So far I have received 2 calls from this number but they have yet to leave a message. I do not own a business. I have never owned a business so I have never had a Tax I.D. number. Why would the state comptrollers office be calling my cell phone?

Your CFO or accounting firm can usually handle these matters. It is true from previous posters, you must still file, even if you had "0" sales. You will be charged a penalty if you don't.

Also if you want to "close out" with that state, you have to file the proper paper work with the Comptrollers office.
They will then send you a letter of expungement to confirm.

If this is legitimate, why are they contacting me in Canada?  I don't even own a business!  Certainly not a legitimate call from my perspective.

It's not a scam, that is the Texas state comptroller's office, it's for sales tax payments.

Received at call at 7:15am on July 4th from this number.  No response when I answered, just a disconnect after 15 seconds.  Seems rather odd that the State of Texas would be contacting me at 7:15am on a national holiday, doesn't it?

It's really the Texas Comptroller.  They left a message that was cut off on voicemail about 6 seconds in and I confirmed via their website that the number is theirs, so returned the call.

But we have not even opened yet and have only had a tax ID for a few weeks.  Our first quarterly return will be all 0 and it's not even due yet.  I called them back and the woman was very polite, she looked and looked and found NO note or issue with our account.  So I have no idea if it was some automated informative call (perhaps like the recent upcoming "tax free" week email that they sent out) or a caller ID was hacked or what?

Legitimate, the Texas Comptroller's office reminding to file taxes on time with instructions. Didn't ask me for any Tax ID number, just a reminder message.

It really is the Texas State Comptroller's Office.

This is real. They we're inquiring about a remaining balance I owed for late tax filing. All they wanted to know was when I'd be sending the last check. They didn't ask for any information that isn't already publicly available.

Since this number called me 5 times today, I did finally confirm that it is from TX Comptroller, after Googling the number myself. Never leaves a message, and is calling my personal phone. I do not understand why a government office's caller ID would say "800 Service." Anyone conducting legitimate business by phone should have a legitimate, accurate caller ID...

800-252-8880 called my cell, I called the number it says it was a state trooper and in order for me to get the messege I needed to enter my soc. number, but I didn't. This is a scam and someone with authority should investigate it.

I got a phone call, voicemail and a business card at my business address.
This is LEGIT! I am definately a cynical man. So I went to google and typed Texas Government. And that took me to the Texas Government Home page, TRY IT! Then in the search bar I typed COMPTROLLER because that is who my voicemail said was looking for me. A results page came onto the screen. Make note that you are still on a government page, look at the address bar, you are still on a texas.gov page. Dot GOV is a federal page. The first link available to me is the current state comptroller, Susan Combs so I clicked it. That takes me to a dot state dot tx dot us link, again a federal link. I selected to CONTACT US on the top right of the page. Being that I am still on a federal page I chose, Call an Expert Directly (Toll-free) - - Comptroller Toll-free Numbers. And WHAMO!!! There was the number left on my voicemail. Since I am still on a federal webpage I trust the number a little bit, so I called it. The young lady on the phone asked for my resale tax ID, hesitantly I gave it to her, relying on the fact that the phone I just called is on a federal webpage. She gave me my name, my business name, the date I registered and more that only the state would know. Then she informed me that I was due to file my quarterly report, WTF??? Appearantly when my wife setup the resellers license online she didn't look at how it was being setup. The state of texas requires you to file your sales quarterly or yearly. She provided a federal link to verify everything she told me. So in short it is legit. I am not providing you with the links as someone can HACK my post and remap my link. Search for yourself the legitimacy, start at the Texas Homepage, google it. Never trust posted links in a blog or from someone you do not know.

Sorry, guys.  Hacking is NOT the case here.

Whether or not sales were generated by your business, a "zero sales" return must be filed.  If you do not file it, they will estimate your sales tax based on a) a previous return, if one exists, or b) whatever quarterly sales tax estimate applies to the industry your business is in.  Once the tax is estimated and not paid, the account goes to collections and they start calling you.

Hacking is NOT the issue, and the word does not apply here.  There is no reason to "spoof" (the correct term) the phone number for the Texas Comptrollers office so that they can call you and get you to repeat your sales tax id, which is very public information.  That's just your Internet paranoia setting in.

