Two Agencies Share One Texas Obligation
Texas does not run an annual report in the sense most states use the phrase. What a Texas entity owes every year is a Franchise Tax Report with a Public Information Report attached, and those two documents go to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The Texas Secretary of State, which most owners assume is the destination, never sees them. That split is the single most useful thing to know about Texas compliance, because the filings that repair a record sit on the other side of it.
What the Comptroller collects
The Comptroller takes the Franchise Tax Report and the Public Information Report through Webfile at comptroller.texas.gov. The franchise tax is a margin tax with a no-tax-due threshold of $2.47M in annualized total revenue, so the great majority of small Texas entities calculate a liability of zero. That is why the fee line on a Texas report reads $0 for LLCs and $0 for corporations. Zero is the price of the report, not permission to skip it. The Comptroller treats an unfiled report identically whether the tax behind it would have been $38,000 or nothing, and the mechanics of the margin calculation are set out in our guide to the Texas LLC franchise report.
What the Secretary of State controls
The Secretary of State holds the certificate of formation, the file number, the registered agent and registered office, and the governing persons of record. The Public Information Report is the pipe that carries current officer, director and member data into that public record once a year. Changing the formation document itself is a different filing entirely, a Certificate of Amendment described in our walkthrough of amending Texas articles. A report describes the record. It does not rewrite it.
The May 15 Deadline and What the Two Forms Ask
Texas Annual Report at a Glance
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Report name | Franchise Tax Report + PIR |
| Filing frequency | annual |
| Deadline | May 15 |
| LLC filing fee | $0 |
| Corporation fee | $0 |
| Late penalty | $50 + 5%/month |
| Processing time | 3-7 business days |
| Report filed with | Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts |
| Entity filings filed with | Texas Secretary of State |
May 15 is a fixed calendar date, not an anniversary. Every taxable entity in Texas shares it, which is convenient for a business with one entity and unforgiving for an owner who holds several, because nothing staggers the workload. Texas posts acceptance in roughly 3-7 business days once a submission clears validation. Fee comparisons for the state sit in our Texas annual report cost breakdown.
Who has to file in Texas
The obligation reaches every taxable entity on the Comptroller's roll: LLCs and corporations formed in Texas, professional entities, limited partnerships, and out-of-state companies that registered here through Texas foreign qualification. A home-state annual report never satisfies Texas. General partnerships owned entirely by natural persons and sole proprietorships sit outside the franchise tax net, but an owner should confirm that classification rather than assume it, because a single corporate partner changes the answer.
Filing through Webfile
Webfile asks for the taxpayer number, the entity's legal name exactly as the Comptroller holds it, the accounting year dates, total revenue, and then the Public Information Report block listing officers, directors or managers with their addresses. The registered agent shown must match the Secretary of State record. Where it does not, fix the agent record first through a change of registered agent in Texas, then file. Our Texas registered agent guide covers the standing requirement behind that field.
File your annual report
If you would rather not do this yourself, we pull your record from the state, prefill every field, and track the deadline for next year. Or keep reading and file it on your own. This guide covers everything you need either way.
The Penalty Ladder on a Late Texas Filing
What forfeiture blocks in Texas
- $50 on day one. The flat penalty attaches the moment May 15 passes, whether the tax due was zero or six figures.
- 5% a month on tax. Where franchise tax is genuinely owed, the percentage penalty compounds the exposure month by month.
- Loss of good standing. The Comptroller stops issuing the certificate of account status that lenders, title companies and buyers request.
- Forfeited right to sue. A forfeited entity cannot maintain an action in a Texas court, which is felt first in collections.
- Director liability exposure. Texas can hold officers and directors personally answerable for debts incurred after forfeiture.
- Termination near 24 months. Sustained non-compliance ends in administrative termination of the entity itself.
One year, two years, three years
Run the arithmetic for a small Texas LLC under the revenue threshold, where the franchise tax itself is $0. Miss one May 15 and the cost is the $50 flat penalty, because there is no filing fee and no tax to apply 5% against. Miss two and the flat penalties total $100. Miss three and they total $150, at which point the entity has almost certainly forfeited its right to transact business and the real bill arrives in the form of the cure: three back reports, the $150, tax clearance from the Comptroller, and a $75 Application for Reinstatement filed with the Secretary of State. That is $225 in state charges to undo three years of inattention on a filing that costs nothing to make on time.
