How to Get a Maryland Business Address

Many small business owners in Maryland either can’t afford to lease their own office space, or they don’t need one because they are home-based. Either way, using your home address on public business filings makes it easy for marketers and scammers to compromise your information privacy.

When you hire Maryland Resident Agent, you can use our address instead of your own to protect your privacy and give your business the professional appeal of our downtown Baltimore building. Secure mail handling and reliable local business support included!

Need more services? We’ve got you covered with mail scanning, virtual office, and business website services to support your business as it grows.

Get a Real Maryland Business Address Right Away

Registered Agent Service clients receive three complimentary scans of regular business mail. Scans of Secretary of State and legal notices are always free. Businesses needing more robust services, like a phone line, an office lease, and more mail handling can upgrade to our Virtual Office or Mail Scanning Services:

Maryland Business Addresses & How They Work

As if starting a business wasn’t complicated enough, everything from your formation paperwork to your business banking account documents will ask you for a few different addresses. For example, when you start a Maryland LLC, your Articles of Organization will ask for your LLC’s address and your resident agent’s address. Let’s clear up some common questions.

What’s the difference between a principal business address, registered agent address, and a mailing address?

• Your principal business address, or just your business address, is the physical location at which you do business. When you’re filing the paperwork to register your company, this needs to be an actual street address, not just a P.O. Box.

• Your registered agent address—called resident agents here in Maryland, and statutory agents or agents for service of process elsewhere—is the physical street address of your resident agent’s office. This is where they will be present during ordinary business hours to receive service of process and notices and reminders from SDAT and the Maryland Secretary of State. Since an actual person needs to be present to perform that duty, this can’t be a P.O. Box or a non-USPS equivalent.
  
  Some resident agents, like us, will let you provide their office address as your business address, but many will not. Check the fine print before you hire.

• Your mailing address is the location to which your ordinary business mail will be delivered. Paper bank statements, vendor invoices, and junk mail catalogs for everything under the sun. Unlike your principal business address and your registered agent address, a mailing address can be a P.O. Box or a virtual address equivalent.

What’s a virtual address?

A virtual address is an actual street address provided by a company you’ve hired to handle your business mail. When you upgrade from the basic mail scanning included with our Resident Agent Service to a more robust Mail Scanning or Virtual Office Service, the unique suite number you get is part of your new virtual address.

Why’s it called a virtual address if it’s in a real building? Because the way most business owners will interact with it is virtually—your account is managed online, services including digital mail scanning are handled online, etc. The line gets a little blurry once you reach virtual office services that include in-person services like conference room rentals or daily desk rentals, but that’s the gist.

What kinds of businesses might use our business address?

We’re not gatekeeping—as long as it’s legal, all sorts of businesses can use our address. For example:

Julia dreams of owning and operating a food truck.

Her loco moco fries will put her food truck on the map, but her business can’t be tied to a stable street address. Using our business address gives her the flexibility she needs to feed the masses while having something more professional to put on the paperwork.

DJ Ash3r drops albums from a garage studio at home.

Going viral has been great for cashflow, and they’re thinking of going official with an LLC. They can protect their home address from the prying public by using our business address on their LLC formation paperwork—and boom, now that new synthesizer is a legit business expense.

Benefits of Using Our Maryland Business Address

Privacy

We believe that owning a business shouldn’t mean compromising your privacy, so our products are designed for your peace of mind. Using our business address instead of your home office address is just the start. Beyond that, we promise to never sell your data to marketers or other third parties.

Legitimacy

A home address—or worse, a string of address changes—can look amateurish or even dodgy. Polish your look, add professionalism to your operation, and appeal to the #loveslocal audience with an address in Baltimore.

Simplicity

One address, not three separate ones for your business, resident agent, and mailing. One account for your entire Business Identity, not several separate accounts spread across multiple vendors for your business address, resident agent service, virtual office, corporate filings, domain registration, mail scanning, email and website hosting. One invoice with transparent, no-surprises pricing.

Greater Security & Stability for Your Business Mail

Many mail services in Maryland operate out of leased office space and often sublet addresses in large commercial buildings. This can create uncertainty for business owners because if the provider relocates or loses their lease, you may be stuck with the expense of updating your LLC or corporation address and records with the state.

Our Maryland Resident Agent service is built for long term stability and control. We operate from a secure dedicated location where all mail is processed in house. Your mail is handled only by our trained full-time staff and uploaded to your secure online account. This means consistent service, added privacy, and peace of mind for you and your business.

Maryland Business Address FAQs

Can I use my Maryland resident agent address as my business address?

This depends on which Maryland resident agent service you hire. Many do not allow you to use their resident agent address as your business address. However, with Maryland Resident Agent Service, we allow all our clients to take advantage of our address on all areas of your LLC or corporation state documents.

If you would like to use our address as your principal business and mailing address, check out our Mail Scanning and Virtual Office packages!

Is a resident agent address the same as a principal business address in Maryland?

No, a resident agent address is not the same as a principal business address. Your resident agent address is used for legal service of process (lawsuit paperwork delivery) and official state notices. Your principal business address is where your business operates or receives regular mail (ex: phone bills, bank mail, vendor receipts, and so forth).

Does Maryland allow a virtual address or resident agent address for LLC formation?

Maryland requires a physical resident agent address for legal purposes. A virtual address can be used for your principal business or mailing address, but it can’t replace your resident agent.

Can I use my own address for my LLC?

Using your own address for your LLC risks exposing your home address to anyone with an internet connection. Even if you get a virtual address to replace it later, the business address you submit on your formation paperwork becomes a matter of public record. You probably don’t need to worry about angry clients interrupting dinner, but you might need to worry about process servers, and you definitely should be aware that your mailbox will suffer. Marketers love free new addresses, after all.

What if your business doesn’t have a physical address?

If your business is among the growing number of entrepreneurs without a dedicated physical street address, your best bet is to acquire some form of a virtual address. A virtual address is an address in a real building you can purchase from a service provider, usually for some kind of monthly or annual subscription.

Does the IRS accept virtual addresses for businesses?

Yes, you can use a virtual business address as your mailing address with the IRS when you file your business tax returns, but they will still require an actual physical address for their files and for your EIN.