Maine — No Partnership Income Tax — Maine imposes no income tax on partnerships; the partners are taxed individually and no Maine partnership return or Maine K-1 exists

# Summary

Maine imposes no income tax on partnerships. The charge falls on the partners: 36 M.R.S. § 5190 provides that "[a] partnership is not subject to the tax imposed by this Part" and that "[p]ersons carrying on business as partners are liable for the tax imposed by this Part only in their separate or individual capacities," with §§ 5191 and 5192 bringing each resident and nonresident partner's distributive share into that partner's own Maine adjusted gross income. Maine requires no partnership income tax return. There is no Maine analogue to federal Form 1065 — no Form 1065ME exists — and the statute that once required one, 36 M.R.S. § 5241 ("Partnership and S corporation returns"), has been repealed and not replaced. Maine also issues no state K-1: partners rely on the federal Schedule K-1, and the only Maine member statement is Form 1099ME, which reports amounts withheld rather than distributive share. Two filings a partnership may owe are not its own income tax return: Form 941P-ME is a nonresident withholding and information return filed on behalf of members, and Form 1040C-ME is an optional composite return filed for participating nonresident owners. Scope: this determination concerns the income tax imposed by Part 8. Section 5190 itself excepts the taxes imposed by chapters 819 and 827 and the tax on partnership audit adjustments, which are described below and which can reach the entity.

# No Maine partnership return (partnership_filing_form, partnership_due_date)

Because the entity is not a taxpayer under Part 8, Maine prescribes no partnership income tax return and therefore no partnership return due date. The repeal of 36 M.R.S. § 5241, which was captioned "Partnership and S corporation returns," removed the entity-level return requirement from the statute, and Maine Revenue Services has published no replacement form: the Department's current pass-through entity form set consists of Form 941P-ME, the 901ES-ME payment vouchers, Form 1040C-ME and the Partnership Audit Return. A partnership with Maine-source income and at least one nonresident member does have a filing obligation, but it is the withholding return: the 2025 Form 941P-ME is due March 16, 2026, and a federal extension for Form 1065 or 1120-S automatically extends the Maine filing for an equivalent period, generally up to six months and no longer than eight, though withholding payment due dates are not extended. If a question asks for "the partnership return due date," the accurate answer is that Maine has no partnership return; the March 16 date belongs to Form 941P-ME.

# No Maine K-1 equivalent (partnership_k1_equivalent)

Maine issues no state Schedule K-1. Partners rely on the federal Schedule K-1 (Form 1065), which Maine's own materials reference directly rather than replacing — Form 941P-ME's instructions speak of income "reported on federal Form 1065, Schedule K-1," and the Form 1040ME instructions direct individual partners to attach or enclose "a copy of the federal Schedule K-1." What a Maine pass-through entity does furnish to its members is Form 1099ME, the annual statement reporting Maine income tax withheld on that member's behalf; members claim that amount as a credit on their own Maine returns. Form 1099ME is a withholding statement, not a distributive-share schedule, so it is not a K-1 equivalent either. Within Form 941P-ME itself, Schedule 2P lists the members subject to withholding and Schedule 3P lists members exempt from it; these are entity-level listings filed with the Department, not statements of each partner's distributive share.

# What can reach the entity (the § 5190 exceptions)

Section 5190's final sentence limits its own scope: "This section does not apply to the taxes imposed by chapters 819 and 827 or the tax imposed on partnership audit adjustments pursuant to subchapter 2." Three consequences follow, and none of them makes Maine a state that taxes partnership income generally. First, chapter 819 — the franchise tax on financial institutions. Under 36 M.R.S. § 5206 a financial institution "is subject to tax under this section even if it is treated as a partnership, S corporation or entity disregarded as separate from its owner for federal income tax purposes," computed as 1% of Maine net income plus 8 cents per $1,000 of Maine assets, or 39 cents per $1,000 of Maine assets alone. A partnership that is a financial institution therefore does owe an entity-level Maine tax, and § 5250-B correspondingly excludes such an institution from the definition of "pass-through entity" for withholding purposes. Second, chapter 827 — withholding, including the § 5250-B nonresident withholding obligation that Form 941P-ME implements; that is a collection duty on the entity in respect of its members' tax, not a tax on the partnership. Third, subchapter 2 — under 36 M.R.S. § 5196 a partnership may be required to report and pay amounts arising from a federal partnership-level audit adjustment, filed on the Partnership Audit Return.