May is close and you are not sure whether the report is a form or a payment this year. For a calendar-year entity that report is filed with the Comptroller on May 15. Plenty of companies owe no tax and still have to file the report.
Franchise tax is a Texas state tax. There is no city franchise tax to add on top, and there is no transit line on this report. If a bill in the mail is from an appraisal district, it is not this filing. We separate the envelopes before we do any math.
The report is due May 15 for entities that use the calendar year. A different fiscal year can move the due date, and we read the entity's year before we lock May 15 onto your calendar. Assuming every company shares a year end is a good way to be early or late for the wrong reason.
An extension can exist when you follow the Comptroller's steps for one. We do not treat silence as an extension. If you want the extra time, we do the step that creates it, and we keep the confirmation.
We prepare the report from books that have been closed through the year the report covers. A report built on a year that is still open is a draft with a signature line. We do not sign the draft.
For report years 2026 and 2027 the no tax due threshold is 2,650,000 dollars. Under that line, many companies owe no tax. They can still owe a report. We compute the revenue the instructions define, which is not always the revenue line an owner quotes from memory.
The compensation deduction has a limit of 480,000 dollars per person in the computation the Comptroller describes. We apply the limit that belongs to the report year. We do not carry an older limit forward because it was the one we remembered.
When tax is due, the rate is 0.375 percent for retailing and wholesaling and 0.75 percent for other activities. The EZ computation uses a 0.331 percent rate and is available when total revenue is at or below 20 million dollars. We choose the computation the facts allow. We show you the one we used.
Passive entities, new entities, and entities that ended in the year have their own instructions. Passive entities, new entities, and entities that ended in the year get the Comptroller worksheet that matches that fact, not one shared worksheet. We do not push every company through the same worksheet and call it standard.
Revenue on the report starts in the books. If December, or your last month, is uncategorized, the report is waiting on that month whether or not May feels close. We close it. Then we map the closed totals into the lines the report asks for.
Owner pay, a reasonable compensation conversation, and the franchise report can touch the same dollars without being the same decision. We had the compensation conversation, if you are taxed as an S corporation, before payroll was set up. The report later shows what actually happened. We do not reopen the whole year on May 14 to relitigate a number that was set on purpose.
Related entities can have combined or affiliated reporting rules. If you have two entities, we ask before we prepare one report and ignore the other. The second entity is not a footnote. It is either in the filing or it has its own.
We keep the workpapers. The report that was filed, the closed year it came from, and the computation we chose stay in the file. Next May should start from that file, not from a blank memory.
Every Texan in the energy business knows the Offshore Technology Conference shows up in early May, and has for a long time. We can all appreciate that week. You see the crowds. We see May 15 on the other side of it, and we ask whether the report is already drafted from a closed year before the badge gets printed.
That is not a claim that we attend. The work is the May report, built from a year that is already closed. The conference is only the week Texans already have on the calendar, and it is a useful way to remember that May is spoken for.
If your report is the thing that is open, send the entity type and the year end. Send the entity type and the year end, and the reply names whether May 15 is the report date and which month still has to close. A threshold on this page either fits the closed year or it does not, and the page does not offer a smaller bill. A threshold either applies or it does not.
Margins, tax, and credits change when the statute changes. We correct this page when a figure changes. Until then, the figures above are the ones we are willing to put next to a source.
The revenue line on the report is not a feeling about a good year. It starts from the closed totals, then the instructions add and subtract. We show you the bridge from the ledger to the line. If you cannot see the bridge, the report is not ready, even if May 15 is close.
Officer compensation, rents paid to a related party, and tax already recorded in the books each need a look before they land on the report. We do not copy a prior year workbook and change the date. A prior year is a reference. This year is the year that closed.
If an extension is the honest path, we file the extension the way the Comptroller describes and we keep the proof. We then put the real report on a date both sides can see. An extension is a plan. It is not a place to forget the file.
Two entities mean two questions. Combined reporting is a rule, not a convenience. We ask which entities exist before we prepare a single report that leaves one of them out. The one left out is often the one a notice finds first. We keep the filed report beside the closed year so the next May starts from a file.
Tell us the entity type and the year end. We will say whether May 15 is your report date.
This note comes straight to the people who keep these filings.