How to File Maryland Form 1: Annual Report and Personal Property Return

Maryland’s Form 1 Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return is due April 15 each year, filed through the Maryland Business Express portal or mailed to the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) in Baltimore. The form does two jobs at once: it confirms your entity is still active, and it reports the original cost of tangible personal property your business owns in Maryland so SDAT can assess it. The filing fee is $300 for most for-profit entities and $0 for nonstock (nonprofit) corporations. You only complete the personal property portion if your Maryland tangible property has a total original cost of $20,000 or more.

If you are a sole proprietor or general partnership, this is not your form. You file Form 2 instead, which carries no fee.¹

Who Has to File Form 1

Maryland Code, Tax-Property § 11-101 requires an annual report from every domestic corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, limited partnership, business trust, and statutory trust formed in the state, plus foreign versions of those entities registered to do business in Maryland. The same obligation reaches anyone who owned property subject to property tax during the preceding calendar year, regardless of entity type.²

Nonstock corporations (most nonprofits) file Form 1 with a $0 fee. The obligation applies whether or not the entity earned revenue, held property, or did any business during the year. Skipping the filing because the company was dormant is one of the most common mistakes, and it still triggers penalties and loss of Good Standing.³

What to Gather Before You Start

Have these items in front of you before you open the form. Missing any of them will stall you partway through:

Your SDAT ID number: a letter (indicating entity type) followed by eight digits.⁴
Your Federal Employer Identification Number in XX-XXXXXXX format. Do not enter a Social Security Number, even if you use one for the business.
The current mailing address where you want tax bills sent. Check the change-of-address box if it differs from SDAT’s records.
For corporations, current names and addresses for all officers and directors. The business name must match SDAT records exactly, including punctuation and spacing.
Personal property records showing original cost and acquisition year for each item, if the business owns, leases, or uses Maryland personal property totaling $20,000 or more in original cost.

Filing Fee by Entity Type

The fee is paid at the time of filing:

$300: domestic or foreign stock corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, LLPs, statutory trusts, foreign insurance corporations, and real estate investment trusts.
$100: SDAT Certified Family Farms.
$0: domestic or foreign nonstock corporations and foreign interstate corporations.⁵

Working Through the Form

Form 1 has two main parts: the Annual Report (Sections I through IV) and the Business Personal Property Return (Section V onward). Every filer completes the annual report. The personal property return is only required when the $20,000 threshold is met.

Section I: Entity Identification

Enter the SDAT ID, FEIN, business name, any trade name, and mailing address. The six-digit NAICS code is optional and matches the code you use on federal filings.

Section II: Officers, Directors, and Registered Agent

This applies to corporations (SDAT IDs starting with D or F). List current officers and directors with their addresses, which can be personal or business addresses.

Section III: Corporate Diversity Reporting

Only domestic stock corporations with sales above $5,000,000 and tax-exempt nonstock corporations with operating budgets above $5,000,000 fill this out. Privately held companies where at least 75 percent of shareholders are family members are exempt.²

Section IV: The $20,000 Attestation

This is the pivot point. Section IV asks whether the business owns, leases, or uses Maryland personal property totaling $20,000 or more in original cost. Answer “No” and you are attesting the total is below that threshold, which lets you skip the personal property return entirely.⁶ You sign under penalty of perjury that the report is true and complete.

Section V Onward: The Personal Property Return

If the threshold is met, you report the dollar amount of business transacted at all Maryland locations, give a short description of the business, and list original cost figures for tangible property by category: furniture, fixtures, equipment, inventory, and similar items. Report the property even if it is fully depreciated or expensed on your federal return. SDAT still assesses it.⁴

How Maryland Depreciates What You Report

SDAT does not use federal MACRS depreciation. Maryland applies its own schedule by regulation, defaulting to 10 percent per year, with faster rates for specific property types:⁷

20 percent per year: heavy equipment, hotel room furniture, vending machines, car wash equipment, X-ray and MRI equipment, photocopiers, and unregistered vehicles.
30 percent per year: data processing equipment (computers other than mainframes costing $500,000 or more) and software.
33⅓ percent per year: carpets, drapes, and shades.
50 percent per year: pinball machines, video games, rental tuxedos, and rental uniforms.

