Bookkeepers Austin keeps the public dates Bookkeeping services Austin
Sales tax is 8.25 percent at most addresses in Austin, and the report leaves on the 20th. We at Steven Palmieri, a Tax CFO, keep those dates beside the month so the rate is never a guess.
The calendar beside the books
The dates below are the ones the city already set. They are not a bill for one address. They are the calendar an owner meets in Austin, and we keep them next to the close so a rate has a home. The rate still needs that home beside the month, or the form is a guess.
An owner who sells in Austin files sales tax on the 20th. The state piece is 6.25 percent. Cities and transit authorities may stack as much as 2 percent on the state piece, and the combined cap is 8.25 percent. In this city that local stack splits in half, the city piece at 1 percent and Capital Metro, the transit authority, at 1 percent. A closed month turns the stack into a report. An open month turns it into a guess, and a guess does not get filed.
The Comptroller sales tax pages are the source for that stack. We name them so you can read the same page we read.
The school share and the May report
Families already live by the school calendar, and the district rate is a property tax fact rather than a line on the profit and loss. For 2025 the district's published total is 0.9252 per 100 dollars of taxable value. Maintenance and operations are 0.8022 of that. Interest and sinking are 0.123. A single parcel can land outside that map, so the page is a city picture, never a bill for one address.
Austin ISD's rate in the paragraph above comes from the Comptroller's school district workbook, which is the public sheet we check. If a later workbook disagrees, the page changes.
Report years 2026 and 2027 share a no tax due threshold of 2,650,000 dollars, published on the Comptroller franchise page. Retail and wholesale sit at 0.375 percent. Every other trade sits at 0.75 percent. Circle 15 May for the franchise report, the day the Comptroller wants it in. The percentage follows the year on the form, not the year you happen to be standing in.
The ordinary last day for a business property rendition is 15 April, counting the furniture and equipment still owned on the first of January. A written request, under Tax Code section 22.23, can move that last day to 15 May. The Comptroller property tax deadline calendar is the public list we read.
Why the dates sit beside the books
A sales tax return written from an open month will not match the bank later. A franchise estimate written from a file that still has personal deposits in income will not match the year. We close first. Then the public dates are just dates.
The 20th still arrives whether the week was loud or quiet, and we want the month closed before it does. A bridge, a colony, or a crowded evening does not move that date. The form waits on the closed month, not on the noise around it.
What we record beside those dates
The sales tax return is a report of taxable sales, not of every dollar that hit the bank. A transfer from savings, a loan draw, and a refund from a vendor do not belong in the taxable total. If those lines were coded as income during a busy week, the return will be high and the profit will be a story. We untangle that before the 20th, while the month is still fresh enough to remember.
Local tax in this city is two pieces on top of the state piece, and the codes in the sources note are how the Comptroller tells them apart. Leave the code numbers in the sources note and keep the opening as a calendar. You do have to know that a sale delivered inside the city is not the same stack as a sale delivered somewhere else in Texas. We ask where the customer received the goods when the file is unclear, and we do not guess a rate to make the form close.
The school rate is a property tax fact, not a line on the profit and loss. Owners still feel it, because the building they rent or own sits inside a district, and Austin ISD covers most of the map. We keep the published rate next to the books so a question from a lender about the tax load has a public answer. Your parcel can differ. The page says so.
A rendition lists the business property you still own on the first of January. Furniture, equipment, and the machines that earn the revenue. The April date and the May extension sit in the paragraph above. Missing the date does not make the property vanish. The appraisal district will estimate for you instead. We would rather the list come from the fixed asset accounts in a closed file.
The franchise report looks across the whole year, not across one month. The threshold and the two rates live on the Comptroller page, and we cite that page rather than invent a shortcut. A retail or wholesale trade is not taxed at the same percentage as every other trade. If you are unsure which one you are, that question belongs on the call, not in a box we tick to be helpful.
None of these dates replace the close. They sit beside it. A calendar full of public deadlines and a file that has not tied to the bank is a stressful spring. A closed month turns each deadline into a form you can actually fill. That is the relief we are aiming at. A form you can fill is quieter than a spring spent guessing.
Bring the last return you filed if you want the call to start from a real date. That filed return stays in the conversation and off this public page. We will use it to see whether the months under it were closed, and whether the next deadline has a file that can support it.
We keep those public dates beside the closed month so the form you file can match the bank you already see.
The sources
The local codes and the census share sit here so the opening of the page can stay a calendar. The city piece is local code 2227016 and Capital Metro is local code 3227999. Austin ISD sits on 73.37 percent of the city's census blocks. Those three figures come from the Comptroller stack and the census map, and a single parcel can still fall outside them.
Which date is pressing
Tell us the deadline that is closest, and whether the month under it is closed. We will not file from a guess.