The short answer, the exact fee, and the steps to file in Maryland.
Forming an LLC in Maryland costs $100 up front for the Articles of Organization, a fairly ordinary, middle-of-the-road filing fee. Maryland charges a recurring fee substantial enough to budget for every year, and the rest of the process is the same paperwork every state requires: a registered agent, an operating agreement, and a free EIN.
The Maryland Secretary of State collects $100 when you file the Articles of Organization. Budget a registered-agent service on top of that if you want a local address on file without using your own; that typically runs a few hundred dollars a year nationally, separate from anything Maryland itself charges. On the recurring side, Maryland charges a recurring fee substantial enough to budget for every year ($300). Use the LLC cost calculator to see the full cost picture beyond just the filing fee for a Maryland LLC.
| Filing document | Articles of Organization |
| State filing fee | $100 |
| Recurring report fee | $300 |
These are the figures Maryland itself publishes for LLC formation; confirm the current amount on the Maryland Secretary of State site before you file, since state fees change.
By default, Maryland taxes an LLC the same way it would tax a sole proprietorship or partnership: profit passes through to your personal return and there is no separate LLC-level tax just for choosing the structure. Some Maryland LLC owners later elect S-corp tax treatment once profit is consistently high enough to make the extra payroll paperwork worth it. Run your Maryland numbers through the LLC tax calculator and the LLC vs sole proprietor calculator before you see the tax math before you decide anything.
Processing time depends on Maryland's current workload and whether you file online or by mail; the Maryland Secretary of State's site lists current turnaround times, since they change throughout the year.
Maryland does not require you to file an operating agreement with the state, but skipping one leaves your LLC governed by Maryland's default LLC statute, which may not match how you actually want to run the business.
Maryland charges $100 to file the Articles of Organization, which is a fairly ordinary, middle-of-the-road filing fee. After that, Maryland charges a recurring fee substantial enough to budget for every year; use the LLC cost calculator for your full first-year number.
No. Most people file the Articles of Organization themselves directly with Maryland's Secretary of State. A lawyer can help with a custom operating agreement for a Maryland LLC or a more complex ownership setup, but Maryland does not require one to form the LLC itself.
Maryland charges a recurring fee substantial enough to budget for every year, currently $300 on the recurring schedule the state sets, on top of the original filing fee.
Priya covers tax, regulation, and compliance: the rules that decide what you can and cannot do, usually filed in an obscure subsection that most people skip. She reads federal register notices in her spare time and is at peace with that being unusual.