Corpus Christi Business CPA AlternativeCPA Corpus ChristiMay 15 does not move

Texas franchise tax is a report even in a year when no tax is due. The Comptroller's no-tax-due line for report years 2026 and 2027 is 2,650,000 dollars, which removes the tax and leaves the report. Under that line you still file the report. You just do not pay the tax. Over that line the rate depends on what you do. Retail and wholesale use 0.375 percent. Other businesses use 0.75 percent. The accounting in those two rates is public. Your revenue is not something we invent on a web page.

The report reads the margin in the federal return, with Texas adjustments. If the books were closed every month, the margin is a number you have already lived with. If the books were a December project, the report becomes the moment everyone discovers the year. We would rather you discover the year in October, when a purchase, a bonus, or a cleanup can still change it.

Due date is May 15. An extension exists, and using it is sometimes wise, but an extension to file is not an extension to understand the year. The understanding is the monthly close. The form is the last step.

April 15 is when the property list is first due. The extra month, landing on May 15, shows up only after the ask has been put in writing. That is a different statute from the franchise report, and it is easy to treat them as one blob because they can share a day. They do not share a form, a base, or a consequence.

The rendition lists property. The franchise report lists margin. A truck can matter to both and still be a different question on each. On the rendition the question is whether you owned it on January 1 and what it was worth for that roll. On the franchise report the question is how the purchase changed the year. We keep the lists apart so a busy Tuesday does not merge them.

Protests of the value have their own clock. Most are due May 15 or 30 days after the notice, whichever date is later. If the notice arrives late, the later date is the one that protects you. Leave the appraisal notice on top of the pile, not under the vendor bills. A notice buried in vendor bills is how a protest right expires.

A full channel does not move May 15. A turnaround at a plant does not move it. Buc Days does not move it either, and that is the local kindness in the calendar. The pirate festival has been part of the coast at Corpus Christi since 1938, late April into early May, at the same time the filings bunch up. The city keeps the festival on its week. The state keeps the report on its day. We keep the close ahead of both.

The close can stay ahead of both dates if March already did the work. Plan for that in March instead of hoping on May 14.

Sales tax stays on the 20th all year, including May. If you let the May sales-tax return ride because the franchise report is also due, you now have two clocks. We put the sales-tax close on its own day earlier in the month so the 15th is not doing two jobs.

In March we look at the year to date and at the property list. In April the rendition is either filed or the extension request goes in, and the first draft of the margin is on the table. In the first week of May the open items left are specific. A missing statement. A bonus that was decided. A disposal that never got recorded. None of those is a reason to meet the week blind.

You still run the company during that week. The point of doing the close earlier is that Buc Days, a shipment, or a family commitment can have the week. The filing should already be a signature, not a research project.

If you are reading this in the middle of that week and the books are open, send the form anyway. Late is a real condition. We start from the month that is least true and we say clearly what can still be filed on time and what needs an extension. Panic is optional. A list is not.

Splitting the franchise report and the rendition across two vendors is how the truck gets counted twice or not at all. We keep both in the same file because they read the same fixed assets. The monthly close is where a purchase first shows up. The May filings are where it has to be consistent.

Estimates during the year are the other half of this. A business that waits for May to discover a large balance due has been guessing all year. We would rather set the estimates from closed quarters so May is a true-up.

The ship under the old arch in the photograph is a reminder, not a metaphor we need to stretch. The hull moved. The bridge stayed. Deadlines are the bridge. They do not rearrange themselves around a busy season on the water. Put the franchise draft, the rendition list, and the sales-tax reconciliation on three different days in April. The second week of May then becomes a week you can spend on the work that actually moves the company, including Buc Days if that is where you will be. We would rather the filing be a signature you already understand than a new mystery that week.