Much of ZacTax is powered by the Confidential Information Report provided by the Texas Comptroller. It's ugly and difficult to use, but it offers a wealth of valuable information, including payments for each taxpayer in your jurisdiction that pays more than $5,000 in state and local taxes annually (the threshold is $500 for cities with no property tax).

Brick and mortar locations are identified in the report, but there is one major limitation with the way the data are provided today: it only reports a single payment amount for each taxpayer, even if there are multiple locations in your jurisdiction.

This is particularly problematic if you want to map the data (and what's the point of having an address in your data if you aren't mapping it?). Since we're only given a single value for the two Whataburgers in your city, the best we can do is split the payments equally. Though still quite valuable, it's certainly not ideal.

HB 1370 fixes this problem

It's not that the Comptroller doesn't have the data at the outlet level; they do. The problem is State law has a peculiar inconsistency when it comes to the privacy concerns of an individual business. You're allowed to see the tax payments for an individual business, but only if it's the sole location in your city.

HB 1370 would finally open the floodgates of vital information by providing outlet-level details for all businesses. We'd be able to show you exactly how each location is performing, which will significantly improve your geographic analysis. It will provide a far more accurate look at how different areas of your city are performing, and if and where you need to step up your targeted business retention strategies.

We highly recommend including HB 1370 among the bills your jurisdiction formally supports this session.