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November 6, 2025
Question

Can you change the wording "Sales tax" on an invoice to Excise Tax? I already have the excise tax rate set, I just want the wording now to say "Excise Tax" on my invoice.

  • November 6, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 17 views
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2 replies

Regina_Lend_A_Hand_Accounting
Level 2
November 6, 2025

Greetings!

 

You can’t directly change the wording “Sales Tax” to “Excise Tax” in QuickBooks Online. The “Sales Tax” label is part of QuickBooks’ built-in tax engine, which controls how taxes are calculated, reported, and remitted to tax agencies.

 

However, there are a couple of ways you can display “Excise Tax” instead:

 

Option 1 – Create a Custom Tax Rate Named “Excise Tax”

 

  • Go to Taxes > Sales Tax Settings.
  • Select “Add Agency.”
  • Create a new Custom Tax Rate and name it “Excise Tax.”
  • Apply that rate to your invoices.

 

This will show “Excise Tax” on the invoice instead of “Sales Tax.” Just remember that you’ll need to manually track and remit these taxes outside of QuickBooks since it won’t flow through the automated Sales Tax Center.

 

Option 2 – Add an “Excise Tax” Line Item

If you simply want to display Excise Tax for transparency:

 

  • Turn off automated Sales Tax for that transaction.
  • Create a new Product/Service item called “Excise Tax.”
  • Manually enter the dollar amount or percentage each time you create an invoice.

 

Hope this helps clarify the options!

 

— Regina Pitts, Advanced Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor

Level 8
November 6, 2025

Hi there, @SolidOak-Sd. At the moment, QuickBooks Online doesn’t have the option to change the "Sales Tax" label to "Excise Tax" on invoices. As a workaround, you can add a note or custom field to clarify this for your customers.
 

Here’s how:
 

  1. Go to Settings > Custom form styles and select your invoice template.
  2. Click Content and choose a section, like the footer or description, where you can add a message such as:
    Note: 'Sales Tax' refers to 'Excise Tax.'
  3. Hit Done.


     

You can also click the Give feedback  button before hitting the Done button while editing the invoice template, or follow the steps in this article to submit feedback: Give feedback on QuickBooks products and services.
 

If you need more guidance setting this up or have other questions, feel free to let us know.