How to Apply for an EIN in Maryland

The EIN step itself

One federal form, one agency, the same options wherever the business sits: online, fax, mail, or the international phone line. The method decides the timeline, not the state. Every method and what it actually takes covers that in full, and it applies to Maryland unchanged.

What Maryland needs first

Form your entity with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation before applying. The IRS asks for the legal name and formation date exactly as the state recorded them, and a mismatch is one of the common causes of a rejected application.

Maryland assigns its own department ID. It identifies your company in state records and is not a tax ID. It cannot be used where an EIN is asked for, and the IRS has no record of it.

What Maryland requires once you have the EIN

• Register with the Comptroller of Maryland through Maryland Tax Connect using the Combined Registration Application, which opens accounts such as the sales and use tax license and employer withholding in one filing. It asks for the nine-digit EIN and, as a required field, the entity identification number the Department of Assessments and Taxation assigned at formation.
• File Form 1, the Annual Report and Business Personal Property Return, with the Department of Assessments and Taxation by April 15 every year, online through Maryland Business Express. It asks for the Department ID and the nine-digit EIN, and the instructions tell filers not to enter a Social Security number in its place.

What is actually different about Maryland

• In Maryland the office that files LLC formations is also the state's property assessment agency, so the annual report and the business personal property return are one combined filing, Form 1. An LLC that does not file it receives an estimated assessment and forfeits its Maryland charter.
• The Department of Assessments and Taxation assigns its own Department ID, a letter followed by eight digits, and a Maryland LLC's starts with W. The department warns that this is not the FEIN banks ask for, although its Maryland Business Express entity search can look up a business by EIN as well as by Department ID.
• Maryland state business licenses, including the trader's license for retail sellers, are issued by the Clerk of the Circuit Court where the business is located, and the Comptroller says first-time applicants must register with the Department of Assessments and Taxation before going to the clerk. Form 1 then asks businesses that need a trader's license to report their commercial inventory.