLPs and statutory trusts. The only breaks are an SDAT Certified Family Farm at $100, non-stock corporations at $0, and a MarylandSaves-approved fee waiver.
: SDAT states standard non-expedited review is 6 to 8 weeks. Paying the $50 expedite fee gets review within 7-10 business days. Same-day service costs $325 if submitted online by 2:30 PM or $425 for documents dropped off by 10 AM.

Where do these numbers come from?

Every fee above was checked against Maryland's own published sources on July 29, 2026 , the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation fee schedule, the governing statute, and where a state-level tax applies, the state tax authority. Commercial formation-service pages were not used.

The first-year total is the Articles of Organization fee plus the first year of any recurring state charge. Where a state's first report is not due until the following year, that is noted above. The five-year total is the filing fee plus five years of recurring charges, which avoids the timing question entirely. Registered-agent service is excluded from all state figures.

Sources

5 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Maryland sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.

dat.maryland.gov/businesses/Documents/FEES.pdf
dat.maryland.gov/SDAT%20Forms/artorgan.pdf
dat.maryland.gov/SiteAssets/Pages/sdatforms/2026_Form1%20Final%20(6).pdf
dat.maryland.gov/businesses/Pages/default.aspx
Maryland statute: Md. Tax-Property § 14-704(c) (Annual Report extension requests)

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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC

Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.

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