How QuickBooks Shows Sales Tax on Invoices
In my prior article on sales tax in QuickBooks I showed you how to set up QuickBooks to properly manage sales tax. Now lets see how QuickBooks displays the sales tax in an invoice. When you add sales tax to an invoice we need it to show somewhere on the printed form so that the customer can see all charges that go into the total.
Here is the standard Intuit Product Invoice. It does not include the sales tax in the footer of the order. If you have a form like this, QuickBooks knows that it must add the charge somewhere, so it adds the sales tax as a detail line.
We can use the Additional Customization feature to add sales tax in the footer of the form – I recommend also adding a subtotal.
If you make this change, the sales tax now shows in the footer, not as a detail line.
Not Showing Sales Tax Percentage
Several people have asked about not showing the sales tax percentage in the form. If you look at both of the samples above, the percentage always shows. Here is how to handle this in QuickBooks.
Set up a form that includes the sales tax in the footer, as shown above.
Select the Layout Designer and click on the label for the sales tax (not the sales tax field itself).
Delete this label by pressing the delete key.
At the top, click the add button and add a text box.
Right click on the text box and select properties and set the font type and font size (usually Arial and 12 pt) and enter the text “Sales Tax”. Drag the label to the footer.
If you add the label this way the sales tax percentage will not show.
I hope that this is clear – if you have any more questions please ask!
Category: Invoicing
About the Author (Author Profile)
Charlie Russell is the founder of CCRSoftware. He’s been involved with the small business software industry since the mid 70′s, focusing on inventory and accounting software for small businesses. Charlie is a Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Look for Charlie’s articles in the QuickBooks and Beyond blog, as well as his California Wildflower Hikes blog.
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Shu, what national version of QuickBooks are you using? I primarily work with the US version, which doesn’t support VAT. I sometimes work with the Canadian version, but rarely with the UK and Australian versions. What do you have?
I need help with an invoice a sent to a customer, I did add the tax and made the pdf file. As I was going to send the e-mail I realize that they did not pay tax for machines. So I took the tax off and e-mailed the invoice. The next day the customer answered back to please add the sales tax and send a new invoice. I have tried everything that I know and I can not add the tax. Can anybody help me?
Thank you.
AL
Are the items marked as taxable, is the customer marked as taxable (in the invoice), and have you selected a tax item?
I forgot to add the version. QuickBooks is 2009
AL
thanks
How to avoid adding taxes in an invoice? Subtotal and Total should be the same without taxes.
Tamara: Not sure what you are asking. If there should be tax on the invoice, it has to show in the total. If you are getting sales tax when you don’t want it, then you have to select a sales tax rate that is zero – or turn each detail line to “non” taxable.
Take a look at my basic sales tax tutorial article at http://www.sleeter.com/blog/2011/02/setting-up-sales-tax-in-quickbooks/
How to remove “T” in Amount
Nuwan- I’m not sure which “T” you are referring to. There is a column by the amount in the detail section to note “taxable” or “non taxable”. If you mean the amount at the bottom, that may be a currency symbol. Currency symbols are set by your Windows setting. The taxable status “T” is set in preferences – “Edit” then “Preferences” then “Sales Tax” preference, and on the “company preferences” tab un check the box that says “Identify taxable amounts as ‘T’ for ‘Taxable’ when printing.
Re: Sales Tax in footer
Is there a way to identify the Sales Tax by name
We deal with NJ PA NY
Can the footer be labeled NJ Sales Tax or NY Sales Tax, etc. as appropriate for that customer.
We also deal with Phila and Pa sales tax. We have been combining the percentage of each and charging the total Is there a way to charge and show each sales tax on the invoice?
Thanks
Edward, that kind of notation can’t be done automatically in QB by itself.
For charging sales tax to two different taxes and listing them separately, you can enter the sales tax item as a detail line in the invoice, and enter the sales tax amount directly (rather than use the percentage), but that might not be a useful approach. You can play with that.
