Hire a Resident Agent in Maryland

A resident agent is the person or company named to receive legal papers and official state mail for a Maryland entity, at a physical Maryland street address called the principal office. It is defined in Corporations and Associations Article § 1-101(x) and required by § 4A-210.

Yes. Every Maryland LLC must appoint and continuously maintain a resident agent and principal office under § 4A-210, and every Maryland corporation must do the same under § 2-108, from the day it files its formation document.

Yes, if you are an individual residing in Maryland with a physical street address where you can accept deliveries during normal business hours (§ 1-101(x)). Many owners hire a service instead to keep that address off the public record.

No. § 4A-210 requires every entity to maintain a principal office, and SDAT requires that office to be a physical Maryland street address; a P.O. box does not qualify.

LLC Register charges $99 a year. Commercial resident agent services generally range from about $99 to $249 a year, based on published pricing checked 9/30/2026.

File a Resolution to Change Resident Agent/Resident Office with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation for a $25 fee (§ 4A-210). It can be filed online through Maryland Business Express or by mail.

SDAT will not be able to confirm a valid entity record; unresolved delinquency of this kind is folded into the same certification-and-notice process that leads to forfeiture of the entity's right to do business and use of its name under § 4A-911.

No. Maryland does not require the resident agent to sign a standalone consent form. Naming the agent on the Articles of Organization (§ 4A-204) or on the resolution changing the agent (§ 4A-210) is itself the state's record of appointment.

Yes, as long as they are an individual residing in Maryland with a street address where they are available to accept deliveries during business hours, consistent with § 1-101(x).

No. Under § 1-101(x), a resident agent must be an individual residing in Maryland or a Maryland corporation or limited liability company — an out-of-state entity does not qualify even if it is authorized to do business in Maryland.

Service of process on the resident agent is effective service on the entity under § 1-401; LLC Register scans and emails it to you the same day we receive it.

Yes. The resident agent's name and principal office address are part of the entity's filing with SDAT and appear on the Maryland Business Express Business Entity Search.

Yes. A resident agent can file a signed resignation with SDAT; it takes effect immediately if a successor agent is named, or ten days after filing if none is named (§ 4A-210).

Yes. The Annual Report / Personal Property Return (Form 1), due April 15 each year to SDAT, must show your current resident agent and principal office.

Yes. LLCs, corporations, limited partnerships and most other entities filed with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation must appoint one under § 4A-210 or § 2-108.

Yes. Before SDAT will accept a foreign LLC's Foreign Limited Liability Company Registration, the LLC must name a resident agent with a Maryland principal office, the same eligibility rule under § 1-101(x) that applies to a domestic LLC; the registration itself is filed with SDAT for a $100 fee.

No. Maryland's Limited Liability Company Act, Title 4A of the Corporations and Associations Article, has no series LLC provisions like Delaware's or Texas's. An LLC formed in a series-LLC state that registers to do business in Maryland as a foreign LLC appoints one resident agent for the whole entity, not a separate one per series.

Yes, the same as any other Maryland LLC. Maryland has no separate "professional limited liability company" statute; a licensed professional practice simply organizes as an LLC under Title 4A and names its resident agent on the Articles of Organization like any other Maryland LLC, in addition to meeting any licensing-board membership rules under Maryland's Business Occupations and Professions Article.

Maryland's statute doesn't say. Unlike states such as Texas that expressly require an individual agent to be at least 18, § 1-101(x) of the Corporations and Associations Article simply requires "an individual residing in Maryland," with no stated age floor — though as a practical matter the agent still needs the legal capacity to accept service and sign SDAT filings.

Maryland court rules provide a backstop. Under Maryland Rule 2-124(o), if the LLC has no resident agent, its resident agent has died or is no longer at the address on file, or two good-faith attempts on separate days to serve the resident agent have failed, process may instead be served on the State Department of Assessments and Taxation, which forwards it to the entity's last known principal office.

Yes. Nonstock corporations are formed under the same Title 2 of the Corporations and Associations Article as stock corporations and are subject to the identical resident agent requirement under § 2-108; SDAT charges $170 to file Articles of Incorporation for a nonstock corporation.

Yes. Maryland's Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act, Title 10 of the Corporations and Associations Article, requires every limited partnership to maintain a resident agent and principal office in Maryland, the same baseline requirement imposed on LLCs and corporations.

Search the Maryland Business Express Entity Search by entity name or Department ID number; the result shows the entity's current resident agent name and principal office address as filed with SDAT.

Not if you're keeping the same agent. The Articles of Conversion filed with SDAT name the resulting entity's resident agent directly, so a separate Resolution to Change Resident Agent/Resident Office is only needed if you're also switching to a new agent.

Yes. Because Maryland ties the principal office to the resident agent rather than keeping them as two separately-filed items, any change to that address — even with the same agent staying on — must be reported to SDAT on a Resolution to Change Resident Agent/Resident Office for the $25 fee.

Yes. A single individual or company that otherwise qualifies under § 1-101(x) can be named resident agent on any number of Maryland entities at once; Maryland has no licensing cap or commercial-agent registration limiting how many appointments one agent may hold.

Yes. The IRS treats an annual resident agent fee as an ordinary and necessary business expense, deductible in the year you pay it.

Yes, as long as your attorney is an individual residing in Maryland, or a Maryland corporation or limited liability company, under § 1-101(x) — the same eligibility rule that applies to anyone else.

It's the same role, but Maryland's own statute uses only "resident agent." The Corporations and Associations Article defines and uses that exact term throughout § 1-101(x) and § 4A-210; "registered agent" and "agent for service of process" are the labels other states' statutes use for the identical function.

SDAT treats that the same as having no valid resident agent on file. An entity in that position is swept into the same Comptroller-certification and notice process that can lead to forfeiture of its right to do business and the use of its name under § 4A-911.

You have to name one upfront. The Articles of Organization filed with SDAT require the resident agent's name and Maryland address before SDAT will accept the filing, under § 4A-204 — you cannot leave it blank and add an agent afterward.

Your principal office is specifically the Maryland street address where your resident agent accepts legal mail, required under § 4A-210; where you actually run day-to-day operations can be a different address entirely, including out of state.

No. § 4A-210 requires a physical Maryland street address where someone can accept delivery, and a commercial mail-receiving service or mailbox rental doesn't meet that rule any more than a P.O. box does.

No. Maryland's public filings list only your resident agent's name and principal office street address; no phone number or email address is required or published.

Yes. Like every other Maryland entity, a nonstock corporation files SDAT's Annual Report each year, and it must list the corporation's current resident agent and principal office along with any Personal Property Return items that apply to it.

Yes. Nothing in § 1-101(x) prevents an owner, manager or officer from also serving as the entity's resident agent, as long as they are a Maryland resident individual or qualify as a Maryland corporation or LLC.

No. Maryland has no licensing, bonding or commercial-agent registration system for resident agents — unlike states that have adopted the Model Registered Agents Act, SDAT imposes only the residency/entity-type and principal-office rules in § 1-101(x) and § 4A-210.

Yes. Under § 1-101(x), what matters is that the entity itself is "a Maryland limited liability company" — an LLC formed in Maryland qualifies as its own resident agent regardless of where its individual members happen to live, as long as it maintains a Maryland principal office.

No. Under § 1-401, a resident agent's role is limited to receiving service of process and official notices on the entity's behalf — it has no authority to sign contracts or otherwise act for the entity.

Yes. Nothing requires the two to be different — a small business commonly uses one Maryland street address for both, as long as it meets the principal office's physical-address requirement under § 4A-210.