Virginia · Sales tax closure
Close a Virginia sales tax account.
Virginia gives you the easiest closure route of any state we file in: a checkbox on the return you were filing anyway. The complication is which return. From the April 2025 filing period the ST-1 replaced the ST-9, ST-8, ST-7, and ST-6, and a good deal of published guidance still names the old ones.
Who you are dealing with
Virginia Department of Taxation
- Handles:
- Retail sales and use tax account
- System:
- Virginia Tax business account
- Form:
- Tick the close your sales tax account box when you file, or use Form R-3, Change to a Registered Business and/or Tax Account. The return itself is the ST-1 from the April 2025 period onward
- Phone:
- 804-367-8037
State fee. $0. Virginia does not charge to close a sales tax account or to file the final return. Tax already owed is unaffected by the account status.
When you have to close
You close when the business or the location stops making taxable sales in Virginia. Virginia treats closing a single location and closing the account as related but distinct, so say which one you mean.
Final returns come first
The final return is an ordinary return with the close box ticked, which is why it is easy to file the last one and never actually close anything. From the April 2025 filing period that return is the ST-1, whatever your account type. If you need to amend a period before April 2025, the old form for that period is still the one to use.
How long it takes
Virginia does not publish a turnaround. What it says instead is what closing achieves: the account is marked inactive and the department stops expecting future returns. On the payroll side Virginia tells you to phone and confirm after seven business days, and the same instinct is worth applying here.
What we do
We confirm which accounts are open, file the final returns if they are still outstanding, submit the cancellation to each agency, and follow up until both are confirmed closed. You get the written confirmations. One flat price, and the state charges nothing to close.
What makes Virginia harder than average
- The form changed and the old names are everywhere. Starting with the April 2025 filing period the ST-1 replaced the ST-9, ST-8, ST-7, and ST-6, and it applies regardless of account type. Guidance, templates, and bookkeeping notes still refer to the ST-9 constantly.
- Amendments run on the old forms. If you are correcting a period before April 2025 you still use the form that applied then. So a business closing in 2026 with an older correction to make is handling two different form families at once.
- The closure is a checkbox, which makes it easy to miss. Ticking a box on a return you were filing anyway is the least memorable action in this work. Filing a perfectly good final return without ticking it leaves the account open and expecting the next one.
- Closing a location is not always closing the account. Virginia distinguishes between the two, and a multi-location business shutting one shop should not end up closing the whole registration by accident.
Questions and answers
Which form do I use for the final Virginia sales tax return?
The ST-1, for any filing period from April 2025 onward, whatever your account type. It replaced the ST-9, ST-8, ST-7, and ST-6. If you are amending an earlier period, use the form that applied to that period.
How do I actually close the account?
Tick the close your sales tax account box when you file, or notify Virginia Tax through your business account online, or complete Form R-3. Any of the three works. The checkbox is the one people forget.
I closed one shop but I am still trading elsewhere in Virginia.
Then you are closing a location, not the account. Virginia treats those separately, so tell us which and we will file it that way rather than ending your whole registration.
Do I still need to file if I had no sales?
Until the account is closed, yes, the filing obligation continues. Closing it is what stops the department expecting future returns.
What do you need from me to start?
The legal name and Virginia account number, whether you are closing the account or one location, the effective date, the figures for the final period, and whether any earlier period still needs amending.
Agency details verified 2026-08-03