Working in the public accounting industry for the better part of a baker’s dozen years, we have been trained on meeting deadlines, especially the big one, April 15th (although it seems like September 15 and October 15 are increasingly hectic these days). It appears that the entire year is focused on that date. Busy season planning in the fall. Kickoff team meetings shortly after Christmas. Late nights. Catered lunches. Office Olympics. Then, like a flash, it’s spring, and in the immortal words of George Costanza, “Rejuvenation. Rebirth. Everything’s blooming. All that crap.” We’ve hit the deadline, and it’s time to press the pause button. We’ve made it! Kind of.
For those of us in SALT, especially those in indirect tax, April 15 has about as much meaning to us as the concept of a mortgage payment does to a toddler. In the SALT world, deadlines are a moving target throughout the year. Busy season gets going on January 2, when you shake off the holidays and return to the sinking reality that sales tax compliance is an annual period that includes those quarterly and semi-annual returns along with regular monthly filings and annual reconciliations. Time to file those obscure states to remit $246.20 in tax with varying deadlines throughout the month. 50 states, 50 rules, and tons of different deadlines.
Keeping an eye on compliance, we take a look at those pesky property tax filing deadlines; North Carolina comes out of the gate hot with a January 31 due date. States will follow, and each month thereafter, well into the summer. Not to be outdone, the fall joins the party to close things out with some filing deadlines that stretch into November (Connecticut) and December (Alabama), just to name a few.
Did I hear someone say something about gross receipts and franchise tax deadlines? We’ve got you covered there, too. Ohio’s Commercial Activity Tax has four filing periods conveniently scattered in February, May, August, and November if you’re lucky enough to have $3m in Ohio receipts ($6m in 2025); Texas joins the fun with a May 15 deadline for its Franchise Tax return; Nevada waits until their daily average low temperatures can still cook an egg on the sidewalk and gives us an August 15 filing deadline; just in time for those back to school sales. I’m positive I’m missing some, but you get the point.
Although not a tax, November 1 holds a special place in the hearts of our unclaimed property professionals. That’s a topic for another blog post, though.
We haven’t even gotten to the consulting side of things yet. Audit deadlines, appeal deadlines, internal client deadlines, hearing dates. Some of these deadlines are arbitrarily set by a pesky auditor who “needs” everything by Friday, although he’s leaving for vacation on Monday. Hurry up and wait. It truly is a never-ending cycle when you step back and look at the calendar year.
As our federal tax counterparts are taking their well-deserved break over the next few days and weeks, just know more deadlines are upcoming. So, happy April 15th, I guess. Now it’s time to focus on the next deadline in a few days, it’s a quarter end for sales tax compliance after all! Let’s just hope someone doesn’t need tax diligence completed by yesterday.
