Business Debt Relief in Austin

An Austin-area owner with merchant cash advance debt can start by gathering every contract, three months of bank statements and the Secretary of State’s record of liens filed against the business, then speaking with a Texas attorney and taking a free, confidential first conversation. Two paper trails, the UCC filing and the franchise tax report, can matter alongside the debit. The worry is the same in a sold-out week and a slow one: the debit stays put.

Picture an owner like Marisol, a composite: she runs a sixty-seat restaurant with a small stage in East Austin. Her deposits average about $75,000 a month, climb to roughly $105,000 in March and $100,000 in October when festival crowds fill the neighborhood, and drop to about $55,000 in July. Over two years she took three advances, and together they debit $450 every business day. She is open six days a week, so about $11,700 a month leaves the account whether the room is full or empty.

Marisol has two questions she has not asked anyone. What does the Texas Secretary of State show filed against her business? And does the franchise tax notice she tucked into a drawer last spring matter? Neither question changes what she owes on the advances, but both change what she can do about it, and both have deadlines written into Texas statutes.

This page is for owners like Marisol in Austin, Round Rock, San Marcos and the towns around them. It goes deep on two Texas topics, UCC filings with the Secretary of State and franchise tax forfeiture, and sends you to sister pages for the rest. Hamilton & Merchant is based in Orlando, Florida, has no office in Central Texas, and holds its first conversations by phone. Nothing here is legal or tax advice; where a step needs a lawyer or a CPA, use your own, licensed in Texas.

How is the Austin economy changing, and which businesses feel a fixed debit first?

Austin is still adding residents and jobs. The Census Bureau counted 2,620,945 people in the metro on July 1, 2025, up 53,796 from a year earlier, a smaller gain than the 68,340 added the year before. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 1,416,600 nonfarm jobs in September 2026 (preliminary), up 1.1% over twelve months, with unemployment at 3.7%.

The sectors moved in different directions. Mining, logging and construction stood at 98,100 jobs, up 4.5%. Professional and business services reached 291,200, up 2.8%, and leisure and hospitality, where restaurants and music venues sit, reached 153,700, up 1.4%. Information slipped 0.6% to 49,500, and government fell 2.9% to 204,600. A weekly debit set while a customer base was growing feels different once one of the sectors around it is shrinking.

Office space is the clearest local pressure point. CBRE reported Austin office vacancy at 23.6% in the third quarter of 2026, with availability at 28.5%. A new downtown tower delivered more than 700,000 square feet of vacant Class A space, while CBRE says the development pipeline is at its lowest level in more than ten years. Cleaners, caterers and lunch counters near downtown towers sell to the people who sit in those buildings, so the building market is part of their sales forecast.

Owners whose cash arrives in lumps, such as restaurants and venues, trades paid on draws, and service firms with seasonal customers, can feel a fixed debit sooner. A merchant cash advance, or MCA, is sold as a purchase of future receivables and repaid by a fixed daily or weekly debit. The MCA glossary defines the terms, and the restaurant guide covers the kitchen-side math.

What do Texas’s 2025 sales-based financing rules mean for an Austin business?

Texas House Bill 700 added Chapter 398 to the Finance Code, effective September 1, 2025, to regulate commercial sales-based financing, including disclosures on offers under $1 million and registration of providers and brokers by December 31, 2026. See what that date means.

Whether and how the chapter applies to a particular contract is a question for your Texas attorney. The Dallas-Fort Worth page walks through the chapter in detail, and the state-law study compares Texas with other states.

Which Austin-area costs arrive on fixed dates alongside an advance debit?

Four Texas obligations arrive on calendar dates whatever the advance schedule says: sales tax, payroll, the business personal property report and the franchise tax report. Of the four, sales tax is the one that can follow an individual.

Sales tax

Texas charges a 6.25% state sales tax, and local jurisdictions can add up to 2%, for a combined ceiling of 8.25%. Monthly reports are due on the 20th of the following month, with a $50 penalty for each late report and a 5% or 10% penalty on tax paid 1 to 30 days or more than 30 days late. Under Tax Code Section 111.016, anyone who collects the tax holds it in trust for the state, and an individual who controls or supervises its payment and willfully fails to pay can be personally liable. The same section gives the district courts of Travis County exclusive original jurisdiction over suits under it. The blog on the one creditor you always pay first explains why tax money is handled differently from other bills.