Property depreciates down to its salvage value and stops there. Because the state rates differ sharply from federal depreciation, an asset fully written off on your income tax return may still carry an assessed value for Maryland. This is the single biggest source of under-reporting: owners assume a zero federal book value means nothing to report, and SDAT disagrees.

Submitting the Return

Online Through Maryland Business Express

The fastest route is the Maryland Business Express portal. Log in, search for your entity, and go to the Annual Report/Personal Property tab. Stock corporations, LLCs, foreign LLCs, nonstock corporations, and sole proprietors filing Form 2 can all file online, and every online filing is treated as expedited.¹

A few categories cannot use the portal and must file on paper: government entities, credit unions, banks, savings and loan institutions, public utilities, cable companies, and cooperatives.

If you have delinquent filings from prior years, finish them oldest to newest before submitting the current year. Multiple past-due filings can be sent in together with one payment.

By Mail

Download Form 1, complete it, and mail it with a check to:

State Department of Assessments and Taxation
700 East Pratt Street, 2nd Floor, Suite 2700
Baltimore, MD 21202⁸

Paper takes longer to process, and SDAT uses the postmark date to decide whether the filing was timely.

Deadline, Extension, and Late Penalties

Every annual report is due April 15, regardless of the entity’s fiscal year.² You can request a two-month extension to June 15 through Maryland Business Express. Electronic extension requests must be submitted by April 15; paper extension requests must arrive by March 15.⁹

Miss the deadline (or the extended deadline) and SDAT assesses a penalty of one-tenth of one percent of the total county assessment, capped at $500, with these minimums:

1 to 15 days late: at least $30.
16 to 30 days late: at least $40.
Over 30 days late: at least $50.

An additional two percent of that penalty accrues for each 30-day period (or fraction) the report remains unfiled. The penalty applies even when the business owes no personal property tax, because it attaches to the missing report, not the missing tax.

What Happens After You File

SDAT applies the state depreciation schedule to the property you reported, produces an assessed value, and sends you an assessment notice. The local county or municipality uses that value to issue a personal property tax bill. If the assessed value looks wrong, review it carefully. Over-reporting original cost or failing to separate property by county can inflate the result, and SDAT provides an appeal process for owners who believe the value does not reflect actual conditions.

Good Standing, Forfeiture, and Reinstatement

Filing Form 1 is how a business keeps “Good Standing” with the state. Without it, the entity cannot legally operate in Maryland: it cannot file lawsuits, obtain state permits, or enter into enforceable contracts.³ Corporations, LLCs, LPs, and LLPs lose Good Standing immediately after April 15 passes without a filing. If the lapse is not fixed, the state eventually forfeits the business charter, which legally dissolves the entity.

Bringing a forfeited business back requires clearing every delinquent obligation first:¹⁰

File every overdue annual report, oldest first.
If any delinquent year shows the entity owned tangible property, submit the personal property returns to SDAT, pay the resulting tax to the county or city where the property was located, and obtain a tax clearance certificate from the local government. A tax receipt will not be accepted.
Submit the Articles or Certificate of Reinstatement with the clearance certificate (if applicable) and the reinstatement fee.

Reinstatement fees are separate from the annual report fees. Standard processing is $100 and takes six to eight weeks. Expedited processing is $150 and takes seven to ten business days. Same-day service costs an additional $325 online or $425 for documents delivered in person. Businesses that let multiple years lapse face compounding penalties and potentially multiple clearance certificates from different jurisdictions, so the cost of waiting climbs every year the entity sits forfeited.

1
Maryland Business Express. Register Your Business Online
2
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Tax-Property 11-101 – Annual Report
3
Maryland Business Express. Maintain Good Standing Status
4
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Instructions for 2026 Business Entity Annual Report – Form 1
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Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Form 1 Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return
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Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Form 1 Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return
7
Cornell Law Institute. Md. Code Regs. 18.03.01.02 – Depreciation
8
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Contact Us
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Tax-Property 14-704 – Tax Penalty When Annual Report Not Submitted
10
Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation. Articles or Certificate of Reinstatement