How to Pay Sales Tax in Texas: Deadlines, Methods, and Penalties

To pay sales tax in Texas, you file a sales and use tax return with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and remit what you collected, usually through the Comptroller’s Webfile portal, by the 20th of the month after your reporting period ends.¹ The state rate is 6.25 percent, local jurisdictions can add up to 2 percent on top, and payment can be made by electronic check, credit card, electronic funds transfer, or mailed check depending on how much tax you handle.

When Your Payment Is Due

Every Texas sales tax return and payment is due on the 20th of the month following the end of the reporting period. What changes between businesses is the length of the period itself.

Monthly filing is the default. You qualify for quarterly filing if you owe less than $500 in state sales tax for a calendar month or less than $1,500 for a calendar quarter.² The Comptroller can also assign annual filing to businesses with very low collections. After your permit is approved, a letter tells you which schedule you’re on.

For quarterly filers, that puts the payment deadlines on April 20, July 20, October 20, and January 20. Monthly filers follow the same 20th-of-the-next-month pattern: April tax is due May 20, May tax is due June 20. Annual filers pay the whole prior year by January 20.¹

If your sales volume shifts enough to move you between brackets, you can ask the Comptroller to change your frequency.

What to Have Ready Before You Pay

Pull these figures together before you log in:

Your 11-digit Texas Taxpayer Number from the Comptroller.³
Total gross sales for the reporting period, before any deductions.
Exempt and nontaxable amounts, including sales for resale and sales to exempt organizations.
Taxable sales (gross minus exempt).
Local tax broken out by each city, county, transit authority, and special purpose district where you made sales.
Taxable purchases on which no Texas sales tax was charged to you, for the use tax line.⁴

Keep the local breakdown clean. Those funds are distributed to the local governments where the sales occurred, and sloppy allocations are one of the fastest ways to get a notice from the Comptroller.

If you had no sales during a period, you still file. Enter zero. Skipping a zero return triggers the same $50 late-filing fee as missing any other return.⁵

How to File and Pay

Your filing channel depends on how much tax you paid in the previous state fiscal year (September 1 through August 31).⁶

Under $50,000 in prior-year tax: Webfile, Electronic Data Interchange, Telefile (for zero reports), or paper Form 01-114.
$50,000 or more: paper filing is no longer available; you must file through Webfile or EDI.

Webfile returns must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Central Time on the due date. Paper returns must be postmarked on or before the due date to count as timely.⁷

Payment Methods

Through Webfile, you can pay by electronic check or credit card. Electronic checks are free and can be post-dated to the due date, which is helpful if you file early. Credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) carry a processing fee: $1.00 for payments up to $100, or 2.25 percent plus $0.25 for payments over $100.⁷

Paper filers mail a check or money order payable to “State Comptroller” to the Comptroller’s office in Austin.⁴

Mandatory Electronic Funds Transfer

If you paid $10,000 or more in sales and use tax during the preceding state fiscal year, you must pay by electronic funds transfer.⁸ Paying by any other method when EFT is required brings a 5 percent penalty on the tax due for that period. A hardship waiver is available if electronic payment genuinely isn’t feasible.

The On-Time Discount

File and pay on time and Texas gives you back 0.5 percent of the tax reported and paid. On $10,000 of monthly remittance, that’s $50 back each period.¹

If you prepay your estimated tax before the period ends, you can claim an additional 1.25 percent, for a combined discount of 1.75 percent. The estimated payment has to cover at least 90 percent of the tax actually due, and both the prepayment and the final return must be filed on time. Prepay on time but file the return late and you lose both discounts.⁹

What Late Payment Costs

The penalty ladder is steep and it stacks:

1 to 30 days late: 5 percent penalty on the tax due.
More than 30 days late: 10 percent penalty.
After a Notice of Tax Due is issued: an additional 10 percent, bringing the total to 20 percent of the tax owed.

A flat $50 late-filing fee applies to every overdue return, even one with no tax due. Interest begins accruing on the 61st day after the due date, at a variable rate the Comptroller sets at the start of each calendar year.¹⁰

If you were required to file electronically and didn’t, add another 5 percent penalty.⁷ A few months behind can easily put a business 25 percent over what it originally owed. Catching up quickly is always cheaper than waiting.

If You Sell Through a Marketplace

Marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy are generally responsible for collecting and remitting Texas sales and use tax on your sales. A marketplace provider operating in Texas must certify to its sellers that it is handling the tax.¹¹ If every sale you make goes through a certifying marketplace, you don’t need to hold a Texas permit or send a payment yourself.

Remote sellers that sell directly to Texas customers from outside the state have a $500,000 safe harbor. Below that threshold over the preceding 12 calendar months, no Texas permit is required. Cross it and you must get a permit and start collecting no later than the first day of the fourth month after the month you exceeded the threshold.¹² Cross $500,000 in June and you need to be collecting by October 1.

If You Should Have Been Paying and Weren’t

Out-of-state sellers sometimes discover they crossed the Texas nexus threshold a year or two back without realizing it. A voluntary disclosure agreement with the Comptroller can limit the lookback period and often waive penalties, but only if you come forward before the state contacts you. Once you’ve received a nexus questionnaire or audit notice, voluntary disclosure is generally off the table. Businesses already registered for sales tax, or that have filed returns for the periods in question, also don’t qualify.

1
Comptroller of Public Accounts. Sales and Use Tax
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 151.401 – Tax Due Dates
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. eSystems Help – Identify Taxpayer
4
Comptroller of Public Accounts. Form 01-114 – Sales and Use Tax Return Long Form
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. Texas Sales and Use Tax Frequently Asked Questions
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. Requirements for Reporting and Paying Texas Sales and Use Tax
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. File and Pay
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 111.0625 – Electronic Transfer of Certain Payments
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. Form 01-118 – Texas Sales and Use Tax Prepayment Report
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. Penalties for Past Due Taxes
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. Marketplace Providers and Marketplace Sellers
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Comptroller of Public Accounts. Remote Sellers