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Maryland LLC Annual Report: $300 Form 1, Due April 15

Every Maryland LLC files Form 1, the combined Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return, with SDAT by April 15, and pays a $300 filing fee. Miss it and the money penalties start small, but the end of the road is forfeiture of the right to do business in Maryland and the right to use the LLC's name.

By the LLCForming research teamFees checked Nov 8, 2026

Form 1, in one table

Item	Maryland rule
Form	Form 1, Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return, one combined filing with SDAT.
Who files	Domestic LLCs and foreign LLCs registered or qualified to do business in Maryland, under Tax-Property section 11-101. SDAT requires the report regardless of whether the business owns property, generates income, or conducted any activity in Maryland during the year, and filing starts the year after the LLC was created.
Due date	April 15 each year.
Fee	$300 for an LLC, domestic or foreign, under Corp. and Ass'ns section 1-203(b)(3)(ii) and SDAT's Form 1 fee list.
Extension	SDAT may extend the deadline to June 15, if the request is made electronically on or before April 15, or on paper on or before March 15. A paper extension request costs $20.
Late fee	A capped initial penalty plus 2% per 30 days, detailed below. The structural consequence, forfeiture, matters more than the money.

The $300, and what it is not

Maryland's Form 1 carries three different money items that guides routinely merge into one wrong number, so take them separately. First, the Annual Report filing fee: $300 for an LLC, set by statute and printed on the form. This is the figure some guides deny exists, usually by quoting the $0 fee that applies to nonstock corporations, sole proprietorships, and general partnerships. Second, the Business Personal Property Return: there is no fee for the return itself, a point SDAT's fee schedule states expressly, and it is the likely source of the confusion. Third, the personal property tax: a tax, not a fee, and it applies only if the LLC owns taxable business personal property in Maryland. Form 1 asks whether the business owns, leases, or uses Maryland personal property with a total original cost of $20,000 or more, and only then are the property sections completed; SDAT assesses the property and certifies the assessment to the county, which bills the tax at its own rate. Two legitimate reductions exist: an SDAT certified family farm pays $100 instead of $300, and SDAT shall waive the fee for each year an entity evidences compliance with MarylandSaves. Everyone else pays $300, property or no property.

Late penalties: small numbers, billed later

Tax-Property section 14-704(a) sets the late penalty for the annual report and the personal property return. The initial penalty may not exceed 1/10 of 1% of the total county assessment of the person's assessable personal property, and it is capped at $500, with minimums that rise with lateness: $30 if the report is filed 1 to 15 days late, $40 if 16 to 30 days late, and $50 if more than 30 days late. On top of that, an additional penalty of 2% of the initial penalty accrues for each 30 days, or fraction of one, that the report remains late. SDAT may abate or reduce a penalty for good cause. Form 1 adds two practical warnings: do not prepay the penalty, because SDAT bills for it with accrued interest, and non-filers receive estimated assessments at twice the estimated value of the personal property owned. The money, in other words, is the small part of being late.

Forfeiture, and the 60 day cure

The serious consequence is structural. Under Corp. and Ass'ns section 4A-911, after September 30 each year the Comptroller certifies LLCs delinquent in taxes, the Secretary of Labor certifies those delinquent in unemployment insurance contributions, and SDAT certifies LLCs that failed to file the prior year's annual report; SDAT then issues a proclamation declaring the LLC's right to do business in Maryland, and its right to use its name, forfeited, effective on the proclamation date. Section 4A-912(b) builds in one clean rescue: an LLC that, within 60 days after the proclamation, pays all certified taxes, unemployment insurance contributions, interest, and penalties, and files the annual report that was due, is reinstated as of the date of forfeiture, as if the forfeiture had not interrupted it. That 60 day window is the deadline that matters on this page.

After the cure window: Articles of Reinstatement

Past the 60 days, the document is Articles of Reinstatement. Note the name: Articles of Revival is the corporation document, and filing guides that send an LLC to a revival form are mixing entity types. The LLC reinstatement fee is $100 for standard processing, or $150 expedited. Acceptance is conditional under section 4A-917: SDAT may not accept the reinstatement unless all annual reports that were or would have been required are filed, and all unpaid unemployment insurance contributions and State and local taxes, other than real estate taxes, plus interest and penalties, are paid, whether or not barred by limitations. SDAT's reinstatement guide adds a practical requirement on top: if the entity reported tangible personal property, it must obtain a tax clearance certificate from the county or city where the property is located and attach it to the filing, and a receipt is not accepted in its place.

Closing a Maryland LLC on purpose costs $0

Ending the LLC deliberately takes Articles of Cancellation filed with SDAT, and section 1-203(b)(14) sets no processing fee for them. Under section 4A-909 the articles state the LLC's name and principal office address, the name and address of a resident agent who shall serve for one year after termination, the name and address of each member designated to wind up, or of all members if none was designated, a statement that the LLC is terminated on filing or on a specified date no later than 30 days after filing, and a statement about notice to known creditors. Timing follows section 4A-910: if there are known creditors, the articles are filed after 19 days following the sending of the creditor notice; if there are none, they may be filed at any time. The LLC is terminated under section 4A-908 when SDAT accepts the articles or on their stated effective date, and it continues to exist afterward only to pay debts, collect and distribute assets, and wind up. No statute in the cancellation sections makes a tax clearance certificate a precondition to SDAT accepting Articles of Cancellation, and this page asserts no clearance requirement either way; the county Tax Clearance Certificate verified in Maryland's own materials belongs to reinstatement, in the section above. The practical reason to file promptly is Form 1 itself: an LLC that has stopped operating but never filed cancellation remains legally active and keeps owing the $300 report. Our dissolution guide covers the wind up order.