What is the Maryland LLC annual report?
The Maryland annual report is the yearly filing every LLC on the state register makes with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT). It confirms the company's current details and, importantly, is paired with a business personal property assessment. Maryland is one of the states that does not use a Secretary of State for these filings, SDAT handles both the annual report and, later, the dissolution.
The obligation attaches to the entity regardless of activity, so a dormant Maryland LLC still owes the annual report, and the roughly $300 fee, every year until it is formally closed. That flat fee is on the higher side nationally, which makes an idle Maryland LLC a meaningful recurring cost.
The personal property return
Maryland pairs the annual report with a personal property return. If your LLC owns or leases business personal property in Maryland, equipment, furniture, fixtures, inventory, you report it, and SDAT uses that to assess personal property tax, which the county then bills. An LLC with no Maryland personal property generally files the annual report without owing personal property tax, but the two pieces are submitted together through the same system. This pairing is a distinctive feature of Maryland that catches out owners expecting a simple confirmation filing.
When is the Maryland annual report due?
Maryland uses a fixed deadline of April 15 for all LLCs, rather than an anniversary date. A two-month extension to June 15 is generally available on request, but the base deadline is April 15. Because the date is universal, every LLC shares it, which makes it easy to lose track of without a reminder. SDAT sends notices to the address on file, so keeping that current helps.
What does the Maryland annual report cost?
The annual report fee is commonly around $300paid to SDAT, and it is flat rather than scaled. Any personal property tax assessed on business property is separate and billed by the county. Because SDAT sets and can revise the fee, confirm the current amount on Maryland Business Express before paying rather than relying on a single quoted number. The fee is the same whether the LLC traded all year or sat dormant.
How do you file the Maryland annual report?
Filing is done online through Maryland Business Express:
- Open Maryland Business Express and locate your LLC by name or SDAT department ID.
- Complete the annual reportconfirming the company's details, and the personal property return if the LLC has Maryland business property.
- Pay the fee and submit by April 15 (or June 15 with an extension).
- Keep the confirmation with your records.
What happens if you miss April 15?
A missed Maryland annual report puts the LLC out of good standingand continued non-filing can lead SDAT to forfeit the LLC's right to do business in the state. A forfeited LLC must be revived, filing the overdue reports and paying the fees and penalties, before it can operate again. Given the roughly $300 annual fee, those arrears build quickly.
Forfeiture is not a clean, chosen exit. It ends the company's authority to operate but does not settle its tax affairs, the Comptroller of Maryland account and the IRS business account behind your EIN can remain open, waiting on final returns. If you genuinely want the LLC gone, a deliberate dissolution is both cheaper and cleaner than letting SDAT forfeit it after the fees have piled up.
How the Maryland annual report differs from your taxes
It is easy to lump the annual report together with everything else a company files, but they are distinct obligations, and keeping them separate is what makes closing a Maryland LLC clean rather than half-finished. The annual report, filed with SDAT, confirms your existence and (with the personal property return) reports business property. It is not your federal income tax return, it is not a Comptroller of Maryland income or sales-tax filing, and it is not your registered-agent fee or any local business license. Each has its own deadline and its own agency.
That distinction matters the moment you stop using the company. Filing the annual report keeps only SDAT's side current; it does nothing about an open IRS business account, a Comptroller of Maryland sales-tax or withholding registration, or a registered agent you are still paying. A Maryland LLC can be perfectly up to date on its annual report, at roughly $300 a year, no small figure, and still be quietly carrying costs and obligations elsewhere.
The registered agent is one clear example. Maryland requires every LLC to maintain a resident agent, and if you pay a commercial service for the role, the charge recurs whether or not the company does anything, and whether or not you file the report on time. Closing the LLC is what ends the need for an agent; keeping up the annual report does not.
The Comptroller tax accounts follow the same rule. If the LLC registered for Maryland sales tax or employer withholding, those accounts keep expecting periodic returns until they are formally closed, entirely independent of the SDAT annual report. And the federal side, the IRS business account behind your EIN, sits outside the state system altogether.
When you dissolve the company, you deal with all of these at once: the roughly $300 annual report and its personal property return stop, the Comptroller tax accounts close, the resident-agent obligation ends, and you close the IRS account too. Given the size of Maryland's fee, that combined saving is a stronger reason than in most states to close deliberately rather than keep filing on a company you no longer use.
How does dissolving the LLC end the annual report obligation?
The annual report and personal property return are owed only while the LLC remains on SDAT's register. When you dissolve a Maryland LLCyou file articles of cancellation with SDAT, and once processed the company is no longer active, so there is no annual report to file and no roughly $300 fee to pay. For an unused LLC, that saving is a clear financial reason to close rather than let the company sit.
The full process, winding up, settling debts, resolving Comptroller of Maryland tax accounts, filing final federal and Maryland returns, and closing the IRS business account attached to your EIN, is covered in the guide to dissolving an LLC. If the LLC never really traded, closing an unused LLC may be a lighter path. Either way, dissolving is what actually ends the annual report, and here the fee makes that decision matter more than in most states.
For an active company you intend to keep, the annual report is part of staying in good standing, file it by April 15 and move on. This page explains the obligation so you can decide, not to push you toward closing a business you still want.
If you have decided to close the Maryland LLC
You do not need to buy anything to file your own annual report, Maryland Business Express handles it directly, and we would rather say so than dress up a routine filing as a product. What we handle is formally dissolving a Maryland LLC so the annual report, personal property return, and the company's tax accounts stop for good. If that is the decision in front of you, the links above cover the detail, and a specialist can confirm the right path before you commit.