Payroll and wages

Texas lists a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the federal figure, because state law adopts it by reference. Austin once tried to go further: its paid sick leave ordinance would have required most private employers to give six to eight paid days a year, but in November 2018 a Texas appeals court held that it violates the state constitution because the Texas Minimum Wage Act preempts it. For planning, that points to state and federal numbers rather than a city-set wage floor or leave premium, and a Texas attorney or CPA can confirm anything newer. If a payroll date is at risk, read what to do when you can’t make payroll before making any decision about payments.

Business personal property

Equipment, furniture and kitchen gear are business personal property, and the Travis Central Appraisal District sets April 15 as the deadline to report it. For tax years beginning January 1, 2026, the exemption for income-producing personal property rose from $2,500 to $125,000 after voters approved Proposition 9 in November 2025. A business must render the property only if it believes the aggregate value exceeds the exemption, or it can file a certification that the value does not. Marisol’s kitchen and sound system may fall under the line; a larger contractor’s fleet of tools may not.

Franchise tax

The annual franchise tax report is due May 15, and a business below the no-tax-due revenue line still files. That report is the subject of two chapters further down, because missing it creates the second paper trail Marisol was worried about.

What is a UCC-1 filing, and what does it say about my Austin business?

A UCC-1 is a financing statement, a public notice that a secured party claims an interest in a business’s property. UCC stands for Uniform Commercial Code, which Texas adopted in Chapter 9 of the Business & Commerce Code, and the Texas Secretary of State is the central filing office. To make a security interest effective against other creditors, Section 9.310 generally requires that a financing statement be filed, with exceptions such as control of a deposit account.

A filing identifies the collateral in one of two ways. Section 9.504 allows a description of the collateral, or a statement that the filing covers “all assets or all personal property.” Section 9.322 ranks competing perfected interests in the same collateral by the time of filing or perfection. That ranking is one reason the dates on a search result matter when several advances sit on one business.

The filing names the debtor, and the name has to be the right one. For a registered organization such as an LLC or corporation, Section 9.503 requires the name on the public organic record, the formation document on file with the state. A trade name alone is not enough. Marisol’s restaurant has a catchy public name, but any filing against it should be indexed under the legal name of her LLC, so that is the name she searches.

The filing is a notice, not a statement of what is owed. The balance lives in the contract and the funder’s statements, which is why the first conversation asks for both. For the national mechanics of how liens and freezes relate, the blog on UCC liens and bank freezes covers them.

How do I search the Texas Secretary of State for UCC filings against my business?

You search online through the Secretary of State’s SOSPortal, using the exact legal name of the business, and a basic web inquiry costs $1. Older guides mention SOSDirect, but the Secretary of State’s current UCC pages point to SOSPortal, and paper filings stopped being accepted on August 29, 2025.

1. Create or sign in to a SOSPortal account; the Secretary of State says the UCC portal requires one.
2. Open the search and orders page and enter the legal name from your formation documents. The Secretary of State publishes a list of ending “noise words,” so the endings on that list are ignored in the search.
3. Pay the $1 web inquiry fee before the search runs.
4. For each result, write down the file number, the filing date, the secured party and the collateral wording.
5. Search again under your own legal name, since a filing can name an individual, and under any former legal name of the business.
6. If you need an official record, a debtor search certificate costs $15, and certified copies cost $1 a page plus $15 a certificate.

Read the results with two questions in mind. Which filing matches an advance you know about? And which do you not recognize? A filing you cannot match to a contract is worth a question to the secured party and to your Texas attorney, because a financing statement can also be filed for an old obligation that has been paid.

What does a fixed daily debit do to an Austin restaurant in a festival month and in July?

The same $450 debit takes about 11% of Marisol’s March deposits and more than 21% of her July deposits. Her numbers are hypothetical, but the arithmetic is worth running by any owner: the monthly debit divided by the monthly deposits, for the best month and the worst.

• Monthly debit: $450 times 26 debit days is $11,700.
• March, with festival crowds: $11,700 divided by $105,000 is 11.1%.
• October, with a race weekend and a music festival: $11,700 divided by $100,000 is 11.7%.
• July, when the neighborhood is quiet: $11,700 divided by $55,000 is 21.3%.

