Maryland Foreign LLC Registration

Maryland LLC registration at a glance

Filing

Foreign Limited Liability Company Registration (no form number)

State fee

$100 filing fee ($104.50 with the charges Maryland collects at filing)

Required expedite

$50 (7 business days), charged at checkout

Total with us

$353.50, first year of Maryland resident agent service included

Required expedite processing

7 business days

Home-state certificate

Required, dated within 60 days

Maryland yearly filing

Business Entity Annual Report (Form 1), $300, every year

Filed with

Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT), Charter Division

What the Maryland filing asks for

For the filing, Maryland needs:

• The exact name of your LLC as formed
• The state it was formed in and its date of formation
• A Maryland resident agent with a street address there; we fill in ours
• A principal office address
• A certificate of good standing from the home state, no older than 60 days when Maryland receives it

LLC into Maryland, by home state

The first-year total adds the home state's certificate fee to the $353.50 checkout total; the certificate is ordered from that state.

When Maryland expects an LLC to register

Maryland law lists 8 activities that do not, on their own, count as doing business in Maryland; the list gives examples and is not the full test. An office, staff, or regular sales and contracts there are what typically lead to registration.

If you do business in Maryland without registering

An unregistered LLC doing business there cannot start a lawsuit in Maryland courts until it registers. Its contracts stay valid, and it can still defend a case brought against it. The Maryland attorney general can ask a court to stop the LLC doing business there until it registers. With no resident agent on file, legal papers can be served through the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT).

Maryland resident agent rule

Maryland requires every registered foreign LLC to keep a resident agent there. Switching agents later costs $25. Our $199 includes the first year of Maryland resident agent service, then $149 a year.

Maryland yearly filings

Once registered, your LLC files the Maryland Business Entity Annual Report (Form 1) every year, at $300, due April 15. From year two, keeping the Maryland registration costs $449 a year with our resident agent service.

How long Maryland takes

We file it on Maryland's paper form with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT). Maryland required expedite processing: 7 business days. Checkout includes the required expedite ($50).

Leaving Maryland later

If your LLC stops doing business there, it ends the registration by filing a Certificate of Cancellation of a Foreign LLC (no state fee). Until that is filed, Maryland's yearly filing stays due.