If you overpaid sales tax, the state owes it back, but only for periods still inside its refund window, and only if you file a claim that shows the math. For most restaurants we see this with delivery apps: DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub remitted the tax on an order as a marketplace facilitator, and the same sales were taxed again on the restaurant's own return.
The window is three years in most of the states we checked and four in Texas, Ohio and Washington. It runs from different dates in different states, and it keeps moving, so every month you wait, the oldest month can drop out. This guide covers each state's clock and form, the evidence states ask for, a step-by-step claim, and the mistakes that get claims denied.
Can you get overpaid sales tax back?
Yes, if the period is still open and you can prove it. Every state we checked has a refund or credit process for tax paid that was not due, whether by mistake of fact or of law. Illinois's statute, for example, covers tax "paid which was not due under this Act, whether as the result of a mistake of fact or an error of law" (35 ILCS 120/6).
Paying tax on sales a marketplace facilitator already taxed is the textbook version. The platform remitted under its own account, then you reported the same sales as your own taxable sales. If you are not sure it happened to you, run the checklist in our pillar guide, restaurant sales tax on delivery apps: are you paying twice?, first.
What is the sales tax refund statute of limitations by state?
Three years in most states we checked, four in a few, each counted from a different trigger. This table covers the 11 states we verified against the statute or the revenue department's own page.
| State | Refund deadline | Form or process | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | Later of 3 years from the return's due date, or 6 months from the overpayment | Online "Submit a Claim for Refund," CDTFA-101, or a letter; attach amended returns | CDTFA Pub 117 |
| Texas | Generally 4 years from the date the tax was due and payable | Form 00-957 or the web form; Form 01-137 if your CPA files | Texas Comptroller |
| Florida | Received within 3 years of the date the tax was paid | DR-26S, online or by mail | Florida DOR |
| New York | 3 years from when the tax was payable, or 2 years from payment, whichever is later | AU-11, online for businesses | NY DTF AU-11 instructions |
| Illinois | Nothing paid more than 3 years before the January 1 or July 1 on or before your claim | ST-1-X amended return (claim for credit) | 35 ILCS 120/6 |
| Pennsylvania | 3 years from actual payment | Petition for refund, Board of Appeals Online Petition Center | 72 P.S. 10003.1, PA DOR |
| Ohio | 4 years from the date of the erroneous payment | ST AR, Application for Sales/Use Tax Refund | Ohio ST AR |
| Georgia | 3 years from the date the tax was paid | ST-12 (some filers must file electronically) | Georgia DOR ST-12 |
| North Carolina | Later of 3 years after the return's due date, or 2 years after payment | Form E-588 | G.S. 105-241.6, NCDOR |
| Washington | No refund for tax paid more than 4 years before the start of the calendar year you apply | Refund request or amended returns through My DOR | RCW 82.32.060 |
| Indiana | 3 years after the later of the due date or the payment date | GA-110L or a Refund Claim Request in INTIME | Indiana DOR GB #100 |
Every one of these has exceptions: audits, signed waivers, and in North Carolina a two-year prong that limits the refund to tax paid in the prior two years. Have your CPA confirm the exact last day for your oldest period.
How the clocks actually count
The wording changes the answer. Four worked examples, using each state's own rule:
- California. Pub 117 counts from "the due date of the return on which you paid too much tax." A quarterly return due April 30, 2024 can be claimed until April 30, 2027.
- Illinois. A claim filed in October 2026 falls after the July 1, 2026 cutoff date, so tax paid before July 1, 2023 is barred. File in June 2026 instead and the cutoff is January 1, 2026, which reaches back to January 1, 2023.
- Washington. An application in 2026 cannot recover tax paid more than four years before January 1, 2026, so anything paid before January 1, 2022 is out.
- Indiana. The DOR's own example: a monthly filer that filed and paid its January to November 2021 returns on time has until January 31, 2025 (GB #100).
Should you amend the return or file a refund claim?
Use whatever your state treats as the claim. Illinois is the clearest: the ST-1-X amended return is the claim for credit, and Illinois wants marketplace sales left off Form ST-1 entirely (IDOR). California wants both: a claim that states the reasons, the amount and the periods, and CDTFA says to send "any amended returns along with your claim" (CDTFA).
Most other states we checked use a dedicated claim form (Texas 00-957, Florida DR-26S, New York AU-11, Ohio ST AR, Georgia ST-12, Indiana GA-110L, North Carolina E-588), and Ohio says that if the claim is due to an amended return, you must show "the original and amended figures for the period(s) claimed" (Ohio Admin. Code 5703-9-07).
Taking a credit on this month's return is tempting and usually the wrong move for a multi-year error. North Carolina allows a credit on Line 20 of Form E-500 with "a detailed explanation," but says that if you are requesting a refund of an overpayment, "you are encouraged to file Form E-588" instead (NCDOR).
How do you build a delivery-app sales tax refund claim?
Stop the leak, rebuild each open period from the platform's numbers, then file one clean claim. Eight steps:
- Fix the current month. Change how the next return is prepared: deduct, exclude or report marketplace sales on the right line for your state. Our marketplace facilitator sales tax by state guide lists what California, Illinois, North Carolina, Washington and others tell sellers to do.
- Set the date range. Start at the later of the platform's start date for your state and the date you went live on it. End at the month you fixed. Cut off anything outside the refund window.
- Pull the platform tax reports for every month. DoorDash: Payouts report and Transactions breakdown column "Subtotal Tax Remitted by DoorDash to Tax Authorities," plus the Monthly Subtotal Tax Breakdown (DoorDash). Uber Eats: Payment Details Report, "Marketplace Facilitator Tax" (Uber). Grubhub: your statements.
