[GNC] Sales Tax Report

[Keith Fetterman]

Adrien,

Thanks for the help. 

In the state of Washington, we need to report the local city/county sales tax for each physical location we do work in.  The state assigns a tax code based on address.  The business is a very small landscaping business that only does work in a few local locations, so fortunately there are not many tax codes to keep track of. 

I have created a tax table for each tax code and assigned it to a customer.  This works because the physical work locations are the customers’ homes.  If work done in a different location, it’s almost always in the same area.

I see what you mean about creating a sub account for each custom location.  In general, this could become very large.  Your suggestion of using filters is a good one.  I hadn’t thought of it.  But, it doesn’t appear that you add notes to the memo lines of an invoice.  I tested adding a note in the invoice to see if it would appear in the memo line in AR.  It doesn’t.  The invoice transaction in the AR is locked so you can not edit the memo lines. 

The ideal solution is a report of taxable sales by tax table.  

Thanks,
Keith



> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2020 21:53:07 -0600
> From: Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net>
> To: GnuCash users group <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Sales Tax Report
> Message-ID: <226840B7-6EB5-4879-B1FF-E32850E5D39E at lusfiber.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=utf-8
> 
> A common method is to post sales tax lines on invoices to a ?sales tax collected? account or something similar.
> 
> Then when you file the reports and make the payments, you reduce the amount still unremitted. (some books might then employ a ?sales tax due? account as an intermediary when filing, then reduce that account when making payments)
> 
> Reporting varies by jurisdiction of course.
> 
> I?m most familiar (in 3 US states) with filing a report of total sales and total taxable sales, calculating tax due on that amount, and then remitting it. How much you actually collected is irrelevant. (UNLESS, you collected more than you were supposed to, in which case, you had to remit what was actually collected. A business generally can?t ?profit? off of excessive tax charged, though they are in some locales allowed to deduct a tiny if not infinitesimal ?vendor compensation? from the remittance)
> 
> So for some jurisdictions at least, all that would be needed is a total taxable sales report. Comparing that to what was charged to and collected from customers would otherwise be an internal auditing matter to make sure you were collecting the right amount so you don?t lose money or run afoul of the law.
> 
> If you need to break down sales by customer location, that can get real messy really fast. GnuCash isn?t really set up for it out of the box.
> 
> You might be able to employ a little extra work by putting the filter criteria in a note or memo. That way you can run a report restricted to matching that note or memo to aggregate sales.
> 
> As with all such questions, seek the advice of a local CPA before embarking on a particular bookkeeping method.
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
>