Change one fact and the picture changes completely. An entity above the $2.47M threshold with a real franchise tax liability faces 5% per month on that tax in addition to the $50. On $12,000 of unpaid tax, twelve months of accrual is $7,200 of penalty against a report that would have taken twenty minutes. Texas is cheap to comply with and expensive to ignore, and the gap between those two numbers widens with revenue.
Reinstatement after forfeiture
Texas sets no statutory cut-off for reinstatement, which is genuinely unusual. An entity terminated in 2019 can still be revived, provided every intervening report is filed and the tax account is settled. The sequence never varies: bring the franchise tax account current with the Comptroller, obtain tax clearance, then file the Application for Reinstatement with the Secretary of State at $75. Our Texas reinstatement guide sets out the paperwork, and the alternative, a deliberate wind-up rather than a lapse, is covered in Texas dissolution.
Three Texas Filings in Practice
Example 01: an Austin single-member LLC
A design consultant runs a single-member LLC in Austin with $180,000 of annual revenue, far below the $2.47M threshold. Action taken: she opened Webfile in late March, confirmed her taxpayer number, entered her accounting year and total revenue, listed herself as the sole managing member on the Public Information Report, and submitted the no-tax-due filing. Real cost: $0 to the state. Timeline: about fifteen minutes, acceptance posted within a week. Outcome: the entity stayed in good standing, and when her bank asked for proof during a line-of-credit review that autumn, the Texas certificate of fact issued without a hold.
Example 02: a Houston corporation updating its officers
A Houston equipment corporation replaced its treasurer and added a second director in November, then filed the following May. The Public Information Report was the mechanism that moved both changes onto the public record, because Texas does not take officer updates as a standalone filing. Action taken: the controller listed the outgoing treasurer's departure, entered the incoming officer with a current business address, and added the new director before submitting. Real cost: $0, since revenue sat under the threshold. Timeline: filed May 2, accepted May 6. Outcome: when a supplier ran a credit check in August, the officer list matched the signature authority on the account, and no one had to explain a name that had left the company nine months earlier.
Example 03: a foreign-qualified LLC in three states
A Colorado logistics LLC holds registrations in Texas and Oklahoma alongside its home state. Three obligations, three shapes: Colorado runs on a periodic report tied to the formation anniversary, Oklahoma on its own annual cycle, and Texas on the fixed May 15 date with two forms rather than one. Action taken: the operations manager built a single calendar keyed to each state's rule instead of assuming a shared anniversary, and moved the Texas item to April 15 to leave a month of slack. Real cost in Texas: $0. Timeline: roughly thirty minutes a year for the Texas leg. Outcome: no lapse in any state. The multi-state view is mapped in , and the tax side in franchise tax by state.
Five Mistakes on the Texas Franchise Filing
Mistake 1: Sending the report to the Secretary of State
What it is: looking for an annual report form on the Secretary of State site, finding nothing that fits, and concluding Texas has no requirement. Why it happens: forty-nine other states put this filing with their business registry, so the instinct is correct everywhere except here. Consequence: the May 15 date passes unnoticed, the $50 attaches, and the owner discovers the problem only when a certificate request is refused. Prevention: file the report and the Public Information Report with the Comptroller through Webfile, and reserve the Secretary of State for amendments, agent changes and reinstatements.
Mistake 2: Reading zero tax due as nothing to file
What it is: skipping the filing because revenue sits under the $2.47M threshold and no tax is owed. Why it happens: a $0 line item reads like an exemption rather than a return. Consequence: the entity accrues the flat $50 per missed year and slides toward forfeiture while its owner believes the account is clean. Prevention: file the no-tax-due report every year the entity exists, including the year it was formed and the year it stops trading.
Mistake 3: Letting the registered agent record drift
What it is: naming an agent on the Public Information Report who no longer serves, or whose address changed years ago. Why it happens: the agent is usually a founder's first address or a lapsed provider, and nobody revisits it until something is served there. Consequence: state notices and service of process go to an address no one monitors, and Texas treats the entity as properly served regardless, which is the fact pattern behind most default judgments. Prevention: reconcile the agent record before filing, and file the change with the Secretary of State first where it has moved.
