Delaware’s late fee grows every month. Maryland expires in January. Six Atlantic states enter the library

Six more states, and the library reaches <b>41 of 50</b>. Delaware charges its 10% late surcharge <i>per month</i>, Maryland adds another 31 January deadline to the worst month of the year, New Jersey exempts the first ten tons of every period, and Alabama wants a report every single month.

Delaware: 10% a month, not 10% once

Most states charge a one-off collection fee when a tonnage report is late: 10% with a $10 floor, in Maryland, New Jersey and many others. Delaware charges the same 10%, minimum $10, per month, and the agency’s own instructions say the fee increases on the first of every month. A semiannual report three months late costs 30% on top. The report itself is due 31 July and 31 January; the surcharge starts 30 days after the period closes.

Maryland adds a January deadline nobody expects

Maryland has no firm licence: every brand and grade is registered by the distributor, at $15 (or $30 for packages of 10 lb or less), and every registration expires on 31 January, with renewal due by 1 February. That is the same day as the semiannual tonnage report. We already counted twelve states wanting something in January; Maryland makes it worse, with two filings on the same date.

New Jersey: the first ten tons are free, and the late fee waits sixty days

New Jersey is licence-based, $250 a year, plus $250 for each additional New Jersey facility and one $250 for all out-of-state facilities together. The inspection fee is 30 cents a ton on tonnage in excess of ten tons per semiannual statement: the first ten tons of each period are simply not charged. The report is due at the end of the month after the period closes, but the 10% collection fee only bites 60 days after the period ends. One caveat we flag rather than resolve: the statute says the end of the month, the agency form says within 30 days. We calendar the earlier date.

Alabama reports monthly, and the fee is 75 cents

Alabama is one of three states in the library with a monthly tonnage report, alongside Arkansas and North Carolina. The statute puts it on the 15th of the following month and the collection fee (10%, minimum $10) from the 20th; the 2025-26 form says the 20th. Twelve filings a year, at 75 cents a ton, with a firm licence that runs October to September and is tiered by the previous year’s tonnage, from $37.50 up. There is no product registration fee at all: labels go in with the licence.

South Carolina stacks two levies. West Virginia charges four dollars

South Carolina’s per-ton charge is really two: a 50-cent inspection tax and a $1 inspection fee, $1.50 in total, paid quarterly within 30 days of the quarter end to Clemson University, which runs the programme. West Virginia registers every brand and grade at $4 a year (bulk or packages over 10 lb); only Delaware, at $1.15, is lower. Against that, a $100 flat penalty if you register late, and 40 cents a ton quarterly, due on the 30th of the following month, not the last day.

What the library looks like now

41 states, 9 open discrepancies published on the method page, and every figure with its official source and date. The six new guides are linked below; the planner and the open dataset already include them.

Written by the Fertilabel rules desk — the team that maintains the state rule library. We publish under the company name, not personal bylines: what matters is the source under each claim, and every one is linked.

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