What should you consider when doing business in Maryland?

Maryland is always open to foreign investors and businesses. However, is it easy to set up a business here and what should you consider when doing business in Maryland?

Maryland, located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the east coast of the United States, has long been known as one of the ideal states for investors to come and set up a new business. According to CNBC's America's Top States for Business 2021 data, which ranks based on criteria such as foreign corporations doing business in Maryland, infrastructure, and business friendliness, Maryland ranked 12th out of 50 states, a fairly high position and really convenient for small and medium businesses.

Advantages of doing business in Maryland

Located close to Washington, Maryland has always been famous for its clean energy development, green technology, training, tourism, investment, import and export, IT, biology, with a high intellectual force, and dynamic economic development. Therefore, Maryland is often chosen by businesses as the place where their headquarters or company is established to start their business.

One of the things that makes Maryland so popular with investors is that this state has an incredibly convenient transportation infrastructure for doing business. The Port of Baltimore is considered one of the most efficient deepwater ports in the United States in terms of container berth capacity. Building on Maryland's strategic location and strong transportation network, setting up a company here will give you easy access to interchanges to major North-South and East-West freight axes. waterway, railway, road and air.

Baltimore Harbor - Maryland's most important intersection

The Maryland government places an emphasis on business innovation. The state’s authority encourages foreign corporations doing business in Maryland with a view to promote diplomatic relations with other countries and regions around the world. What's more, the Federation offers many incentives and benefits that businesses can take advantage of to reach their full potential. Specifically, there are incentive programs for businesses offered by the Maryland Department of Commerce such as Programs for Veteran-Owned Businesses, Programs for Small, Minority and Women-Owned Businesses, Programs for Tech Development, Transfer or Acceleration, Finance Incentives, etc.

Things you should consider when doing business in Maryland

However, despite its advantages, setting up and doing business in Maryland as a foreign corporation is more complicated than you might imagine. In order to help entrepreneurs understand more about this, we at One IBC - a leading international business service provider, have listed down the important first steps to plan when deciding to set up your own business, as well as the regulations to pay attention to, as concisely as possible.

1. Choose a business structure for your business

Based on your resources and the nature of your business, you can choose a suitable business structure for yourself. This factor is identified by One IBC as one of the most essential because the business structure greatly affects the future activities of your company. Choosing the right business structure can greatly contribute to your future success as well as negatively impact if you choose the wrong one.

Each business structure has different nuances and characteristics depending on your needs. The four most common business structures in Maryland include:

• Sole ownership
• Partnerships
• Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Corporation

2. Register your business with the government

Once you have decided on your business structure, the next step is to register your business with the government so that your business can be up and running right away. You will need to register and submit documents related to your company to the Maryland Department of Taxation and Assessment via email, fax, or in person.

The business registration process is to establish the business name as well as the official representative for the company. With many years of experience in the field of corporate services, One IBC always encourages investors to register for trademark protection in order to both protect your brand if a dispute occurs, as well as increase your brand exposure.

Register your business with the government is one of the most important step

3. Check your business license

The Maryland Department of Labor makes it very clear that certain foreign corporation doing business in Maryland may require specific permits in order to legally operate in the state such as auctioneer; chain store; cigarette; commercial garage; console machine; construction firm; hawkers and peddlers; junk dealers; laundry; plumber and gas fitter; restaurant. Therefore, you should carefully check the field of operation of the company in order to apply for the necessary business license.

4. Learn about business tax

There are many taxes your business may be responsible for, and every company must file an income tax return with the state of Maryland. Currently, corporate tax in Maryland is 8.25% of net income allotted to Maryland, which is quite low compared to other states such as California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc. In addition, you can use an accounting and auditing service for businesses to save you time and effort which may help doing business in Maryland smoothly without engaging in any legal problems.

5. Learn about employing for your business

You should thoroughly research the requirements and duties relevant to your employees since this constitutes doing business in Maryland quite a lot. Maryland has certain requirements and laws regarding hiring and contracting practices for employees before doing business in Maryland. You need to know all the rules and make sure your company is following everything from employee compensation rules and regulations to taxes and benefits if you don't want to get caught up in unnecessary legal issues.

Above are what constitutes doing business in Maryland that One IBC has listed. When doing business in Maryland, individuals, business owners, and new investors have to keep these things in mind in order to avoid the basic mistakes that lead to unfortunate cases. One IBC hopes that the above article will be of great help to customers. If you have any doubts regarding the necessary procedures for incorporation and other business services in Maryland, please contact One IBC for more information.