Mistake 4: Using the report to amend the certificate
What it is: typing a new entity name or a new management structure into the report and treating that as the change. Why it happens: the fields are editable, so the screen behaves like a record editor. Consequence: the change never takes legal effect, and the discrepancy surfaces months later when a bank compares the filed certificate against the report. Prevention: file a Certificate of Amendment with the Secretary of State, then report the corrected facts on the next Public Information Report.
Mistake 5: Treating a dormant entity as exempt
What it is: leaving an inactive Texas LLC unfiled on the theory that a business with no operations owes nothing. Why it happens: no revenue feels like no obligation, and the entity is out of sight. Consequence: penalties accrue on a shell that earns nothing, and the eventual choice is between paying to reinstate and paying to terminate a forfeited entity. Prevention: either keep the dormant entity current at $0 a year, or close it deliberately with a Certificate of Termination while it is still in good standing.
Building a Texas Filing Routine
Practice 1: Work to April, not May
Set the internal deadline at April 15 and treat May 15 as the state's backstop. The month of slack absorbs the things that actually derail a filing: a Webfile credential nobody has used since last spring, an accountant waiting on year-end figures, a taxpayer number that does not match the entity name on file.
Practice 2: Reconcile before you open Webfile
Fifteen minutes with the Secretary of State record before filing prevents most rejections. Confirm the legal name character for character, the file number, the registered agent and office, and the current list of officers or managing members. Where any of those has moved, the corrective filing goes first.
Practice 3: Keep one record for the entity
Hold the taxpayer number, file number, formation date, agent details and officer roster in one place that gets updated when facts change rather than once a year under time pressure. For owners with entities in more than one state, our Texas compliance hub and the annual report deadlines by state reference keep the cycles visible together.
How File.Business Handles Texas Annual Reports
File.Business files the Texas Franchise Tax Report and Public Information Report for entities under our compliance service. We track May 15, pull the Secretary of State record so the entity name, file number and agent match before anything is submitted, surface any amendment or agent change that has to happen first, file through the Comptroller, and confirm acceptance. For businesses registered in Texas and elsewhere, every state cycle runs from one dashboard, with Texas registered agent service and good-standing monitoring included.
Texas annual report FAQ
Who do I file the Texas annual report with?
The Franchise Tax Report and the Public Information Report go to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts through Webfile, not to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State handles entity filings such as amendments, registered agent changes, terminations and reinstatements. Sending the report to the wrong office is the most common reason a Texas deadline is missed.
When is the Texas annual report due?
May 15 every year. It is a fixed calendar date shared by every taxable entity in Texas rather than an anniversary date, so a business holding several Texas entities files them all in the same week.
How much does the Texas annual report cost?
The report itself carries no filing fee: $0 for LLCs and $0 for corporations. Franchise tax is separate, and an entity under the $2.47M no-tax-due threshold calculates a liability of zero while still being required to file.
What happens if I miss the May 15 deadline in Texas?
A flat $50 penalty attaches immediately, and 5% per month accrues on any franchise tax actually owed. One missed year costs $50 for an entity under the threshold, two cost $100 and three cost $150, after which the entity has usually forfeited its right to transact business and faces administrative termination at around 24 months.
Can a terminated Texas entity still be reinstated?
Yes. Texas sets no statutory cut-off for reinstatement. The entity must file every missed report, clear the franchise tax account with the Comptroller, obtain tax clearance, and then file the Application for Reinstatement with the Secretary of State at $75.
Do foreign-qualified companies file the Texas report?
Yes. Any LLC or corporation registered to transact business in Texas files the Franchise Tax Report and Public Information Report on the same May 15 cycle as a domestic entity. A report filed in the home state does not satisfy the Texas requirement.
Let File.Business file your Texas annual report.
We track the May 15 Texas deadline automatically, validate all entity info, file through the state filing system, pay the fee, and confirm acceptance. Same-day filing in most cases. First year of Texas registered agent included.
Doing this in Texas specifically: Texas annual report filing and the Texas annual report page for the Comptroller filing cover the detail for this state, including the current fee and the exact form the agency expects.
This guide is written from the official sources below. Fees, forms, and deadlines change; confirm the current requirement with the agency before you file.
Disclosure. File.Business is a private filing service, not a government agency and not a law firm. We prepare and submit filings at your direction, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice. Filing fees, deadlines, and statutory references are current as of the last-updated date shown above and can change. Confirm current requirements with the relevant state agency before you file.
