Miss the $800 LLC Tax? California 2026 Deadlines for Kern County

Key Dates and Actions to Flag Now

A handful of dates account for most of the deadlines small business owners in California actually need to track:

March 16, 2026: S corporation and partnership returns due for 2025 calendar-year filers, since March 15 falls on a weekend and the deadline shifts to the next business day.
April 15, 2026: Sole proprietor and single-member LLC returns (filed with your personal return), plus the first quarterly estimated payment of the year.
April 15, 2026 (for calendar-year C corps): the 15th day of the fourth month after year end.
$800 LLC annual tax: due the 15th day of the fourth month of your tax year, paid with Form FTB 3522, separate from your Form 568 return.
Any due date landing on a weekend or state holiday automatically rolls to the next business day.

Filing Deadlines by Business Entity

California ties most business filing deadlines to the federal calendar, but the exact day depends on your entity type and whether you run a calendar or fiscal year.

S corporations and partnerships (including LLCs taxed as partnerships) owe their returns by the 15th day of the third month after the close of the tax year. For a 2025 calendar-year filer, that lands on March 16, 2026, because March 15 falls on a Sunday and the state due-dates page pushes the deadline to the next business day. Partnerships that miss this date face a per-partner penalty that accrues monthly and can outpace the underlying tax bill fast, since the penalty multiplies by the number of partners on the K-1 schedule rather than applying once to the return as a whole.

C corporations get an extra month: the 15th day of the fourth month after year end, which lands on April 15, 2026 for calendar-year filers. Corporations with a fiscal year ending on a date other than December 31 count forward from their own year-end instead.

Sole proprietors and single-member LLCs report business income on their personal return, so the business deadline and the individual deadline are the same date: April 15, 2026 for calendar-year taxpayers. If you operate an LLC taxed as a disregarded entity, you still owe the separate $800 annual LLC tax on its own schedule, regardless of what your personal return shows.

Fiscal-year filers of any entity type should not assume these calendar dates apply to them. Count forward from your own fiscal year end using the same “third month” or “fourth month” rule for your entity type, and confirm the exact date against the FTB’s due-dates page rather than relying on a generic calendar. Owners weighing entity structure or catching up on a late S corp election often find it useful to review S corp filing and payment timing alongside the LLC-specific rules before locking in a choice for next year.

Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments

If you expect to owe tax beyond what withholding covers, California requires quarterly estimated payments on a schedule that does not match a clean three-month split. For 2026, calendar-year individuals and corporations generally follow this pattern:

April 15, 2026: first estimated payment (30% of the annual estimate for individuals).
June 15, 2026: second payment (40% for individuals).
September 15, 2026: third payment (0% for individuals under the standard schedule).
January 15, 2027: fourth payment (30% for individuals).

The state’s income tax calendar sets these benchmarks for individuals, sole proprietors, and single-member LLC owners reporting business income personally. Corporations follow a separate percentage schedule tied to their own fiscal year. You generally must make estimated payments if you expect to owe $500 or more after withholding and credits; meeting a safe-harbor threshold based on last year’s tax liability can reduce or eliminate the penalty for underpayment. Missing a quarter does not just delay the bill, it triggers interest that compounds until you catch up, so building these dates into your bookkeeping calendar early avoids a scramble each quarter.

Payroll Tax Filing and Deposit Deadlines

Employers in California file Form DE 9 and DE 9C quarterly through the Employment Development Department, reporting wages and withholding for the prior three months. These become delinquent if not filed by the last day of the month following the close of the quarter.

Deposit frequency for state personal income tax and State Disability Insurance withholding follows your federal deposit schedule: next-day, semiweekly, or monthly, depending on your accumulated withholding. Larger payrolls that trigger federal next-day deposits owe California deposits on the same accelerated timeline using Form DE 88. E-file and e-pay are mandatory for most employers, and late deposits carry penalties even when the shortfall is small, so reconciling your federal and state deposit schedules each pay period matters more than it might seem.

The $800 LLC Annual Tax and Form 568 Timing

Every LLC doing business in California owes an $800 annual tax, paid with Form FTB 3522, due by the 15th day of the fourth month of the tax year. For a calendar-year LLC, that is April 15, 2026. New LLCs owe their first payment by the 15th day of the fourth month after filing their articles of organization, though first-year exceptions have applied in some years and are worth confirming before assuming the tax is automatically due.

LLCs with total income of $250,000 or more also owe a separate LLC fee, due by the 15th day of the sixth month of the tax year, using Form FTB 3536. This fee is distinct from the $800 annual tax and scales with gross receipts rather than net income.

The most common mistake we see is paying the $800 annual tax alongside Form 568 instead of using the correct voucher. Form 568 is the information return; the annual tax and the fee each have their own payment voucher and, often, their own due date. Submitting the wrong form with your payment can cause the state to misapply it, which then shows up as a notice months later. Owners structuring or restructuring an LLC benefit from walking through the full LLC tax and filing timeline before their first payment comes due, especially if they are weighing entity change mid-year.

