Maryland corporation revival: restore your forfeited charter.

Your Maryland corporation is showing "Forfeited" or "Not in Good Standing" on the SDAT website, and something urgent needs it fixed: a loan closing, a state contract, a bank account, a license renewal. Maryland corporation revival is what we handle every week. Back annual reports filed, Articles of Revival submitted, and confirmation of your restored charter in your inbox, with a 24-hour expedited option when the deadline is real.

What are Articles of Revival in Maryland?

Articles of Revival is the SDAT filing that restores a forfeited domestic Maryland corporation's charter. The state fee is $100, the document is filed with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (online through Maryland Business Express or on paper), and SDAT will only accept it after every delinquent Annual Report is filed and any Comptroller tax hold is cleared. It applies to corporations only: a forfeited Maryland LLC files a different state document that restores good standing, and an out-of-state corporation that lost its Maryland authority re-qualifies rather than revives. Not sure which one you are? The free SDAT lookup shows your entity type and status in two minutes.

Why your Maryland corporation was forfeited

Maryland requires every corporation to file an Annual Report (Form 1) with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation by April 15 each year. Stock corporations pay a $300 filing fee; most nonstock and nonprofit corporations file the same report at no fee, but the filing itself is mandatory either way. Miss it and the corporation first drops to "not in good standing"; keep missing it and SDAT forfeits the charter. Forfeiture isn't a fine you can ignore: a forfeited corporation legally cannot enter contracts, bring a lawsuit, or protect its corporate name against being claimed by someone else.

The good news: forfeiture is reversible. For a domestic Maryland corporation the restoring filing is called Articles of Revival (LLCs use a different SDAT document), and for most corporations the entire process is administrative. No court, no lawyer required. Just the right filings, in the right order.

How we get your charter back to active status

We pull your corporation's exact filing history from SDAT and clear every missed Annual Report at once (state fees paid directly to Maryland, never marked up; most nonstock and nonprofit corporations file those back reports at no state fee at all), then file the Articles of Revival ($100 state fee) that formally restores the charter, updating your resident agent in the same filing if it's lapsed. When SDAT processes it, your corporation is active again (same charter, same name, same EIN) and we send you the record showing good standing.

Stock vs. nonstock: what you'll actually owe

The single biggest cost variable in a corporation revival is entity type multiplied by missed years. A stock corporation owes $300 to the state for every delinquent Annual Report, so six missed years means $1,800 in state fees before the revival filing itself. A nonstock or nonprofit corporation with the same six missed years typically owes the state nothing for those reports. The catch-up filings still have to be prepared and submitted, but the state fee for most of them is zero. Our flat service fees are the same either way: $200 to prepare and file all back reports and $575 for the revival, so a typical nonprofit case comes in at a small fraction of the stock-corporation total above.

Standard vs. 24-hour expedited

Standard SDAT processing takes roughly 7 business days once filings are submitted. When you're up against a closing date, SDAT offers expedited handling for an additional $425 state fee (plus the 3% card charge). On a clean case we file same-day and your corporation is typically back in good standing within 24 hours. Most clients don't need it; when you do, it's the difference between making the settlement table and not.

What revival actually restores

Articles of Revival don't create a new company; they restore the one you already built. Your corporation comes back with the same charter, the same corporate name, and the same EIN. That continuity is the whole point: bank accounts, contracts, and licenses tied to your EIN pick back up without re-papering everything under a new entity. The one thing revival can't guarantee is the name. If another business claimed it while your charter was forfeited, the revival has to adopt a modified name, which is one more reason to move quickly.

Why SDAT rejects revival filings, and how we avoid it

Articles of Revival is a short document, but SDAT bounces it over small mistakes, and every rejection restarts the clock: a stale or resigned resident agent, a corporate name that no longer matches the live SDAT record, signatures from officers who are no longer reachable. We check the name and agent against SDAT's current record before submitting and line up every prerequisite so the filing goes through the first time.

What can complicate it (and how we handle each)

• Maryland tax debt: if tax is owed, the Comptroller's tax clearance is required before SDAT will process the revival. We coordinate the clearance; see our tax clearance & CCU service.
• CCU collections: balances referred to the Central Collection Unit must be resolved; we coordinate payoff and deliver proof to SDAT.
• Name taken while forfeited: if another entity claimed your corporate name during forfeiture, the revival includes adopting a modified name; we check name availability before filing so there are no surprises.
• No resident agent: updated as part of the revival filing, no extra service fee.

Frequently asked questions