How to balance an account?

[Jean-David Beyer]

On 03/16/2013 08:04 PM, John Ralls wrote:
> 
> On Mar 15, 2013, at 2:44 PM, Jean-David Beyer <jeandavid8 at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
>> I have a liability account where I keep the state end-use tax due on all
>> my purchases. I put the amounts in to the nearest cent. My income tax
>> program (TaxAct) rounds all values to the nearest dollar, and the state
>> government considers this acceptable. I pay the tax along with my state
>> income tax return (specific line item for this on the tax form).
>>
>> But now when I make the tax payment, the liability account does not
>> balance. I need, this year, to put another $0.48 payment in there to
>> balance the liability account, but from what account would I take it,
>> since it would be wrong to take it from the cash, or the checking
>> account? In fact, it seems to me that it would be wrong to take it from
>> any account. I could set up an Equity account for this, but that feels
>> wrong too. I cannot enter it as a refund from the government either,
>> because if I do, it would be income that is taxable on my federal tax
>> return.
>>
>> What is the right way? I cannot be the first person to have this problem.
>> _______________________________________________
> 
> Where do all of the other splits come from? I'd imagine an expense account, perhaps named Expenses:Tax:End-use Tax. 

It depends on what I bought. This is an entry from Expenses:Books

2013-03-14 Amazon.com                                      15.91
           Hang On To Your Kids Expenses: Books            15.91
                                Liabilities:American Express     14.87
                                Liabilities:EndUseTax             1.04

Previously, I had something like:

2013-03-14 Amazon.com                                      14.87
           Hang On To Your Kids Expenses: Books            14.87
                                Expenses:Taxes:EndUse       1.04
                                Liabilities:American Express     14.87
                                Liabilities:EndUseTax             1.04

but that just gave me two accounts to be confused about instead of one.