Ohio Sales Tax Filing Calendar

The rule, and the three dates it breaks

Ohio sales tax returns and payments are both due on the 23rd day of the month following the end of your filing period under R.C. 5739.12. There is no separate payment deadline — the return and the money are wanted on the same day. When the 23rd falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.

That last sentence is where a copied-out date list goes wrong. In the 2026 cycle Saturday, May 23 rolls forward — but not to Monday, because that Monday is Memorial Day, so the April return is actually due Tuesday, May 26. Sunday, August 23 rolls to Monday, August 24. And Saturday, January 23, 2027 — which carries both the December monthly return and the July–December semi-annual return — rolls to Monday, January 25. The calendar above computes each roll rather than reading it off a table, so it stays right in 2028 and beyond. The full walkthrough is in the Ohio sales tax due dates guide.

You do not choose your filing frequency

ODT assigns it when you register, driven by how much tax you remit. Confirm yours in your own OH|TAX eServices account before trusting any schedule.

• Monthly — Vendors, transient vendors, out-of-state sellers. The default assignment.
• Semi-annual — Vendors, out-of-state sellers, transient vendors. Liability under $1,200 per six-month period.
• Quarterly — Direct pay permit holders and consumer use tax accounts only. Under $15,000 quarterly liability. Quarterly filing is not available to ordinary vendors. If you hold a vendor's license, check your account type before choosing this.

One more rule people mix up: an annual liability above $75,000 changes how you pay, not when. Those taxpayers file on exactly the same dates and simply have to pay electronically. Registration itself is covered in the Ohio vendor's license guide.

Why the date is worth a reminder

Missing it costs more than the penalty. Filing on time and paying in full lets you keep 0.75% of the tax due as a timely-filing discount — capped since January 1, 2026 at $750 per vendor's license for each month the return covers. Late, and that discount is gone plus a late-filing penalty, a late-payment penalty and interest, which are three separate charges.

Semi-annual filers are the ones who get caught. Two filings a year means eleven months of silence in between, and the businesses that miss deadlines are almost never the busy monthly filers. A zero return still has to be filed on time too — a vendor's license creates a filing obligation, not a sales obligation. The wider picture is in the Ohio business sales tax compliance guide, and what happens when it goes wrong is in the Ohio sales tax audit guide.