Cigarette and Tobacco Products Flat (FLT) File and XML Filing Guide
Guidelines

General

If you experience any electronic transmission problems, you should contact our Online Services Coordinator at 1-916-323-6353, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Pacific time), except state holidays. For information on making your payments online, go to our Online Services webpage or select the Make a payment button on the login webpage.

Composition of the Online Cigarette and Tobacco Products Tax Forms

Cigarette and tobacco products tax forms transmitted online to the CDTFA will have reporting requirements similar to those for paper forms. This means that the same information included on paper tax forms is also included in the transmitted online data.

If you are registered for more than one CDTFA cigarette and tobacco products tax account number, you must transmit separate tax forms for each account.

You are required to follow the filing specifications detailed in this guide and on the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Online Filing webpage. You will be required to submit correct and complete cigarette and tobacco products tax forms.

Schedule/Transaction Files

You must submit schedule/transaction files online containing the supporting transactions and following the filing specifications detailed in this guide and on the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Online Filing webpage for online filing.

You may also use our Excel FLT file templates for each tax form accepted online. The templates convert transaction records entered on a spreadsheet to a FLT file. Although these templates may be used to create valid schedule/transaction FLT files, the templates are intended as examples for reference only.

The FLT file templates are available on the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Online Filing webpage. Also available are example templates which contain sample transaction data that correspond with one of the example tax forms. More information on templates and schedule/transaction FLT files is available in the FLT File section.

Submitting a Tax Form Online

Submitting a cigarette and/or tobacco products tax form online is simple.

  • Log in to the our secure website at https://onlineservices.cdtfa.ca.gov/_/ and follow the prompts.
  • Always review the filing for accuracy.
  • Always check the status of your online filing submission. If the status remains “Processing” or “Pending CDTFA Processing” after three (3) business days, contact us.
  • If the status of the online filing submission indicates “Filed” or “Processed,” your filing is complete.

Validation of Filings by CDTFA

After you have filed a cigarette and/or tobacco products tax form online with us, we will validate the schedule/transaction file. Schedule/Transaction files will be validated in the order they are received. This may result in a delay in the status of your filing being posted to your account during peak filing periods. The validation confirms that the schedule/transaction file's syntax is correct and we will be able to process it.

You should keep all information received from us during the filing as proof of filing. It is important to note that rejected files may not be received by us due to processing errors that render the filing information unreadable.

Syntax Testing

You may test the syntax of FLT and XML file formats before filing. After logging in, select “Return Bulk File” and then “Validate Bulk File.” After a successful syntax check, the filing is not complete until it is uploaded through the process addressed in Submitting a Tax Form Online.

Correcting Schedule/Transaction File Errors

To view the online filing results:

  1. Log in to our secure website at https://onlineservices.cdtfa.ca.gov/_/.
  2. Select the account for which you want to review an online filing or select “File and/or View a Return.”
  3. A status of “Filed” or “Processed” indicates the upload file successfully processed.

An upload failure during submission will result with a message similar to the examples below.

  • Flat File (FLT) Failure Example:

    The record value length is too long. Line: 3, Value: PACK

    Using this message as an example, we will illustrate how to fix the error.

    The message tells us that record 3 in the transaction file reports the unit of measure (UOM) field to be “PACK.”

    The CDTFA-810-CTE, Instructions for Preparing Cigarette Tax Schedules, in the Unit of Measure (UOM) Codes section, shows that the correct UOM code for a pack is the three (3) character code “PAK.” We now know that we can correct this error by changing “PACK” to “PAK.”

    If you are using the Excel template from the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Online Filing webpage to create the schedule/transaction FLT file, the correction should be made in the template and a new schedule/transaction FLT file created.

    Contact us if you need assistance resolving errors in a schedule/transaction FLT file.

  • XML File Failure Example:
    Sequence Error Category Error Code Line Position Error Message
    1 Schema Validation ERR-001 204 19 The 'http://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/efile:UPCUOM' element is invalid – The value 'PACK' is invalid according to its datatype. 'http://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/efile:CigUPCUOMType' – The Enumeration constraint failed.

    Using this message as an example, we will illustrate how to fix the error.

    The message tells us that line 204 in the transaction file reports the unit of measure (UOM) element to be “PACK.”

    The XML XPath data model and schema indicate the element UPCUOM is restricted to the values in the enumerated list. Also, the CDTFA-810-CTE, Instructions for Preparing Cigarette Tax Schedules, in the special notes section, shows that the correct UOM code for a pack is the three (3) character code “PAK.” We now know that we can correct this error by changing “PACK” to “PAK.”

    Contact us if you need assistance resolving errors in a schedule/transaction XML file.

Timely Online Filing of a Tax Form

Once a tax form has been submitted, we will validate the schedule/transaction file. Tax forms are considered timely if all of the following occur:

  1. The file is submitted successfully without a failure message;
  2. The filing period for the account has a status of “Filed” or “Processed”; and
  3. Any amount due corresponding to the tax form submitted is paid on or before the due date. You are encouraged to pay using one of our online payment methods.

Additional Tax Form Validation

After the tax form is filed and received successfully, CDTFA staff will review the filing. If issues are found with the computations, reported transactions, etc., CDTFA staff will contact you to correct the reporting issue. You will need to provide corrected information to the CDTFA staff. Depending on the severity and/or frequency of data errors, the CDTFA may require you to file paper returns until the problems are corrected.