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Spotlight PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 The EU e-invoicing mandate is here — France Sept 2026, Belgium Jan 2026, Germany 2025.

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X12 813 — Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data

The 813 electronically transmits a tax return to a federal, state, or local authority, and may also initiate payment of the declared tax.

Purpose

The 813 carries the elements of a tax return — tax base, tax due, applicable credits — in a structured form that a tax authority (IRS, US state departments of revenue, local jurisdictions) can ingest without re-keying. Typical uses cover sales tax, motor-fuel tax, industry-specific excise (alcohol, tobacco), and certain withholding declarations.

The 813 can also instruct payment of the amount due: when it does, it is followed (or paired) with an 820 that carries the payment order. The tax authority acknowledges receipt via the 151, which echoes the consistency control back.

Envelope structure

The 813 travels in a functional group TF (Tax Filing). Didactic example for a quarterly sales-tax filing in release 004010:

x12 example-813.x12 
ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*ACMECORP      *ZZ*IRSGATEWAY    *260514*0930*U*00401*000000813*0*P*>~
GS*TF*ACMECORP*IRSGATEWAY*20260514*0930*1*X*004010~
ST*813*0001~
BTI*T6*05*47*IRS*20260514*123456789*49*EIN~
DTM*683*20260331~
TIA*5002*125000.00~
TIA*5004*32000.00~
REF*55*Q1-2026~
N1*FR*ACME CORP*24*123456789~
N3*1500 INDUSTRIAL BLVD~
N4*CHICAGO*IL*60601*US~
SE*11*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000813~

The BTI (Beginning Tax Information) identifies the return: tax type code, transaction code (original, amended, final filing), jurisdiction, date, taxpayer identifier (EIN or SSN) and its qualifying code. The TIA (Tax Information and Amount) segments carry the amounts by category (base, tax due, credit…). The DTM segments give the tax period.

Common segments

  • Header — ST, BTI (Beginning Tax Information), DTM (period).
  • Filer identification — N1 (FR = Filer, BY = Buyer, RP = Reporting Party) with N3/N4, REF for additional IDs.
  • Declared amounts — TIA (Tax Information and Amount) repeated per category code; REF for admin codes.
  • Detail per jurisdiction / category — FGS (Form Group Sequence) loops for multi-jurisdiction filings.
  • Summary — SE.

Common pitfalls

  • Jurisdiction-specific tax-type codes: each state (Texas, California…) publishes its own code book for BTI01; an IRS mapping does not work as-is for a state.
  • Coupling with the 820: some authorities require both an 813 AND a separate 820; others accept the payment as a side flow — verify the official scheme of the jurisdiction.
  • Interchange control number and test/prod flag: authorities reject interchanges marked T (test) in production and vice versa.

Documentation

The code 813 and the name Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data are public and listed on x12.org/products/transaction-sets. Jurisdiction-specific schemes (IRS, a state Department of Revenue) are published by that authority under an open US government license and form the implementation reference, alongside the proprietary X12 TR3.