The calendar behind those hypothetical months is real. SXSW 2026 ended on March 18, and a downtown bar owner described it as a little shorter than in years past. The organizers of Austin City Limits reported that the 2025 festival contributed $557.8 million to the local economy over six days with about 75,000 people a day. Visit Austin projected that this October’s Formula 1 activity could generate more than $1 billion, with hotels expected at roughly 92% to 95% occupancy. Those are organizer and tourism-bureau projections, not audits, but they show how a few weeks carry a year’s worth of hope.

The University of Texas at Austin enrolled 55,000 students in fall 2025, up 2.1% from the year before, and a neighborhood that serves them sells to a customer base that follows an academic calendar. Weather works the same way. In the February 2023 ice storm, more than 100,000 Austin customers were without power on the evening of February 3, and 57,000 homes and businesses were still dark at 7 p.m. on February 4. A restaurant without power is a restaurant without sales. Whether a debit adjusts after a closure depends on the contract’s reconciliation terms, which the guide to the reconciliation right explains how to read.

Run the same division twice, once for the best month and once for the worst. The gap between the two answers is the real size of the debit.

Put your own three numbers into the MCA cost calculator, and read slow-season MCA payments for the national version of this problem. If the worst-month percentage surprises you, you are not alone in being surprised, and it is the best reason to have a first conversation before the next slow stretch rather than during it.

How does a termination statement work in Texas, and what if the funder does not file one?

Once no secured obligation remains, a Texas debtor can send the secured party an authenticated demand, and Section 9.513(c) then requires the secured party to send a termination statement or file one with the Secretary of State within 20 days. If the secured party does not, Section 9.509(d) lets another person file the termination, provided the debtor authorized it and the filing says so. Section 9.625 lets the debtor recover $500 for the failure, plus any loss it causes.

The first condition is the one owners skip. A demand only works when nothing is owed. That means the advance is paid in full, or a written agreement with the funder says the obligation is satisfied and releases the lien. Sending a demand while a balance remains does not remove a filing. After a settlement, ask that the written agreement say who will file the termination and by when; the blog on what happens after you settle an MCA covers the paperwork, and how to terminate a UCC lien walks through the national steps.

1. Confirm in writing that the obligation is satisfied: a paid-in-full letter or a signed release.
2. Pull the file number from your SOSPortal search so the demand names the exact filing.
3. Send an authenticated demand and keep proof of delivery. Ask your Texas attorney what “authenticated” should look like for your situation.
4. Count 20 days from receipt and put the date on your calendar.
5. Search again after the date. A filed termination ends the effectiveness of the financing statement, subject to Section 9.510.
6. If nothing was filed, ask your attorney whether to use the debtor-authorized termination in Section 9.509(d).

Two side notes. A filing that is wrong rather than paid can be answered with an information statement under Section 9.518, though the statute says it does not change whether the filing remains effective. And a filing does not last forever: it is effective for five years from the filing date unless a continuation statement is filed within the six months before expiration. Filing a UCC-1 or an amendment costs $5 at the Secretary of State.

Does a UCC filing let a funder take money from my Austin business’s bank account?

A UCC filing is not the only way a secured party can reach a bank account. Under Section 9.310(b)(8), a security interest in a deposit account that is perfected by control needs no financing statement, and control is an arrangement that involves the bank itself, not a filing with the Secretary of State. Texas Finance Code Section 398.056 adds that a sales-based financing provider may not set up an automatic debit of a deposit account unless it holds a validly perfected, first-priority security interest in that account.

Those are the words of the statutes; how they apply to a given contract and a given account is for your attorney. The point for an owner is that the lien search and the account paperwork are two different documents. A frozen account is a separate event with its own rules, and what to do about a frozen business bank account covers it. When a Texas bank receives a claim against a customer, Finance Code Section 59.008 puts the burden on the customer to seek a restraining order, injunction or other remedy to limit the bank’s response, which is why a notice like that is worth taking to a lawyer the day it arrives.

What happens to a Texas business that misses its franchise tax report?

