The GSA Fee You Collect but Do Not Keep: Getting IFF and Sales Reporting Right

Published 2026 | TIKC NewsWire

Winning a GSA Schedule comes with a quiet obligation most new holders barely notice. A small percentage of every sale you make through the Schedule is not really yours. It is the Industrial Funding Fee, or IFF, which GSA builds into your price so you can collect it and then hand it back to the government. On top of that, you have to report your Schedule sales on a set schedule. It sounds like routine bookkeeping. But because that fee is government money passing through your hands, getting the reporting wrong can turn a sloppy habit into a false claim.

What the IFF actually is

The IFF is a fee that funds the cost of running the Schedules program. Here is the key point: it is already baked into the prices customers pay you. When an agency buys from your Schedule, a small slice of what they pay is the IFF. You collect it as part of the sale, and then you owe it back to GSA. You are essentially a middleman holding the government’s money for a short time. That framing matters, because keeping money you were supposed to remit is not the same as a billing dispute.

The reporting duty that trips people up

To know how much IFF you owe, GSA needs to know how much you sold. So you are required to report your Schedule sales periodically and remit the fee on those sales. The honest mistakes pile up here. A contractor forgets to report for a quarter. Someone leaves certain sales out of the total. The business gets busy and the remittance slips. Each of those understates what you owe the government, and a pattern of underreported sales is exactly what an audit is built to catch.

Why accuracy is a compliance issue, not just accounting

When you report your Schedule sales, you are telling the government a number it relies on to collect what it is owed. Report less than you actually sold, and you have kept government money and made an inaccurate statement to do it. That is why IFF and sales reporting sit alongside GSA pricing integrity as a place small contractors get into trouble without meaning to. The fix is unglamorous: track your Schedule sales precisely and report them in full, every period.

What to do now

• Separate Schedule sales. Track sales made through your GSA Schedule distinctly so you can report them accurately.
• Report every period. Submit your sales reports on time, every reporting period, even when the number is small or zero.
• Remit the full fee. Pay the IFF you collected on all reported sales, and do not let it sit as working capital.
• Reconcile regularly. Check that your reported sales match your actual Schedule sales so nothing is left out.
• Keep the records. Hold documentation of your sales and remittances in case GSA reviews them.

The IFF is easy to handle once you see it for what it is: money you collect on the government’s behalf and owe right back. The contractors who stumble are the ones who treat Schedule sales reporting as an afterthought until an audit adds up the gaps. Track your sales, report them in full, and remit on time, and a fee that trips up others becomes a routine you never think twice about. Brick by brick.

FAQ

What is the Industrial Funding Fee?

It is a small percentage of your GSA Schedule sales, built into the price customers pay, that funds the Schedules program. You collect it as part of each sale and then remit it back to GSA.

How often do I report Schedule sales?

GSA requires periodic sales reporting and remittance of the IFF on those sales. The exact schedule is set by your contract, but the duty to report fully and on time is constant.

What happens if I underreport?

Underreporting understates the fee you owe and means you kept government money through an inaccurate report. A pattern of it can be treated as a false claim, not just a billing error, which is why accuracy matters.

Do I report even if I had no Schedule sales?

Generally yes. You are expected to file your sales report each period even when sales were zero, so there is a clean, complete record. Check your contract for the specific requirement.

Sources

General Services Administration. (2026). Industrial Funding Fee and sales reporting requirements for Multiple Award Schedule contractors.

U.S. General Services Administration. (2026). FAS Sales Reporting Portal guidance.

This article is general information, not legal advice.