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On September 15, Maryland launched the Maryland Small Business Retirement Savings Program. MarylandSaves requires Maryland employers (and employers elsewhere with Maryland employees) to sign up for the program and offer its eligible employees the opportunity to establish MarylandSaves retirement accounts and fund them via payroll deductions. Employers are asked to sign up through the MarylandSaves.com website. For each year that an employer participates in the Maryland Saves program, Maryland waives the $300 filing fee that otherwise must accompany the employer’s annual report.

A Maryland employer that sponsors a retirement plan for employees isn’t eligible to participate. But it is eligible for the $300 filing fee waiver nonetheless. The employer has to certify on the MarylandSaves website that it maintains a qualified retirement plan for its employees to obtain the $300 per year waiver of the filing fee due in April. According to MarylandSaves’ officials, an employer has to sign up for MarylandSaves or certify that it maintains a retirement plan by December 1 to obtain the filing fee waiver for the annual report due in April 2023.

Maryland is not the only state that mandates participation in a state-sponsored retirement program for any employer that does not maintain a retirement plan.  Another 20 states have established or are in the process of establishing state-mandated retirement programs. States such as California, Illinois, Connecticut and Oregon already have implemented such retirement programs. 

Bottom line: If you’re an employer with employees in Maryland or another state that has established a state-sponsored retirement program, and you don’t sponsor a retirement plan, you should determine what your obligations are in each such state.

If you have any questions, please contact Theodore P. Stein.

Theodore P. Stein

410-576-4229 • tstein@gfrlaw.com