How to Amend a Maryland Articles of Organization

It’s great to run your own business and have the freedom to make changes to your business when you want. If you have your own Maryland limited liability company (LLC), you have the flexibility to make changes, but you do need to let the state know about significant changes you make. If you’re unsure how to report business changes to the state, don’t worry. Read on to learn about filing a Maryland LLC amendment and how we can help. 

What are Maryland Articles of Organization?

Filing Articles of Organization lets the State of Maryland know you’re ready to open your business and reap the benefits of an LLC designation. To form an LLC in Maryland, you need to file Articles of Organization that include:

• The name of your LLC 
• The address of your LLC’s principal office
• The name and address of your LLC’s resident agent (i.e., registered agent)
• Other information enough of your LLC members want to include

Your LLC Articles of Organization are your crucial first step to running a business. If you haven’t yet filed Articles of Organization to form your LLC, you can follow the link to our Maryland LLC formation service page to get help with starting your LLC. 

Step 1: Determine if you need to change your Maryland Articles of Organization

You want your business to be flexible, and you want your business to be compliant with state law. If exercising the flexibility of your LLC means you occasionally change important business information, you need to let the state know about these changes to remain compliant with the law. Your Articles of Organization provide important contact information for your business to the state and to the public. 

One of the most important aspects of this is having up-to-date registered agent information. This is required by law to allow others to send your LLC service of process and other important business documents. If you’re having trouble finding a resident agent, our Maryland resident agent service can help you locate someone who’s a good fit. 

Yes, you could suffer dire consequences if you don’t alert the state after your business makes certain changes. For instance, if you fail to update information about your resident agent, you could fail to receive important legal documents or correspondence from the state. That could then result in missing important deadlines which come with significant consequences. 

Failing to file a Maryland LLC amendment could also prevent you from receiving a Certificate of Status. The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) uses Certificates of Status to let the public know that your business is in good standing. 

If you don’t have documents to prove your business is in good standing with the state, there’s a good chance financial organizations will refuse to fund your business growth efforts. And if customers find out that you’re not in good standing, it may negatively affect their desire to do business with you. 

Step 2: Identify what to change in your Maryland Articles of Organization

Generally, you update your Articles of Organization by filing Maryland Articles of Amendment. The state has a specific process for making changes and filing amendments. It’s our intention to help you remain compliant through informative articles and our compliance services.

You can report changes to any information you provided in your initial Articles of Organization. Unless you already have a different agreement, a Maryland LLC amendment needs to have the unanimous approval of the LLC members. Once your Articles of Amendment are properly approved, drafted, and signed, you file them with the SDAT Charter Division. 

Step 3: Gather information for filing your Maryland amendment

In your Articles of Amendment, you provide the following:

• The full name of the LLC that SDAT has on record
• The written amendment
• The new resident agent’s signed consent (if applicable)
• An authorized person’s signature
• Filing fee(s)

Step 4: File your Maryland LLC amendment

You must submit your Articles of Amendment in writing, and it’s important to be as specific as possible on your filing to avoid confusion. SDAT encourages you to type the amendment because they’re likely to reject hand-written filings.

Amid the business changes, you might be busy seeking investors, tending to customers and clients, or handling daily operations. We imagine you don’t have a lot of time to fill out and deliver more paperwork to the state. Through our Worry-Free Compliance service, we handle two amendments per year at no extra charge and tracks your compliance needs.

Maryland Articles of Amendment vs. Certificate of Correction

If nothing has changed with your business but you notice something in your LLC filings is wrong, you don’t have to file Articles of Amendment. Instead, you can file a Certificate of Correction. Unlike the Articles of Amendment, the Certificate of Correction applies to any document you file with SDAT. In your Certificate of Correction, you need to provide:

• The LLC’s name as it appears in SDAT’s records
• The title of the document you want to correct
• The date your LLC filed the document you’re correcting
• The name of each party to the document you’re correcting
• The original provision you want to correct
• The corrected version of the provision
• Signature(s) by the same kind of individual(s) needed to sign the original document
• Filing fee(s)

You can find the Certificate of Correction form and its fee(s) online. If you need to correct or amend your LLC filings with SDAT, our Worry-Free Compliance service makes these tasks that much easier. 

Count on us to help with your Maryland compliance

Keeping a business compliant shouldn’t run your life, even when you’re doing what you love. That’s where we come in. Our services reduce your business burdens by taking over some of your compliance needs with SDAT. Our Worry-Free Compliance service stays on top of your compliance needs and helps you get back in good standing if you make a mistake, and our Amendment Filing Service can prepare and submit amendment paperwork on your behalf.