Manage Sales Tax turns the sales tax in your books into returns. For each tax agency you file to — the CRA for GST/HST, Revenu Québec for QST, a province for PST — it shows the return for a period, worked out from your ledger; lets you file it, which moves the period's tax into one amount owing; writes the cheque to the agency when you pay (Pay Sales Tax); and keeps every return exactly as filed, to open and print again.
The screen is titled Sales Tax. Under the title it shows the agency and the period being prepared, with the note Filed from the ledger, cross-checked against the documents.
Opening Manage Sales Tax
- Vendors ▸ Sales Tax ▸ Manage Sales Tax
- Manage Sales Tax in the Vendors band of the Home Page
- Reports ▸ Sales Tax ▸ View Prior Sales Tax Returns… opens the same screen; the filed returns are in its second section, and View opens each one.
The top of the screen
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Agency drop-down | Which return you are working on: GST/HST, QST, PST, or (in a US company) each registered state. Shown only when you file to more than one. The screen opens on the first. |
| Period button | The dates of the return (Period being filed). The screen opens on the next return due for the agency: the day after the last period you filed, or, if you have never filed, the period holding the first tax recorded in the books. Choose it to pick other dates. |
| Refresh | Reloads the figures and the filed returns. |
Above the return, a row of buttons opens the records that sit beside it. In a Canadian company: Tax registration numbers (opens Company Information, where your GST/HST, QST and PST numbers are kept), Where you owe, Use tax and Exemption certificates. In a US company: Registered states, Where you owe, Use tax, Exemption certificates and Marketplace tax. See Tax registrations and exemption certificates.
Changing the agency moves the period to that agency's next return due, unless you have picked a period yourself.
1 · The return
The return for the agency and period, laid out as that agency's form:
GST/HST (the CRA's GST34 box numbers):
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| 101 Sales and other revenue | Your income accounts' total for the period, before tax. |
| 105 Total GST/HST and adjustments for period | GST/HST charged on sales, less credit memos. |
| 108 Total ITCs and adjustments | GST/HST paid on purchases (input tax credits). |
| 109 Net tax owing, or Net tax — refund claimed | Line 105 minus line 108. |
When the return has adjustments, it also shows lines 103 (GST/HST collected or collectible for this period) and 104 (adjustments), which add up to 105, and likewise 106 and 107 for input tax credits, which add up to 108. There are two kinds of adjustment:
- Adjustments from journal entries — a general journal entry to the tax collected account (line 104) or the input tax credits account (line 107) dated in the period: a PST self-assessment, an ITC correction, a reclassification. As in QuickBooks, it goes on the return and filing clears it. See Prepare and file a sales tax return.
- Adjustments: tax from before this period, entered after its return was filed — see Prepare and file a sales tax return.
When there are both, line 104 (or 107) shows their total, with each kind on a line beneath it (Of which: …) that has no box number. QST and PST returns show each adjustment as a line of its own.
QST: Taxable sales; QST collected or collectible; Input tax refunds (ITRs); Net QST owing (or refund claimed). No box numbers are printed.
PST: Taxable sales; Tax collected or collectible; Tax owing (or Refund claimed). There is no input credit line, because PST paid on purchases never comes back.
Box numbers are shown only for the CRA's return. Copy the figures onto the agency's own form (or into its online filing) using the agency's line numbers.
Under the return, the screen can show:
- A red banner if the ledger and the documents disagree: The ledger says $… was collected; the documents come to $… The return is always filed from the ledger figure. Find the difference before filing if you can. Only the period's own document tax is compared: journal entry adjustments are not documents and never cause this banner.
- An amber note if tax from before the period is still on the account — an earlier period that was never filed. This return does not include it, and filing it will not clear it. (Tax entered later in a period already filed is not in this note: the return carries it as an adjustment line.)
- Amber notes for anything that stops you filing (see Prepare and file a sales tax return).
- Books closed through … beside the button, when a closing date is set.
File this period files the return. It is greyed out while anything is stopping it. See Prepare and file a sales tax return.
2 · Filed returns
Every return filed for the agency on screen, newest first. The figures are the ones as filed: they are never recalculated, because a filed return states what was sent.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Authority | The agency. |
| Period | The period filed. |
| Sales | Line 101 as filed. |
| Collected | Tax collected as filed. |
| Credits | Input tax credits or refunds as filed; a dash for a tax that has none (PST, US states). |
| Net | What the return owed (or claimed back). |
| Paid | Payments recorded against it so far. |
| Outstanding | What is still to pay (or to be received), in amber while not zero. |
| Status | Filed, Paid once fully paid, or Reversed (dimmed). |
| View | Open the return as filed, with Print. See View and print a filed return below. Reversed returns have it too. |
| Pay Sales Tax | Write the cheque to the agency for what is owing. Shown while something is owed. See Pay sales tax. |
| Record payment | Record a refund received from the agency, on a return that claimed one. |
| Void payment | Void a payment made against the return, after asking you to confirm. It stays listed at zero, marked VOID; its cheque is voided (or its entry reversed) and the amount is outstanding again. Shown while a payment stands; with several, you choose which one. See Pay sales tax. |
| Reverse | Undo the filing. See Reverse a filed return. |
If you file to other agencies too, an empty list says how many filings exist for them: switch the agency drop-down to see them. The list can be exported like other lists.
View and print a filed return
View on a filed return opens it as QuickBooks opens a return already filed. The page is titled Sales tax return and shows:
- the tax and agency, the period, the date it was Filed and by whom, the registration number when there is one, its status, and the note typed when filing;
- The return, as filed — its lines exactly as they were filed, adjustments included. They are never recalculated. (A return filed before the lines were kept shows the four figures it stored: 101, 105, 108 and 109.)
- Payments — every payment against it: date, cheque number (or Cheque (to print)), payee, bank account and amount. A voided payment stays in the list, marked VOID, with the amount it was for. Print cheque beside a cheque prints it on your cheque stock.
- Outstanding.
Print makes the same page a PDF on your letterhead, to print or keep with the copy you sent the agency.
Before you can use it
- Canada: the screen needs a tax account mapped in Company ▸ Accounting Setup. With none it says No tax account is mapped yet. Accounting ▸ Setup decides which account collected tax lands in, and until one is chosen there is nothing to file. PST and QST appear as agencies only when they have accounts of their own. See How sales tax works.
- United States: nothing can be filed until you register the states you collect for. See Tax registrations and exemption certificates.
Permissions
Opening the screen, and viewing a filed return, needs access to Sales Tax under Accounting. Filing needs File a Return, paying (or recording a refund) Record a Remittance, voiding a payment Remove a Remittance, and reversing Reverse a Filing. The standard Bookkeeper role does not include Sales Tax.