I had the same problem as Kate. I fixed it by adding the “Condensed Sales Tax Summary” to the footer. Then I dragged it down to the bottom just above total. I don’t think you can rename the label so in my case it shows as GST/HST but that works for me. Adding the “Condensed Sales Tax Summary” automatically removed the line item showing the tax amount.
Cheers
Our template recently changed and now the screen shows the sales tax calculating and totaling, but the print and print preview only show it calculating but not totaling.
Mark, what kinds of changes did you make? That isn’t clear…
Sometimes a template can be corrupted and you have to start over (which is why I tell people to make backups of their templates).
I need to set up VAT tax.It’s different rates per item as well as country. How do I show the VAT tax by line item? Can I have it calculate 2 different sales tax items at the bottom?
Thanks
Beth, what national version of QuickBooks are you using, and where are you located? Some non-US versions of QB support VAT tax natively.
If you want to have a tax show on a line by line basis, you can add your sales tax item as a detail line, right after the item it applies to. You have to set the overal tax rate for the invoice to be a zero rated tax. But, note that you won’t get a total of the taxes at the bottom of the invoice.
I’m in the US and using QB Pro 2011. Our business is export so I invoice internationally. It sounds like line by line might be the best for us but I was hoping to also be able to sum it at the bottom by tax type. Is it possible when there is more than one tax rate? Is there a plug in that might help with this?
Beth, I’m not aware of a compatible add-on product that would give you that kind of subtotalling at the bottom of the order.
Charlie,
Thank you for continuing to offer support on this topic. I’m running QB 2011 Contractor Edition but I think this has been the same issue for years. If you look at the photo of step you describe as…
“We can use the Additional Customization feature to add sales tax in the footer of the form – I recommend also adding a subtotal.”
The ability to display “Subtotal” on the screen in the footer section is grayed out, you can’t select it. Do you know how to fix this or make the subtotal appear on the screen? Our new credit card processing machine wants to enter the subtotal and then the sales tax but it’s awkward when you can’t see the subtotal on the screen. Printing it is kind of uncool because I have to print it, then run the card, the mark as paid, then reprint it for the client.
Thanks!
Jeff
Jeff, you can either do a “print preview”, rather than actually printing it to paper. Or, you can insert a “subtotal” item as the last line in the order to get the subtotal before tax – and either remove it before printing or use that to show the subtotal on the printed form rather than in the footer.
It is odd that they don’t show a pre tax subtotal on screen – but that is the way it is. Use the “feedback” option in the Help menu to suggest a change, if enough people ask for it they may consider it.
What happens for tax reasons you want to display foreign invoice and include home currency for tax purposes? how do you go arround this?
On the invoice? Show both? QB doesn’t accommodate that. I’ve not run into a situation where you need to show both on the actual invoice…
I am wanting to import an invoice from another program into Quickbooks. Our invoices do not usually have sales tax at all so there is no problem inputting them from this other program. This particular invoice has sales tax . When I try to input it into Quickbooks it says : “You cannot associate an item with sales tax payable, Undeposited Funds, accounts receivable, accounts payable, or non-posting accounts. Usually, if you sell the item, use an income account; if you buy it, use a expense account.” I have no idea what to do or to change to make it so I will be able to import this invoice. Any guidance or assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Laura, are you “importing” this, or entering it directly from the user interface? If you are importing, HOW are you importing (IIF, or a tool)? When you add sales tax, are you trying to create an item to handle the sales tax?
I’m guessing that you are creating an item in the item list, like a service charge or something, and trying to associate the “account” with sales tax payable? You wouldn’t do that, you would want to create a “sales tax item” specifically.
I am importing using IIF. I just want to be able to import it into quickbooks, but our normal invoices that I import do not have taxes on them. On this particular invoice there has to be sales tax added. From the original source the tax has been added so is there a way that I can bypass this one invoice to import it into Quickbooks.
Laura, I don’t work with IIF, so I can’t give you much help there. I avoid IIF as much as possible, as it is not a great way to import things. I prefer to use the Transaction Pro Importer (www.baystateconsulting.com). I don’t know what method you are using to add sales tax, but it sounds like you are trying to add it using an item, and that item isn’t set up properly.