How We Work With You, For You

We make it easy to start your new Maryland LLC. Because we’re local resident agents, we provide next-level service at affordable prices for Maryland businesses.

We get the right forms to the right place, and make sure we’re correctly listed as your resident agent (with our signature and everything!). When we receive documents on behalf of your business, we upload them to your secure client account and notify you right away.

Here’s how it works:

• You hire us.
  You give us a little bit of information about your company, tell us which services you want, and we’re off to the races.
• We file your paperwork.
  Your Articles of Organization are expedited so you aren’t stuck in that 8-10 weeks of limbo with the state.
• Maryland processes your filing.
  Someone in the SDAT office reviews and approves your filing.
• Your LLC documents are uploaded to your client account.
  You’ll be able to view your Articles of Organization and other documents related to your LLC, including a template for your operating agreement.
• We’ll serve as your resident agent for a year.
  Receiving legal notices, reminders, and service of process on your behalf. It all gets uploaded to your account for easy viewing and managing, plus up to three non-official pieces of business mail. (Don’t worry, we’ll filter out the junk mail first.) We hope you’ll keep us, but no hard feelings if switching is what’s best for business.
• We’ll file your Annual Report and Personal Property Tax Return.
  You’re automatically enrolled in our set-it-and-forget-it compliance service, which means we’ll file your compliance paperwork with the state for just $100 plus state fees. Prefer to file yourself? Just opt out.
• We’ll set you up with everything you need to establish your online Business Presence.
  Say goodbye to social media platforms controlling your brand, and hello to having total control with your own custom domain, business website, professional email addresses, and a phone line with a local Maryland area code.

Step-by-Step Guide to Forming Your LLC in Maryland

If you prefer to handle forming your Maryland LLC yourself, no problem! We can still serve as your resident agent, offer great business support, and provide you with our physical Maryland address for added privacy.

Here are the basic steps to start an LLC in Maryland:

• Name your LLC
• Appoint a resident agent
• File Articles of Organization
• Draft your operating agreement
• Apply for an EIN

Name your LLC.

You can’t just call it Maryland LLC. (We checked; it’s in active use.) Besides, your business name needs to reflect your brand, something that ties back to your work and your reputation. We recommend choosing a name that makes sense for your business and is easy to recognize. Maryland also has a couple rules for naming to keep in mind:

• Your business name must include an entity identifier. That means you’ll need to include “Limited Liability Company,” “LLC,” or “L.L.C.” as part of the name. (If you’re forming a benefit LLC, you’ll need to include “benefit limited liability company” or “Benefit LLC.”)
• Your business name must be unique in Maryland. In other words, you can’t name your company something that’s the same or similar to the name of an existing company. Use the Business Entity Search to check whether someone else is already using the name you had in mind.
• Your business name must not contain restricted language. This includes profanity, but also includes words associated with highly regulated fields. “Bank” or “university,” are typically rejected for general businesses, along with anything suggesting that your business represents a government entity. You also can’t use words that suggest your LLC is organized for a purpose not allowed by your Articles of Organization

Appoint a Maryland resident agent.

Called a registered agent in other states, your resident agent is a person or a business with a physical presence in Maryland who can accept legal reminders, notices, and service of process on behalf of your business. Your resident agent must sign your Articles of Organization when you file with SDAT, so you’ll need to choose one before you file.

There are two major considerations for serving as your own resident agent:

• Do you have a brick and mortar commercial location to list on your formation documents? The name and office address of your resident agent are each made available to the public. If you’re a small business owner operating out of your home office, you may not want anyone with an internet connection able to discover your name and home address.
• Are you available during standard business hours? In the event that you’re served with a lawsuit, a process server will deliver notice to the address listed for your resident agent. That might mean getting served at home, or at your place of business in front of customers and employees—not a great look—or worse, missing service of process altogether if you’ve stepped out for an appointment or a vacation. You can’t respond to a suit you don’t know about!

Hiring a professional service can alleviate each of these concerns. At just $49 per year, we think our service is a solid investment in your company’s privacy and professionalism. Hire us before you file so we can provide you with our signature and address pre-filled on your formation documents.

Complete and file your Articles of Organization.

When you form your Maryland LLC, you’ll need to prepare and submit your company’s Articles of Organization. This form is pretty short—see for yourself below!—so it’s easy to complete. We recommend filing online with Maryland Business Express because you get faster service for virtually the same price as filing by paper. You’ll need the following information for your LLC:

• Name
• Business purpose
• Business Address
• Resident agent
• Resident agent’s address
• Names and signatures of the individuals filing

Want a template you can complete here and submit to the state? We’ve got you:

The standard filing time is a whopping two-month minimum, so we also recommend expedited filing for just $50 more. You can check turnaround times for filing on the state’s Registrations & Filings: Processing Times page.

Your LLC is official once your Articles of Organization are approved and SDAT has issued your SDAT Identification Number. This is Maryland state’s unique identifier for your business, and it’s different from your EIN.

One of the things we like about Maryland’s filing process is that the state only requires the name and signature of the person filing the Articles, not the names of the LLC members (owners). This detail means that Maryland LLCs offer greater privacy than LLCs formed in other states that require public disclosure of LLC members and/or managers on these filing records. Having your resident agent act as your authorized agent for filing adds a layer of privacy here, and it’s one of the perks we offer when you hire us to start your LLC.

Draft your operating agreement.

Your LLC is official once your Articles of Organization are approved, but you’ll still want to create an operating agreement. This critical business document outlines how your LLC is operated, including information about who members are and what their ownership percentages are, how decisions will be made and conflicts resolved, the duties and responsibilities of members and/or managers, distribution of profits and losses, etc.

