Resources Blog File

Sales tax is due today. What do I do?

by TaxJar January 20, 2024

Please note: This blog was originally published in 2021. It’s since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Sales tax filing is easy to put off. Filing sales tax returns is a hassle, it’s confusing, and worse, it isn’t profitable for your business.  But if you’re not careful, a sales tax due date can sneak up on you.

For example, today. 

Nearly every online seller has a sales tax due date on January 20th. In fact, January 20th is one of the busiest sales tax due dates of the year, with sales tax filings due from most sellers in the following states:

Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, DC, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

Additionally, the 20th is a common date throughout the year for a sales tax due date.

I need to file sales tax today. What can I do?

TaxJar is here to help make sales tax filing easy.

1. Sign up for a TaxJar Starter account – TaxJar will prompt you to connect your online shopping carts, marketplaces and ERPs. From there, TaxJar will slice and dice your sales tax collected and create sales tax reports just the way the state wants to see them. 
2. Use TaxJar Reports to file your returns – Once your reports are complete, login to your state’s sales tax filing portal. Your TaxJar state reports show you what numbers to fill into each field. TaxJar takes all the guesswork and math out of filing sales tax returns!

Never want to file sales tax again?

We can’t blame you. Filing sales tax is time consuming and many state filing portals are confusing and hard to decipher. That’s why we created TaxJar AutoFile. 

After your one-time AutoFile enrollment, TaxJar AutoFile files your sales tax returns every month. We even debit the payments from your bank account for you, meaning you can totally outsource the pain of sales tax filing and remittance to us. 

The less good news is that it takes a few days for us to process an AutoFile enrollment, meaning that you can’t sign up for a new TaxJar account and automatically file your sales tax returns on the same day. 

However, if you’ve had enough logging into state tax department websites and filling in rows upon rows of numbers, we invite you to enroll in TaxJar AutoFile today. The next time you have a sales tax filing due, TaxJar will do all the heavy lifting. Your future self will thank you.

Learn more about TaxJar AutoFile

• 7 Reasons to AutoFile your Sales Tax Returns
• How do I enroll in TaxJar AutoFile?
• AutoFile enrollment information needed for each state

Sign up for TaxJar and take the headache out of sales tax

If you are facing a tight sales tax deadline, the info above should give you all you need to get your sales tax filed ASAP. 

And if you need more features, such as more sales channel integrations, access to collect sales tax via TaxJar’s API, and product categorizing with our sales tax AI Emmet, you’ll be given the chance to upgrade your TaxJar account to TaxJar Professional. 

But first, it’s time to get those sales tax returns filed!

Get started with a free, no credit card required TaxJar trial today.

---