Maryland does not require member or manager names in its own public LLC filing. Maryland's Articles of Organization don't require a member's name as a baseline matter, but the authorized-person line is public and a manager-managed election can add manager names — so name a Wyoming holding LLC as the member, stay member-managed, and route the authorized-person role through a formation service. See our Wyoming holding company guide and full list of anonymous LLC states for more.
$100
Articles of Organization filing fee
Authorized person only
No member name required if member-managed
$300/yr
Annual Report / Personal Property Return, due April 15
§ 4A-607(f)
Exclusive-remedy charging order, foreclosure still permitted
Maryland sits in a useful middle ground for a holding-company structure. Its Articles of Organization ($100, filed with SDAT rather than a secretary of state) never require a member's name as a baseline matter — but the authorized person who signs the filing is public, and electing manager-managed status can pull manager names onto the record too. Staying member-managed, naming a Wyoming holding LLC as the sole member, and letting a formation service act as the authorized person keeps every individual name off Maryland's SDAT search. Maryland also brings real substance of its own: § 4A-607(f) makes the charging order the exclusive remedy for single-member and multi-member LLCs alike, and Serio v. Baystate Properties (2012) set a fraud-only bar for piercing the veil. A Wyoming parent still adds value on top, since Maryland's statute permits judicial foreclosure of the economic interest in a way Wyoming's does not — and the $300 flat Annual Report due every April 15 is a cost to plan around regardless of the structure above it.
Maryland's Articles of Organization, filed with SDAT (a tax and assessment agency, not a secretary of state), require the LLC's name, resident agent, and principal office — but never a member's name. The one place Maryland can pull a name onto the public filing is a manager-managed election: if the LLC elects manager management, some SDAT submissions ask for the managers' names. The person who consistently does appear is the authorized person who signs and submits the Articles, searchable through Maryland Business Express. Staying member-managed and letting a formation service serve as the authorized person keeps Maryland's own record free of any individual owner's name.
Because Maryland's baseline Articles of Organization never ask for a member's name, the exposure points are narrower than in a true disclosure state — but they aren't zero. The authorized person who signs the filing is public, and electing manager-managed status can pull manager names onto the SDAT submission as well. Naming a Wyoming holding LLC as the sole member (staying member-managed rather than manager-managed) and letting a formation service act as the authorized person keeps every individual name off Maryland's record. A Wyoming parent also earns its keep on the asset-protection side: Maryland's charging-order statute (Md. Code, Corps. & Ass'ns § 4A-607(f)) calls the charging order the exclusive remedy but still lets a court order foreclosure and sale of the economic interest when ordinary distributions won't satisfy the debt — a real gap next to Wyoming's no-foreclosure rule.
Maryland not requiring a member's name doesn't change federal law: beneficial owners of the Maryland LLC — and of any Wyoming holding LLC above it — must still be reported to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act, which is not open to public search.
Md. Code, Corps. & Ass'ns § 4A-607(f) — exclusive remedy by statute, but judicial foreclosure of the economic interest is permitted. Section 4A-607(f) calls the charging order the exclusive remedy by which a personal creditor may reach a member's interest, and the statute applies uniformly to single-member and multi-member LLCs alike — genuinely favorable, reinforced by Serio v. Baystate Properties, LLC (2012), which held Maryland requires evidence of actual fraud, not mere informality, to pierce a single-member LLC's veil. The gap next to Wyoming's protection is that § 4A-607 also lets a court order foreclosure and sale of the economic interest when charging-order distributions won't satisfy the debt in a reasonable time — Wyoming bars that outcome outright.
Maryland requires a combined Annual Report / Business Personal Property Return through SDAT every April 15, at a flat $300 minimum regardless of profit or activity — one of the higher recurring flat fees among states in this series. Maryland has no LLC franchise tax; pass-through income is taxed to members at Maryland's graduated personal income tax rate (2.00% to 5.75%) plus a mandatory county income tax layered on top (roughly 2.25% to 3.20% depending on county).
Note: Confirm the current $100 filing fee, the exact online processing window, and any expedite-fee tiers directly at dat.maryland.gov/Business Express before relying on them — secondary sources disagree on the specifics (some cite 5-7 business days online with a $50 expedite add-on, others cite up to 8 weeks by mail with a $325 same-day option), and SDAT's own live fee schedule is the only reliable tiebreaker. Also confirm the manager-managed disclosure mechanic against SDAT's current Articles of Organization form before treating it as settled — this page follows apps/LLA/data/states/anonymous-llc/md.ts's account of when manager names get pulled onto the filing, which was not independently reconfirmed against a live SDAT source at time of writing.
Not as a baseline matter. Maryland's Articles of Organization, filed with SDAT, require the LLC's name, resident agent, and principal office, but not a member's name. The one name that reliably becomes public is the authorized person who signs and submits the filing; electing manager-managed status can also pull manager names onto the record, so staying member-managed avoids that additional exposure.
Name a Wyoming holding LLC as the sole member, keep the LLC member-managed rather than manager-managed, and let a formation service — not yourself — serve as the authorized person on the Articles of Organization. That combination keeps every individual name off Maryland's public SDAT record.
Not quite, though it's genuinely favorable. Md. Code, Corps. & Ass'ns § 4A-607(f) makes the charging order the exclusive remedy and applies it uniformly to single-member LLCs, backed by Serio v. Baystate Properties' fraud-only piercing standard — but § 4A-607 still lets a court order foreclosure and sale of the economic interest when distributions won't satisfy the debt, something Wyoming's statute bars outright.
Bottom line: Maryland's Articles of Organization don't require a member's name as a baseline matter, but the authorized-person line and a manager-managed election both create exposure — so a Wyoming holding LLC as the member, kept member-managed, is what makes the privacy complete and adds stronger charging-order protection on top.