It’s an internal document, so you don’t need to submit it to the state. However, it’s likely you’ll need to provide a copy to perform certain business duties, like opening a business banking account.

When you hire us to form your LLC, we’ll build a template for your operating agreement. You can customize it with anything specific to your LLC.

Apply for an EIN.

This unique 9-digit number issued by the IRS acts as your company’s social security number. Also called a Federal Employer Identification Number or a Tax ID number, you’ll need an EIN to file and pay taxes and perform other business functions like opening a business banking account.

We recommend applying for your EIN online once your Maryland LLC has been approved to make sure the correct business name and formation date are associated with the EIN. The online application is quick, easy, and free.

Next steps for your Maryland LLC:

Once your LLC is established, you’ll need to take action to operationalize and maintain it. This means taking a few more steps:

• Opening a business banking account. Keeping your personal and business finances separate helps maintain your limited liability status, so open a business banking account for your LLC. Expect to provide copies of your Articles of Organization, operating agreement, SDAT ID, and EIN. Specific banks may have additional requirements.
• Registering tax accounts with the Comptroller of Maryland. Depending on what type of business you operate, you’ll need to register a couple different tax accounts. For example, almost everyone who makes sales will need to register for a sales and use tax. The Combined Registration Application is your starting point for this and more. If you’ve already registered your business online through Maryland Business Express, you can complete the Combined Registration Application there, too. You’ll get a Central Registration Number from the Comptroller once you’ve successfully registered. Make sure you don’t confuse this number for your SDAT ID or your EIN!
• Getting licenses and permits to operate. Conveniently, Maryland offers a OneStop portal for licenses, permits, certificates, and the like issued by various state agencies. Also check with your local Clerk of the Court—they provide some county-specific licenses (like traders licenses and auctioneer’s licenses)—or your county’s office of inspections, licenses, or permits.
• Filing your Annual Report. Your Maryland LLC will need to file an Annual Report no later than April 15th each calendar year. This is a compliance document that confirms and maintains your company’s active status. It costs $300 to file, plus a 3% credit card or Paypal fee when you file online through Maryland Business Express. When you hire us to form your company or serve as your resident agent, you’re automatically enrolled in our no-upfront-cost compliance service. We’ll file your Annual Report (and Personal Property Tax Return, if applicable) for you for just $100 plus the state’s fee, due at the time of filing. (You can always cancel compliance service and choose to file yourself, of course, but we find that plenty of business owners would rather not worry about the filing.)
• Filing your yearly Personal Property Tax Return. If your business maintains a trader’s license or owns, leases, or uses personal property located in the state, you should expect to also pay a Personal Property Tax Return to the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation with your Annual Report. The total due is determined by the assessed value of your business’s property multiplied by the tax rate for the county in which the property is located. Our compliance service enrollment includes filing this document after we collect the relevant information from you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use the business name of a dissolved Maryland LLC?

In Maryland, when an LLC is dissolved—whether voluntarily or forfeited due to noncompliance—it loses exclusive rights to a company name. Business names with a status of “dissolved” or “forfeited” are up for grabs! This is extra incentive to be vigilant about your own company’s annual reports and compliance, and a great reason to hire us to help you with that.

Can I get a trade name for my Maryland LLC?

Using a trade name is a great way to simplify your branding and allow for franchising opportunities! We offer a trade name service for just $125 plus state fees to our business formation and resident agent service clients. You can also file online through Maryland Business Express.

Does my business address listed on the Articles of Organization need to be in Maryland?

The only address that must be in Maryland is the resident agent address, so your business address does not have to be in Maryland. Clients who hire us as their resident agent can list our office address for their Maryland LLC and keep their address off the Maryland Business Express public record.

What does “member” or “member-managed” mean?

An LLC member is an LLC’s owner. Member-managed means the owner(s) make the managing decisions, versus “Manager-Managed” LLCs where a manager (who may or may not be an owner) makes all the managerial decisions for the LLC.

How will I know the status of my Maryland LLC filing?

If you’ve hire us to form your Maryland LLC and the articles are rejected, we’ll work with you and the state of Maryland to fix the issues and get your LLC formed as quickly as we can. If the name you chose is too close to another company, we’ll use your back up choices and file until something you like is accepted.

If you file the articles on your own, the state will notify you directly.

Approved articles will be returned however they were submitted. Paper filings are sent to the return address on the form and online filings are returned as digital documents to the person or company who filed.

Do I need membership certificates?

Maybe, maybe not. Membership certificates are pretty cool and might look great matted and framed on your wall, but it’s unlikely they will hold any information that’s not already outlined in your operating agreement. Either way, we provide certificates with the operating agreement template to every client who hires us to form their Maryland LLC.

Can you help register a foreign Maryland LLC?

We‘d love to help with your Foreign Maryland LLC! We can serve as the resident agent for any Maryland LLC, foreign or domestic. When you hire us to register your non-Maryland limited liability company, we’ll get your Certificate of Good Standing (or Certificate of Existence, if your domestic state calls it that) for you and file the necessary paperwork with SDAT.

I already have an LLC in another state. Can I move that LLC to be a Maryland LLC?

Unfortunately, Maryland doesn’t provide a pathway for domestication, the formal process of moving an existing LLC’s charter state to Maryland. You can apply for foreign qualification so your LLC can operate in Maryland, or you can dissolve your original LLC and spin up a new one in the Old Line State. You could also create a new LLC in Maryland and merge your old one into it.