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.
I almost have the invoice like I want it. Because our services are non taxable I want to use the sales tax box for an Insurance Surcharge we charge customers. How can I get my insurance surcharge to print in the re labeled sales tax box. PLEASE HELP. I need a subtotal then ins surcharge then total invoice is this possible.
I know it has to be. If it is when I bill the insurance surcharge when creating the invoice how do I tie it to the insurance surcharge box so it prints there. I am at my wits end!!!!
R Cates, the sales tax box is only going to print something that has to do with a sales tax. If you don’t EVER have anything that you have to charge sales tax for, you can just use the sales tax feature for your charges perhaps. But to give you specific information I’d have to know a lot more about how you are using QuickBooks.
None of our items will ever be taxable, but we are still required to report sales income as exempt to various agencies. If I over ride sales tax box will it mess up the Ava tax report? I need to have insurance surcharge to print after a subtotal in a box and then invoice total. Our clients will not pay an ins surcharge mixed in the body of the invoice. Insurance surcharge is setup as addl income item. I can put subtotal as a line item, then I would select subtotal on invoice after billing professional surcharges then select the insurance surcharge and bill that amount. To have it print correctly I could go to footer select subtotal but how do I select ins to print after subtotal in footer. I think I am close to getting it. But I don’t know what the accounting implications of just changing the name sales tax to ins surcharge I don’t know how it would know to pull the ins surcharge amount in that field. HELP
R Cates – as far as Avatax, you would need to talk to them (why are you using Avatax if you don’t have tax to report???).
As far as getting a charge to show in the bottom of the invoice, not in the detail portion, you really can’t do that with QuickBooks. It isn’t set up to do that.
However, if you contact the sales department of my company (CCRSoftware) at sales@ccrsoftware.com, we might have a solution that would help you with printed forms, as we have a way to do this with our add-on program CCRQInvoice.
My sales tax shows up as a line item I did everything you said and when I print sales tax in the footer shows $0.00 and still shows as a line item. Please advise.
Michelle, if the sales tax is showing as a line, then QuickBooks doesn’t think that you have the proper sales tax field printing in the footer. Have you tried one of the standard templates from QuickBooks?
Good afternoon,
I am trying to get our invoice to print without it saying out of state sale, exempt from sales tax.
We do not charge sales tax and do not want it to appear on our invoice.
I went to Customize Layout….then Footer….and tried to uncheck the Sales Tax box but it won’t let me.
Could you please help me out on this.
Thanks a bunch!
Laura, if you don’t use sales tax AT ALL, then why not just turn the feature off in preferences?
If you have sales tax enabled, QB is going to print it somewhere. If you remove it from the footer, then it will print in the “body” of the order as another line.
If you want to hide this entirely from the form but want to leave it enabled (risky), you can leave it in the footer and change the field foreground and background colors to “white” so they don’t appear on a white page.
We sent an invoice to a client on completion of contract.
While the progress invoice shows a total of 100% billed on all line items, the total HST charged % shows as 63.64%.
We have checked all the invoices and HST has been charged correctly on each one.
We are puzzled, worse, concerned that we’re not receiving all the HST we’ve charged for and thereby are out of balance with Canada Revenue Agency.
Can you help? With many thanks.
Rose-Marie, I only have a few versions of the Canadian product, and I don’t know if any of them are current enough to support HST. Unfortunately, I can’t help on this one. I would recommend working with a Canadian ProAdvisor (if you contact me I can give you some referrals to some very good people up north…)
I am using QB2013 in Canada. I have invoices that have 3 different taxes on them. HST in BC (12%), HST in ON (13%) and GST (5%). I have set up the tax codes for all three. QB is not allowing me to adjust the amount for each tax. In the past it would give me a box where I can “edit taxes”. Help?
Tax issues are handled differently in the Canadian version, and unfortunately I don’t have my hands on one, so I can’t help in this case, Donna.
I’m using Quickbooks for Mac. Do you know how to do this (have tax labeled in footer) in that version? It lists it in the detail line like you’ve shown, but doesn’t even label it, so people get really confused. I’d prefer it in the footer (subtotal, tax, total) but would also settle for being able to label it as a tax charge in the detail line. There is no “additional customization” option in this version.
Sorry, I don’t work with QB for Mac