Comments on: Changing QuickBooks Sales Tax Rates Mid-Year

By: Charlie

Charlie — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:29:09 +0000

John, in summary: In the customer center, export the customer list to Excel. In the Excel spreadsheet find the “sales tax item” field and change it to be the value of the new sales tax item that you already have in your list. Then use the Excel Import, the advanced version. Set up a mapping (all similar to what I explain in the article in “importing inventory from Excel” http://qbblog.ccrsoftware.info/2008/04/importing-inventory-with-excel/) and map out the customer name and the sales tax item. The import should change the sales tax item to be the new value.

By: John Heckemeyer

John Heckemeyer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:53:47 +0000

In my case the prior users set up the single Sale tax item instead of a group. So I created a new Sales tax item and left it inactive until the day it goes into effect then I will make it active and the old item inactive.
What I would like to do to change the customer base to point to the new sales tax item, is export the customer list to Excel and do a global change in the appropriate field/column from “NY SALES TAX” to “NY SALES TAX 8.875%”.

After saving the excel file and closing it I would like to import this file into QBooks (single user mode). What is the exact procedure for importing the file back into QBooks?
Thanks,
John

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:39:56 +0000

Forrest, I don’t know of anyone who has a list of those kinds of tax items in a prepared list – and it would be complicated to keep them set up. There are compatible products that handle the sales tax in a different way – such as the product from Avalara. It is worth looking into if you do a high volume of sales in different locations.

By: Forrest

Forrest — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:52:35 +0000

I am new to QuickBooks and need to charge sales tax in several states since we have employees in those states(nexus).
Is there a file available that I can import the tax rates and tax groups. It would be far easier for me to delete the counties I don’t need rather than research and manually enter the ones I do need.

Thanks,

Forrest

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:07:30 +0000

Charlie, am I glad I came across you! Your answer was the only correct one I came across in hours of searching the forums. I’m not using tax groups and making the old tax rate inactive was the “bingo” answer. Thanks for being willing to share your knowledge. You’re a lifesaver.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:30:32 +0000

Sallie, you pretty much have to decide which tax to use for each customer as you add them, either a Michigan tax or an out of state (0%) tax. QB doesn’t have a way of knowing which to apply to the new customer automatically. You can use a third party add-on to handle that if you wish (I’ll be reviewing that in a future article).

If you have only one tax district for Michigan you are lucky, in states like California we have to pay attention to what county, what city the customer is in.

By: Sallie

Sallie — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 00:24:06 +0000

I’m confused on the sales tax issue – I have a new business and I am collecting MI sales tax. Everything is set up. However, many of my customers are out of state. Isn’t there a way to tell QB to charge this tax ONLY to customers in Michigan – and then use the default no tax, non taxable tabs for new customers only?

Thank you.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:30:40 +0000

Florence, Donna, thank you for your compliments. My apologies for not getting this published prior to April 1st when the CA taxes changed.

Donna: Here is what I would do. First, MAKE A BACKUP copy of the file. Then make the appropriate changes to your sales tax rates as I recommended (I don’t know how your sales tax is set up so I can’t give specifics). Change the rate back to what it was before in the existing item, set up the new items as is appropriate. This will handle all NEW invoices that you make from this point. However, the EXISTING invoices in April aren’t changed. You have to go back to each of them and change them to use the appropriate tax. Just looking at the invoice and saving it won’t work, as the tax rate is stored in the invoice. You have to actually change the tax item that is selected (if it already has the right one, but at the old rate, you have to change it twice, once to a different item and them back to the correct item). Then save the invoice. This should NOT change the balane of the invoice, since the tax rates are the same, you are just changing how the items are used. Hope that is clear…

By: Donna Hawkins

Donna Hawkins — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:59:48 +0000

Great info. I changed my tax rate on April 1st by editing the sales tax item,like you suggest not to. I printed my sales tax report and noticed the rate was changed even though all the figures were correct. Soooooo, how do I go back now that we’re two weeks into the new tax rate???? We don’t handle more than about 4 invoices per day, so I could go in and edit all the April invoices.
I always look forward to learning new QB tips in your newsletter. Thanks.

By: Florence Halstead

Florence Halstead — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:22:25 +0000

Wow! I just signed up for your newsletter, and received the changing tax in mid year tip. I had forgotten to change my California tax rate in QB and with PayPal. How timely and helpful my first newsletter is! Thanks.