Professional Privilege Tax: Submitting a Bulk File
Overview
If your business will be submitting professional privilege tax payments on behalf of multiple individuals, you have the option of submitting a bulk file. Bulk filing allows you to submit one payment for multiple individuals by submitting a file containing each individual’s account information. This allows the Department to apply your bulk payment to each individual’s account.
This guide provides information about how to submit a bulk file and payment through the Tennessee Taxpayer Access Point (TNTAP). This guide includes the following:
- Information you will need to submit the file
- Instructions for preparing and submitting the file
- FAQs about submitting
To submit the professional privilege tax bulk file through TNTAP, you will need the following:
1. Professional Privilege Tax Account
- To submit a bulk file on behalf of a business, the business will need its own professional privilege tax account.
- If your business has submitted a bulk file any time after March 2017, your business likely already has a professional privilege tax account. Also, if your business is also required to submit the professional privilege tax (such as a broker dealer firm), it should already have its own professional privilege tax account.
- If your business does not have a professional privilege tax account, please complete the Application for Professional Privilege Tax Bulk Filing.
2. TNTAP Logon
- Once you have a professional privilege tax account number for your business, you can create your TNTAP logon. You will need the following information to create a
TNTAP logon: - FEIN of business
- Professional privilege tax account number
- Business name
- Contact name and email address
- One of the last three payment amounts or a letter ID. A letter ID is a unique number that is printed on correspondence from the Tennessee Department of Revenue. The letter ID is in the following format: L0123456789.
3. Bulk File Format
- You will need the Professional Privilege Tax Bulk File Format when submitting the bulk file. Please be sure to read the instructions and FAQs before creating your file to avoid common formatting errors.
Getting Started
1. Login to your TNTAP account here: https://tntap.tn.gov/eservices.
2. Select the Summary tab.
3. Select Professional Privilege Tax Multiple Return Filing next to the Professional Privilege Tax account.
4. Upload the file and correct any errors in the document.
If you do not see the account or link, please call the Taxpayer Services Division at (615)253-0600.
Preparing the File
| LicenseType | Profession | Maximum Character Length | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGNTL | Securities Agent | 7 | Length can be any amount of number 1-7 |
| ATTYL | Attorney | 6 | If it is 7 characters, the last character must beM or P, otherwise it can be 5 or 6 numbers |
| INADL | Investment Advisor | 7 | Length can be any amount of numbers 1-7 |
| LOBBL | Lobbyist | 7 | 7 zeros |
- For unit types and codes for the professions (which are now required on the spreadsheet), please reference the above table to find codes for each license type. This website has address formatting abbreviations information.
- Do not delete any columns from the file format, even if the column is blank. All columns must be in the file format to upload correctly.
- Format columns containing Account, Social Security, CRD, License, and Zip Code entries as text. If any values start with a zero, make sure all digits are present.
- Once your information has been entered, delete the header row and save as a .CSV file type.
- Please be prepared to submit your file as soon as formatting is complete and the file is saved. This is necessary because CSV files reopened before submission can lose text formatting and require you to repeat formatting and verification.
Submitting the File
- If you are paying for your company, select “yes” for paying for self.
- Select the due date from the drop down box.
- Next, upload your spreadsheet.
- If you have questions about any error codes you receive when submitting your file, please email broker.dealers@tn.gov for assistance.
- Once the spreadsheet is successfully uploaded, you will be notified if any of the individuals on your list have already paid the tax for this year. These individuals should be removed from the file, so that only unpaid individuals are listed. This will help to reduce the possibility of over payments.
- The calculated amount includes everyone on your upload file and the company, if you are including them.
- You will be prompted to choose a payment method, either ACH debit or credit card.
- After the payment information is entered, you will be asked to confirm by entering your password, which serves as your electronic signature.
- Once your payment is submitted, you will be provided with a confirmation number. Please keep a record of this number.
- Am I required to enter the Social Security Number (SSN) on my spreadsheet? It is against my company’s policy to upload this information.
No. If you have each person’s 10-digit account number and his or her license number, you are not required to enter the SSN. You must provide the license number and license ID with any bulk files submitted. Then, you can choose to provide the professional privilege tax account number or SSN. - What if I don’t know an account number? How can I find this information?
On the home page of TNTAP, there is a Lookup Information & Requests section. Select Professional Privilege Account ID. You will be able to look this up by entering the SSN, profession, and entering the professional’s license number. It is important to match the correct profession with the license number. - My employees are securities agents, and they have a CRD number instead of a license number. How will I look them up?
Please use the individual’s CRD number as their license number. This also goes for any other profession that has a registration number that is not called “license”. - My employees are lobbyists, and they are not issued a license number. How do I list their license number on the file?
To submit a file for a lobbyist, please use the license type LOBBL. For the license number, please use seven zeroes (Example: 0000000) to submit the file. - I have multiple firms with multiple employees for which I have to file taxes. Can I send them in all together?
No. Each firm will need its separate username and password so that each file will be credited properly. Having separate logons for each firm will also allow you to look at your TNTAP account to see whether you have paid for someone or not. - I see a field for Non-US Country Only. What do I put in that column?
If the address is in the continental U.S., do not put anything in this field. You should use the Non-US Country Only column for out-of-country addresses. The country name can be spelled out completely or abbreviated. Even if all of your licensees are located in the U.S., please do not delete this column. All columns must be in the file format to upload correctly. - We have gotten our file back saying there are incorrect numbers. How can I make sure the numbers stay the same even after the file is compressed?
Format your columns so they are text, not numeric. Some programs default each field to numeric formats and will remove leading zeroes on account numbers and license numbers. This causes issues when you upload the file if the field does not have the correct number of characters. By formatting your columns into a text format, it will keep everything in the columns as you typed it and will not remove leading zeros.