Texas Business News: 2012 Franchise Tax Form Issues

I recently received a mass mail e-mail from the office of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts regarding common processing errors on some franchise tax forms.  It appears that the bar code included on the forms mailed to businesses contains information which cannot be corrected on the pre-printed form - even if that information is incorrect.

Since many Texas businesses extend their filing deadline to later in the calendar year, this is news you can use to help prevent filing problems this year.

Here is the text of the e-mail from the Comptroller's office:

Issue: Altering franchise tax forms can cause errors The Comptroller’s office has identified processing errors on some 2012 franchise tax forms. We worked with several of the software providers and traced these errors to the use of a PDF editor (e.g. Adobe Acrobat Pro, Nitro Pro, PDFexcape, Foxit, etc.) to make changes to franchise tax forms. These errors can result in a company’s account status being “not in good standing”, which has a negative effect on its ability to do business in Texas. How to avoid errors on tax forms you prepare Tax preparers should be aware that the data they enter into a provider’s software is used to print the franchise form with a 2D barcode. The 2D barcode contains the same data that is printed on the form. The franchise form is processed to a company’s account based on the data in the 2D barcode. Using a PDF editor to change data printed on the form does not change the data in the 2D barcode. Tax preparers should use the provider’s software to change data on the form so that the 2D barcode is also changed.