- Pull every return you filed for those periods, and the POS report each one was built from. In Toast, that is usually the Sales Summary; note whether the preparer used the headline tax total or the State + Local line.
- Build the schedule. One row per period: marketplace sales included in your taxable sales, the tax you paid on them, the tax the platform remitted, and the overpayment.
- Net the reverse errors. If DoorDash's breakdown shows local taxes with "Merchant" remittance responsibility, or Uber Eats passed local meals taxes back, and you did not remit them, that is tax you owe. Fix it in the same package.
- Get platform confirmation in writing. DoorDash says Merchant Support will send a letter confirming it remits for your store; Uber Eats offers the same through its merchant help center.
- File and track. Submit through the state's portal where one exists, keep the confirmation number, and diary the follow-up dates. Florida, for instance, says it may ask for documentation within 30 days and that the application "will not be considered valid until all supporting documentation is received" (Florida DOR).
Send us your delivery payout exports and the sales tax returns you filed. We build the period-by-period schedule your CPA needs: what each app remitted, what you paid, and the gap, with local pass-back taxes netted out. We quote the prep before you commit; your CPA files.
What does a refund schedule look like?
A simple table per period, with the platform's remitted tax as the ceiling. The figures below are hypothetical, for illustration only.
| Period | Marketplace sales on your return | Tax you paid on them (6%) | Tax platforms remitted | Overpaid (lower of the two) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | $17,400 | $1,044 | $1,061 | $1,044 |
| Feb | $15,900 | $954 | $930 | $930 |
| Mar | $19,200 | $1,152 | $1,170 | $1,152 |
| Quarter total | $52,500 | $3,150 | $3,161 | $3,126 |
Why "lower of the two"? The app taxes its own menu price, which may be marked up, and in some states its fees. Your POS may carry a different price. You can only get back the duplicate, so the claim is capped at whichever amount is smaller. This is also the logic of our delivery sales tax overpayment calculator.
Attach the source for every number: the page of the filed return, the POS report, and the platform report for that period. A reviewer should be able to trace any cell in under a minute.
What evidence do states ask for?
The reason, the periods, the amount and proof, in that order. States phrase it differently:
- California wants "the specific reasons you paid too much tax," the amount (you "may file for an unspecified amount" if unsure), and the periods, signed and dated (CDTFA).
- Texas says it can ask for, among other things, the sales journal, general ledger, proof of payment, executed contracts and "identification of all local jurisdictions to which tax was remitted," and wants more than 10 invoices in schedule format (Texas Comptroller).
- Ohio will deny an ST AR if the first three sections are incomplete, and needs a spreadsheet when a claim has 25 or more line items (Ohio Admin. Code 5703-9-07).
- Georgia asks for "all supporting documents for the refund claimed, including invoices, proof of payment, sales journals," and says claims without them "may be delayed or denied." When you remitted the tax directly, the vendor waiver forms ST-12A and ST-12B are not required (Georgia DOR).
For a delivery-app claim, the platform's written confirmation that it remits for your store is the single most useful exhibit. It answers the first question any reviewer will ask.
What gets sales tax refund claims denied?
Missed deadlines, unsupported numbers, and claims for money that was never overpaid. The common ones:
- Counting months before the app started remitting. DoorDash started Florida on May 1, 2024; Uber Eats on October 1, 2023. Tax you paid on earlier Florida delivery sales was not a duplicate. The same logic applies to every start date in the state table.
- Claiming local taxes the app passed back. DoorDash says it "will not remit to tax authorities any taxes that are included in payouts to merchants." If you paid those, you paid them once, correctly.
- Claiming in states where the app does not remit for restaurants. In Texas and New York none of the three apps remits for restaurants; in California only Uber Eats does. There is no duplicate to refund on DoorDash sales there.
- Missing the burden rule. Illinois allows no refund unless the claimant "bore the burden of such amount" and did not shift it to customers (35 ILCS 120/6). In a typical double payment the app collected the tax from the customer and you paid a second copy out of your own revenue, but your CPA should document that fact pattern.
- Letting the clock run. Texas says the statute of limitations "will not be tolled (does not end) until a refund claim includes all of the required elements." An incomplete claim does not stop the clock.
- Filing from POS totals again. If the schedule is built from the same POS report that caused the error, it repeats it. Use the platform reports.
If a claim is denied, you usually have a short window to contest it. Texas gives 60 days from the denial to request a refund hearing, and Pennsylvania gives 90 days to petition the Board of Finance and Revenue after a refund decision (72 P.S. 10003.1).
Tip
Before you file, fix the month in front of you. A refund claim is much easier to defend when the most recent returns already show marketplace sales handled the right way.
Who should file the claim?
The business or its CPA. The claim is signed under your name and your permit number, and in Texas a CPA or attorney who files on your behalf submits Form 01-137, a limited power of attorney (Texas Comptroller). Ohio uses Form TBOR 1 for a designated tax representative.
Pavado is not a CPA or tax preparer, and no one can promise a refund; the state decides. What we do is the part that takes the most hours: pulling every period's platform tax, matching it to your filed returns, netting the local taxes you owed, and handing your CPA a schedule that ties out.
While the payout reports are open, two related checks pay off. Delivery deposits that never tie to the POS are covered in Toast sales and payout reconciliation, and the DoorDash error charges on the same statements can only be disputed within 14 days, see how to dispute DoorDash error charges. For every other place restaurant money leaks, start with the restaurant profit leak audit.