The taxes a Fort Worth business plans cash around
Which taxes leave the bank, and when, for a business in Fort Worth?
Looking for the dates cash leaves the bank, and which week they land? Each one is a date, and a job calendar can hold dates as easily as it holds deliveries. Steven Palmieri, a Tax CFO, keeps these beside the jobs because a tax payment that lands in the same week as a materials order is the one that pinches. The table groups them by what they come from, and the notes explain the rows that raise questions.
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The taxes, grouped by source
| Source | The tax | Size or base | When cash leaves |
|---|
| Sales | The state's share | 6.25 percent | By the 20th after the month, for monthly returns |
| Sales | The city of Fort Worth | 1 percent | Same return |
| Sales | Trinity Metro, the transit authority | 0.5 percent | Same return |
| Sales | Crime Control and Prevention District | 0.5 percent | Same return |
| Sales | Quarterly and annual returns | Same rates | The 20th of April, July, October and January, and January 20 for annual returns |
| Sales | Large payments | Above one million dollars | Start by 8 pm Central the banking day ahead |
| State | Franchise report | Revenue up to $2,650,000 owes nothing (2026 and 2027 reports) | May 15 |
| State | Public information report | A form with no tax on it | May 15, even when nothing is owed |
| Property | Rendition of business personal property | What you own in equipment and stock, with values | April 15 |
| Property | Property tax bill | Set by each of the taxing units on the Tarrant Appraisal District's values | January 31 |
| Hotels | State hotel occupancy tax | 6 percent of the room cost | With the hotel return |
| Hotels | City of Fort Worth hotel tax | Filed online through the city's finance department | With the city filing |
| Payroll | State unemployment tax | Pay up to $9,000 per worker, each calendar year | Each quarter |
| Payroll | Federal deposits | Federal rules | Taken by the payroll provider |
How Fort Worth reaches 8.25 percent
Four pieces make up the rate at an address in Fort Worth. The state takes 6.25 percent, the city 1, Trinity Metro 0.5 and the Crime Control and Prevention District 0.5, which totals 8.25 percent. That is the most Texas allows. Tarrant County charges no sales tax of its own, so the room a county rate would take is filled by the transit and crime control pieces.
The city also stretches past Tarrant County, into Denton and slices of other counties. A job site, a shop or a second location near the edge can fall under a different county for appraisal notices and county filings. Look up each address on the Comptroller's rate locator.
Property, with a Tarrant detail
The Tarrant Appraisal District, and not the city or the county, sets the values that every taxing unit uses to figure its bill. There are more than seventy of those units across the county. So a protest or a rendition is a single conversation with one office, and its result flows to every bill. Equipment on the road, in the yard and in the shop all belong on the rendition, and a written request for more time must arrive by the same April 15.
The May 15 report
Revenue of $2,650,000 is the Comptroller's cutoff for the 2026 and 2027 report years. Under it no franchise tax is owed, though the brief public information report still arrives on May 15. Over it, the full report is filed. Whatever side a contractor is on, the date belongs on the calendar before the busy season starts.
No Comptroller counter in town
Fort Worth has no walk-in Comptroller field office. The nearest counters are in the Dallas area, and the state also runs a Virtual Field Office. Most questions can be settled online or by phone, and we handle them with you.
The same week, stacked
Say a shop's May holds a $25,000 materials order on the 8th, payroll on the 10th and the 24th, and the franchise report on the 15th. That is a lot of money leaving in two weeks. These are made-up dates and amounts. On a job calendar the stack shows up in March, while there is still time to move the order or ask a customer for a draw. Who files, and when, is the part we take care of.
Preparing these filings takes no special license. They come out of the same books that sort your costs by job.
Date my job calendar