Don't think it's public information?  Go here: http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxfiles.html#sales_permit

This is totally LEGIT.  They called me about a business I closed in 2009 that had a real Texas Tax ID. They were calling me because I hadn't paid any 2010 sales tax.  I told them I had closed the business in 2009 and had not had ANY income since tax year 2006.  They were very cordial and worked with me to get my tax id number closed and taken off the roles so this wouldn't happen again.

But this IS a real State of Texas agency and they ARE potentially calling you about a REAL issue.

NOT A SCAM - NOT A SCAM - NOT A SCAM - NOT A SCAM - NOT A SCAM - NOT A SCAM

As Steve said in his comment on Mar 11 2010. Here is Texas Comptroller's website that clearly shows this number belongs to their collections department.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/fieldtoll.html

It's Texas Tax Collections/Enforcement.

This is LEGIT!!

Received call this morning from 800-252-8880 that I did not answer.  I was surprised that they left voice mail identifying themselves as "Comptrollers office with the state of Texas" and requesting a callback using a reference number.  The reference number was my TX sales tax ID number.  My tax payments are current, so I was skeptical about this.  After verifying that the 800 number truly belonged to the State of Texas Comptrollers Office, I returned the call.

Call was automatically answered by IVR system that repeated the above Tax ID # advised press "1" to confirm or press "2" otherwise.  It was a match, so I pressed "1" and was connected to a gentleman that olny asked for confirmation of information that they already had of which none was sensitive and was confirmed by me as correct (mailing address, zip code, etc.).

The crux of the call is rooted in a state law recently passed regarding sales of "pre-paid" cell phones and a new fee imposed on sales tax ID holders.  I advised that I never have sold these nor do I have any plans to sell "pre-paid" cell phones in the future.  I had read reports of this fee and had supposedly responded, but the fee still remained due on my account.  Apparently the state did a poor job of getting the word out on this new fee and the fact that there had been a poor response from tax ID holders to report whether or not these "pre-paid" cell phones were being sold.  He advised that they are trying to update thousands of records due to this miscue in reporting as there was a due date required by law.

He said he would update my record to remove the fee from my tax ID.  End of call.  He was polite during the entire contact and at no point in the call did he ask me to furnish him with any private or proprietary information.  In fact I have spent more time on this message than I did on the call.

legit.  Comptroller asked for somebody I didn't know. Wrong number.  Dude was very nice.  No scam attempt.

This is totally legit. They are not difficult to deal with at all. It is the Sate of Texas comptroller.

The terms "controller" and "comptroller" used interchangeably (not 100% correct....immaterial).  Nothing fishy about it.

On the phonecalls I've been getting lately the caller actually says conTrollers office. The "mp" (as in coMPtrollers) is not enunciated AT ALL! Still smells rather, shall we say....FISHY?

Even if you had no income from your business, you must call and claim 0 income every quarter.  If you are late multiple times you can be fined.

Caller said this was a Automated Notification System from the Texas Controllers.  Said our number was given as a business that could be taxed, and to call 1-800-252-8880 to clear this matter up.

actually, this is a legitimate call. calling about the Appliance Rebate with updated info. I applied for the rebate already so didn't need the info

I've received several calls from this number. But they refuse to leave a message. As I owe no business taxes, since I made no money last year. I know these calls are not legimate. If the income is zero, there are no taxes due. And I always pay my taxes in full. I would agree that the caller id has been hacked some how. You would not just receive a phone call. You would receive a registered letter from the IRS.

The best way to deal with unsolicited calls like this is to say you don't give that information over the phone, and then call the Comptroller's office directly and see if there's a problem with your account.

That IS the Comptroller's 800 number but I wouldn't be surprised if some hacker has figured out how to hack callerid, and got a list of business phones from the public records of businesses registered in the State of Texas.

Received call on my cell. Caller said her computer was messing up and asked for my Tax ID #. If this is a legitimate call they need to learn phone etiquette. I refused to give my Tax ID # and hung up.

Actually, this is legitimate.  The number does belong to the Texas State Comptroller.  It is their collections division.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/fieldtoll.html

Scroll down to "Collections" on this page

I've received several calls on my business cell phone. Someone saying they were from the Texas State Controllers Office. Definitely a scam. Someone needs to come down hard on this scam.