Extensions and Disaster Postponement Relief

California grants partnerships and most business entities an automatic seven-month extension to file, with no application required, according to the FTB’s extension guidance. That extension covers the paperwork only. Any tax owed is still due on the original date, and interest accrues from that date forward even if your return arrives on time under the extension.

When a federally declared disaster affects California taxpayers, the state can authorize postponed deadlines through Form FTB 3872, as it has for prior wildfire relief periods. These postponements apply only to taxpayers in the affected counties and only for the period the state announces, so check official FTB disaster relief pages directly rather than assuming blanket relief applies statewide.

How to Pay and What Penalties Cost You

California accepts payment through Web Pay, electronic funds withdrawal (EFW) submitted with your e-filed return, credit card, or mailed vouchers like Form FTB 3522 and Form FTB 3538. Each voucher ties to a specific tax type, so using the wrong one is a common cause of misapplied payments.

Late payment penalties generally run 5% of the unpaid tax plus monthly interest until paid in full, and late filing penalties stack on top of that for returns filed after the extended deadline. Partnerships face an additional per-partner penalty for late filing that accrues monthly and can exceed the base penalty quickly on a multi-partner return.

Before submitting any payment, verify your FEIN or Secretary of State entity number on the voucher, keep a confirmation or canceled check as proof of payment, and contact the FTB promptly if a payment posts to the wrong account, since correcting a misapplied payment is far easier before the next filing cycle closes.

How We Keep Deadlines From Becoming Surprises

Most missed deadlines trace back to books that were not current when the due date arrived. Monthly reconciliations catch a misclassified expense or an unrecorded loan payment while there is still time to fix it, rather than during the scramble before a filing deadline.

Working inside Xero lets us build estimated-payment reminders directly into a client’s bookkeeping calendar and prepare vouchers before the cash is due, so a payment is ready to submit rather than calculated at the last minute.

Pro Tip: Authorize electronic funds withdrawal for your estimated payments and LLC annual tax at the start of the year, then archive each confirmation in your Client Hub folder so you have proof of payment ready if a notice ever arrives.

If you are catching up on months of unreconciled transactions before a filing deadline, our bookkeeping checklist walks through what to gather first.

What the Calendar Doesn’t Tell You

Most tax-deadline guides treat every date as equally urgent, which misses the point. The dates that actually cost small business owners money are the quiet ones: the $800 LLC tax due in April, the per-partner penalty on a late partnership return, the payroll deposit that drifted out of sync with a federal schedule change. Those rarely show up on a generic calendar, and they are the ones that generate notices months later.

The conventional advice to “mark your calendar” undersells how much of this depends on books being current before a date arrives. You cannot estimate a quarterly payment accurately from stale numbers, and you cannot catch a misapplied LLC payment if nobody reconciled the account that quarter. The deadline is the easy part; knowing your real numbers in time to meet it is the part that actually determines whether you pay on time or pay a penalty.

If you take one thing from this guide, prioritize reconciling your books monthly over memorizing every due date. The dates are public and unchanging. Your cash position in March, when the first big deadline lands, is not.

— Tolliver Team

How We Help Kern County Businesses Stay Ahead of Deadlines

We build our practice around keeping bookkeeping and tax services coordinated to help avoid surprises around important dates. When the same team manages your books and prepares your return, coordination helps prevent errors between the ledger and estimated payments.

Our bookkeeping service keeps your Xero file current month to month, and migration into Xero comes at no cost as a Xero Silver Partner. Our business tax preparation service handles entity returns and the voucher-specific payments that trip up so many LLC and S corp owners. For owners who want their estimated payments and LLC tax scheduled ahead of time, our tax planning integrates those dates into bookkeeping calendars, and IRS representation services are available if needed.

Reach out through our Client Hub or call our Bakersfield office to schedule a consultation and get your 2026 deadlines mapped to your actual books.

FAQ

What is the tax deadline for small businesses?

The deadline depends on entity type: S corporations and partnerships file by March 16, 2026 for the 2025 calendar year, while sole proprietors, single-member LLCs, and C corporations generally file by April 15, 2026. Fiscal-year filers count forward from their own year end using the same third-month or fourth-month rule.

Did California extend the tax deadline?

California has postponed deadlines in the past for taxpayers in federally declared disaster areas, using Form FTB 3872 to authorize relief for affected counties. Outside a declared disaster, the standard dates apply, so check official FTB announcements before assuming a blanket extension covers your situation.

What is the filing deadline for LLCs in California?

LLCs taxed as partnerships file their return by March 16, 2026 for the 2025 calendar year, while the separate $800 annual LLC tax is due by the 15th day of the fourth month of the tax year, April 15, 2026 for calendar-year LLCs. These are two different deadlines on two different forms, so confirm which one applies before submitting payment.

Do you have to pay the $800 California LLC fee the final year?

California’s $800 annual tax generally applies for any year an LLC is doing business in the state, including a final year before dissolution, though first-year exceptions have applied in some circumstances. Confirm your specific situation against current FTB guidance before assuming your final year is exempt.

Miss the $800 LLC Tax? California 2026 Deadlines for Kern County

Recent Posts

Archives

Table of Contents