How to Pay Maryland LLC Annual Fees Online or by Mail

The Maryland LLC annual fee is $300, paid to the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) with your Annual Report every year by April 15. You can pay online through Maryland Business Express or by mailing a check with Form 1. Every LLC owes it, whether the business made money, lost money, or never got off the ground.{¹}

What the $300 Covers and What It Doesn’t

The $300 is a flat charge set by Maryland Code, Corporations and Associations § 1-203, and it applies to both domestic and foreign LLCs regardless of revenue or activity.{¹} One narrow exception exists: LLCs certified by SDAT as family farms pay $100 instead.

Paying online by credit card or e-check adds a 3% convenience fee, which works out to about $9 on top of the $300.{²} Mailing a check avoids that surcharge.

The fee only covers the annual report. If your LLC owns, leases, or uses tangible personal property in Maryland with a total original cost of $20,000 or more, you also owe a Business Personal Property Return as part of the same Form 1, and the county or municipality where that property sits will bill you separately for personal property tax.{³} County rates vary and can run up to 2.5 times the local real property tax rate. If your total property is under $20,000, you self-attest to that on the annual report and skip the detailed property schedule entirely. A service-based LLC with a laptop and a desk almost always falls under the threshold.

What to Have Ready Before You File

Pull these together before you log in so you aren’t hunting for records partway through:

Your SDAT Department ID. It begins with W (domestic LLC) or Z (foreign LLC) followed by eight digits. If you don’t have it, look up your LLC on the Maryland Business Express entity search — the ID is public.{}⁴
The LLC’s full legal name as registered with SDAT.
Principal office address (where business records are kept).
Current names and addresses of all members or managers.
Registered agent information, confirmed and current.
If reporting personal property: original purchase cost and year of acquisition for every asset, grouped by category — office furniture, machinery, computers, and so on. Report at original cost, with no depreciation and no trade-in deductions.{}⁵

Paying Online Through Maryland Business Express

The fastest path is BusinessExpress.Maryland.gov. Create an account at the state’s eGovernment portal if you don’t already have one, then link your LLC to the account using the Department ID.

Choose the option to file your annual report. The system pre-populates most fields from SDAT’s records. Review each one, update anything that has changed, and complete the personal property section if it applies. The portal accepts PDF uploads up to 50MB if you need to attach supplemental property schedules.{⁶}

Signing the report attests under penalty of perjury that the information is true and complete, so read the confirmation screen before you submit.{⁷} Pay by credit card or e-check (remember the 3% add-on). SDAT generates a confirmation right away and your good standing updates quickly. That speed matters if a lender, licensing board, or title company is waiting on proof of compliance.

Paying by Mail

If you’d rather pay by check, download the fillable Form 1 from dat.maryland.gov. The form has to be typed or filled in digitally — handwritten submissions are rejected. Make the check or money order out for $300 (plus any personal property taxes you owe) and send everything to:

Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation
P.O. Box 17052
Baltimore, Maryland 21297-1052

Mail filings are timely based on postmark, not receipt. If April 15 lands on a weekend, the deadline shifts to the following Monday, and anything postmarked by close of business that day counts as on time.{⁵} Processing takes longer than online, so don’t wait on the confirmation to feel settled.

Getting an Extension

If April 15 is too tight, request a 60-day extension before the deadline and your due date moves to June 15.{⁸} You submit the request through the SDAT website or Maryland Business Express. No reason is required. One restriction: extensions can only be requested online. There is no mail-in option.

What Happens If You Pay Late

There is no grace period. Penalties start accruing the day after April 15, or the day after June 15 if you got the extension.

For LLCs that file late, SDAT calculates an initial penalty of one-tenth of one percent of the county assessment, plus interest of 2% of that penalty for every 30 days (or part of 30 days) the return is outstanding.{¹} Minimums run from $30 (1–15 days late) to $50 (31 or more days late), capped at an initial penalty of $500.{⁵} SDAT bills you after the fact. Don’t try to prepay an estimated penalty with your filing.

For LLCs that don’t file at all, the consequences escalate. SDAT issues an estimated assessment at twice the estimated value of your personal property, and the LLC loses its good standing.{¹} Without good standing, you can’t prove the LLC’s legal status to a bank, a licensing agency, or a counterparty on a contract. Keep ignoring it and SDAT forfeits the LLC’s authority to do business in Maryland, which means it can no longer legally operate, enter contracts, or file lawsuits in the state.{⁹}

If Your LLC Has Already Been Forfeited

Forfeiture is reversible, but every overdue obligation has to be cleared before SDAT will restore the LLC.{¹⁰} Three steps:

File every missed annual report. Maryland Business Express accepts up to ten years of delinquent reports.{}¹¹
Clear any personal property taxes. If a missed year’s report shows reportable property, submit the return, pay the resulting tax to the county or city, and get a tax clearance certificate from that jurisdiction. SDAT requires the certificate itself, not a payment receipt.
File Articles of Reinstatement with a $100 filing fee, or $150 for expedited processing.{}²

Standard reinstatement runs six to eight weeks. Expedited review drops that to seven to ten business days for an extra $50. Same-day processing costs $325 online or $425 in person.{¹⁰} Between $300 for each missed year, the reinstatement fee, late penalties, and back property taxes, the bill for even two or three missed years adds up quickly. Paying the $300 on time is the cheapest version of this transaction by a wide margin.

1
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. 2026 Form 1 Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return
2
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. SDAT Corporate Charter Fee Schedule
3
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. SDAT Raises Business Personal Property Exemption From $2,500 To $20,000
4
Maryland Business Express. Register Your Business in Maryland
5
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. 2024 Instructions for Form 1 The Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return
6
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. 2024 Instructions for Business Entity Annual Report Form 1
7
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. 2025 Business Entity Annual Report Form 1 Instructions
8
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Departmental Forms and Applications
9
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Frequently Asked Forfeiture Questions
10
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Articles or Certificate of Reinstatement
11
Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. Annual Business Filings News Release