A missed report draws penalties first and, if it stays open, forfeiture of the right to transact business in Texas. The report is due May 15. A $50 penalty applies to each late report, tax paid 1 to 30 days late draws 5%, tax paid more than 30 days late draws 10%, and interest on past-due tax starts 61 days after the due date.

If the filing requirement stays unmet, the Comptroller mails a Notice of Intent to Forfeit Right to Transact Business (Form 05-211). Section 171.251 gives the entity 45 days after the notice to file the report or pay the tax or penalty, and separately lists refusing an examination of its records as a ground for forfeiture. After that the Comptroller forfeits, and Section 171.252 says a forfeited corporation is denied the right to sue or defend in a Texas court. Section 171.2515 extends the same process to other taxable entities, so the rule is not limited to corporations.

One point is worth clearing up: the revenue line. For the 2026 and 2027 report years the no-tax-due threshold is $2,650,000 in annualized total revenue. An entity at or below that line owes no tax but must still file a Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report. Marisol’s $900,000 of annual deposits sits far below that line, and the filing is still required. An owner who sets a notice aside because the tax would have been $0 still faces the 45-day clock.

A franchise tax bill of zero is not the same as no report. The Comptroller’s notice goes to the business that did not file, whatever it would have owed.

To clear a Form 05-211 notice, the Comptroller says the entity files and pays the report plus late penalties and interest, and an entity at or below the threshold files only the report. Open the notice the day it arrives, since the 45 days start at the mailing date, not the day you read it.

Can I be personally liable for my Austin business’s debts if its franchise tax status is forfeited?

The statute says directors and officers can be. Section 171.252 states that each director or officer of a forfeited corporation is liable for the corporation’s debts as Section 171.255 provides, and Section 171.2515 applies the same subchapter, including 171.255, to forfeited taxable entities. Whether and how that reaches the managers or members of an LLC is a question for a Texas attorney, so treat it as a warning rather than a conclusion.

Section 171.255 limits the liability in time and in kind. It covers debts created or incurred in Texas after the date the report, tax or penalty was due and before the privileges are revived, plus later franchise taxes and penalties. A director or officer is not liable for a debt created over their objection, or created without their knowledge when reasonable diligence would not have revealed the intent to create it. The statute also says the liability is not affected by revival of the charter.

For an owner with advances, the practical question is timing. A contract signed or renewed during a forfeiture window is the kind of debt a lawyer will want to date carefully, and the renewal trap described in why renewals stack up is one reason to track which date each paper was signed. This liability is separate from any personal guarantee in an advance contract; the four words that create a personal guarantee explains that one.

How a forfeited Texas business gets reinstated

The Secretary of State’s reinstatement application (Form 801) must be accompanied by a tax clearance letter from the Comptroller. Before applying, the entity files each delinquent report and pays the tax, penalty and interest due. The filing fee is $75, and the application can be filed at any time after forfeiture as long as the entity would otherwise still exist. Signing certifies the statements, and false information is a crime under Tax Code Section 171.363.

Where would a funder sue an Austin business, and what comes first?

Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 15.002(a), a suit is generally brought in the county where a substantial part of the events happened, or, against a business, in the county of its principal office in Texas, whether that is Travis, Williamson, Hays or another. A contract can name another state’s courts instead; what happens with an out-of-state MCA judgment covers that route. Section 15.020 lets parties to a written transaction worth $1 million or more choose a county by agreement, and says it does not affect venue for smaller ones.

Texas does not allow a person to confess judgment in a document signed before suit is brought, under Section 30.001. If papers arrive, the citation tells you the answer deadline. Rule 99(b) of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure sets it at 10:00 a.m. on the Monday after twenty days from the date of service. Never ignore court papers; the MCA lawsuit survival guide lays out the sequence, and your own Texas attorney should read the citation.

You can look for a case against you without leaving your desk. The Travis County District Clerk provides free online access to public family and civil records from 2006 to the present, and the county’s courts page lists district courts, county courts, justices of the peace and a docket search. Williamson and Hays residents should check their own county clerks. The dollar limits of the justice, county and district courts are covered on the San Antonio page.

If a funder wins a judgment, Section 31.002 lets the creditor ask a court for a turnover order covering nonexempt property, and it bars turnover of the proceeds of property that is exempt. What Texas exempts is covered on the Houston page. Your attorney decides how it applies to your accounts.

