Q3 closes on 30 September. Here is everything due in October

Ten dated deadlines and two "within 30 days" windows: every quarterly and monthly fertilizer tonnage report due in October, in date order, with each state's late penalty.

The third quarter closes on 30 September. For a distributor shipping into several states, that single date sets off the second-busiest filing month of the year: ten dated deadlines in October in our calendar, plus two states that give you "within 30 days" and leave the counting to you. None of the agencies will send a reminder.

This is the October list, in date order, with the penalty each state applies if you miss it. Every line comes from the state rule sheets in our library, and each one links to the official source.

The 15th: Nevada, and the two monthly states

Nevada is the tightest quarterly turnaround in the library. The Q3 tonnage report is due 15 October, fifteen days after the quarter closes, not thirty. The fee is $0.30 per ton with a $5 minimum, and a distributor below 20 tons a quarter may prepay $20 for all four periods instead of filing each one. We have not been able to verify Nevada's late penalty from an official source, so we do not show one: ask the agency before you rely on having a grace period.

Alabama and North Carolina are monthly states, so 15 October is simply September's report. It is on this list because it lands on the same day as Nevada, and a team working quarter by quarter tends to forget the monthly filings in the same week. North Carolina is the one to watch: we wrote in August about how it pulls your licence at sixty days.

The 20th: Arkansas

Arkansas is monthly too, due on the 20th. It is the only October date that is not on the 15th or at the end of the month, which is exactly why it gets missed.

The 30th: Louisiana, South Carolina and West Virginia

Three states close on 30 October. In each of them the deadline is the 30th, not the last day of the month, and October has 31 days. That single day is the most common way to be late in the whole quarter.

• Louisiana: $1.00 per ton, $10 minimum. Late penalty: 10% of the inspection fee.
• South Carolina: $1 per ton inspection fee plus the tonnage tax, and a county and consignee summary report alongside the tonnage report. The 10% collection fee applies if the report is not filed and paid within 15 days after the due date. Packages of 10 lb or less are handled differently, and we have an open discrepancy between the statute and the Clemson form on that fee.
• West Virginia: fillable PDF forms by post, fax or email. The 10% collection fee is added on top of the inspection fee if the quarterly report and payment are not in within 30 days of the quarter end. West Virginia also wants a monthly county distribution report by the 15th, although none is due for a month with no tonnage.

The 31st: Arizona, Kentucky and New Mexico

• Arizona: $0.20 per ton, with a $2 minimum per quarter. Late: 10% or $10, whichever is larger.
• Kentucky: $0.50 per ton, and sales between industry professionals are exempt, so only the last sale into the trade pays. Late: 10% with a $50 minimum, the highest floor on this month's list. A late report for five tons still costs fifty dollars.
• New Mexico: $0.35 per ton, no minimum. Late: 10% or $10, whichever is greater. New Mexico's agency page says both that reports are quarterly and that some distributors report monthly by the 15th, without saying who is which. We list it as quarterly and flag the discrepancy on the state guide. If you have been told you are a monthly filer, you are.

Within 30 days: Florida and Georgia

Two states in the library give no calendar date for the quarterly report, only a window: Florida requires it "within 30 days after the close of the reporting period", and Georgia within 30 days of the close. Counting from 30 September, day 30 is 30 October. Put it in the calendar as that date, not as "end of October".

Florida is also the state that punishes twice. There is a 1.5% per month charge on unpaid inspection fees and, separately, a penalty of 10% or $25, whichever is greater, for not filing or filing a false report. We explained the two in Florida has two late penalties, not one. Georgia's late penalty is 10% or $10, and the licence can be revoked after six months of non-payment.

A zero quarter is still a filing

A quiet summer does not remove the obligation. Arizona charges its $2 minimum per quarter and Louisiana its $10 minimum whether or not you shipped much, and in most states a missing report is treated as a late one regardless of what it would have said. If you distributed nothing in a state this quarter, file the zero.

How to get through October without a spreadsheet

The practical routine that works for most teams:

1. Pull Q3 tonnage by state on 1 October, from invoices, not from shipments planned. Most states count what you sold or distributed into the state during the quarter.
2. File Nevada and the monthly states first. They are due on the 15th and the 20th, while the quarter-end states still have two weeks.
3. Treat the 30th as the deadline for every quarterly state, including those due on the 31st. One date is easier to hold than three.
4. Keep the confirmation. Portals, email receipts or a postmark: whatever proves the date you filed.

Or select only the states you sell in on the planner, export the dates to your calendar with a 14-day alarm, and let the fee calculator do the per-ton maths.

Written by the Fertilabel rules desk, the team that maintains the state rule library. We publish under the company name, not personal bylines: what matters is the source under each claim.