What public and nonprofit resources can Austin business owners use?

Four public or nonprofit resources are worth a call before or alongside any paid help. Hamilton & Merchant is not affiliated with any of them.

• Texas State University Small Business Development Center, Austin office. It says it provides no-cost, confidential business advising, at 505 E. Huntland Drive in Austin, 512-420-9379.
• SCORE Austin. The chapter describes free mentoring in person, by email or by video; confirm current details with the chapter.
• Lawyer Referral Service of Central Texas. A nonprofit referral service for Travis, Hays, Williamson and Bastrop counties, at (512) 472-8303. Ask the service what a first consultation costs and how long it lasts.
• State Bar of Texas. Its public site has a find-a-lawyer tool, and its public line is 800-204-2222.

A referral service connects you to an attorney, and that attorney, not a consultant, is the person to ask about court papers, a franchise tax forfeiture or a lien. The blog on an MCA lawyer or a debt relief company sets out what each can do.

When should an Austin owner get help with merchant cash advance debt?

The right time is when the numbers on one page disagree with the comfort in your head, and it can show up well before a missed debit. Any one of these signs is enough reason for a first conversation:

• The worst-month percentage from the earlier arithmetic is higher than you can carry.
• A second or third advance has been used to pay the first.
• A SOSPortal search turns up a filing you cannot match to a contract.
• A Comptroller notice, a default letter or court papers have arrived.
• Payroll or sales tax money is being squeezed to make a debit.

A first conversation with Hamilton & Merchant is by phone, free and confidential, and it helps you understand where you stand and what kind of help fits. It does not replace a Texas attorney or a CPA. The how it works page describes what the call covers.

Bring what you can find:

• Every advance contract, with any renewal or amendment.
• The last three months of business bank statements.
• A list of every advance with its daily or weekly debit and the date it started.
• Your SOSPortal search results and any Comptroller notices.
• Any court papers or demand letters, with the dates they arrived.

Some owners eventually look at settlement. In a settlement program, the regular payments usually stop while each funder is negotiated, and that puts the advances in default. The risks are a lawsuit, added fees, damage to credit, and a claim on any personal guarantee. Some funders agree to a settlement and some don’t, and results vary. The guide to responding to a default notice explains what that letter says.

• Do this

  • Ask for the whole fee structure in writing before you agree to anything.
  • Get your own Texas attorney for court papers, liens and tax forfeiture.
  • Read every contract side by side before deciding.
  • Keep the file numbers and dates from your lien search.

• Never do this

  • Pay anyone who promises a result or a timeline.
  • Pay a fee before any work is done.
  • Follow advice to ignore a lawsuit or a Comptroller notice.
  • Sign anything you have not read in full.

Good help never promises results, never charges before work is done, and never tells you to ignore a lawsuit. How to find a debt relief agency and how to vet a business debt relief company list the questions to ask, and the merchant cash advance relief page describes the kinds of help that exist. To start with the numbers, call (407) 993-1416.

What should an Austin owner do this week?

Seven steps, in this order, put the Texas paper trail in your hands:

1. List every advance: funder, start date, amount, debit and the balance the funder will state. Put the monthly debit next to your best and worst month of deposits.
2. Search SOSPortal under your business’s exact legal name, then under your own name, and fill in the lien log.
3. Check your franchise tax standing. Confirm the May 15 report and the Public Information Report are on file, and open any Comptroller notice you have set aside.
4. Search the Travis County District Clerk’s online civil records for your name, or your own county clerk if you are elsewhere.
5. Mark the 20th of each month for sales tax (or the 20th of January, April, July and October if you file quarterly) and April 15 for business personal property.
6. Call SCORE Austin, the Small Business Development Center or the Lawyer Referral Service, and book a Texas attorney if you have a lien question, court papers or a notice.
7. Run the free MCA diagnostic with your numbers, then call (407) 993-1416 for a free, confidential first conversation.

Nothing in the list asks you to change how you pay today. If a step shows a filing you do not recognize, a notice you missed or a date that has passed, you have learned it on a calm Thursday rather than from a court clerk.

Questions owners in Austin ask