Question

Manage Sales Tax Unable to Update

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
September 10, 2025
1 reply
18 views

Hello I need help figuring out how to update the Tax Item in Manage Sales Tax. I know how to add new tax items and groups through lists however when I go to Manage Sales tax - Pay Sales Tax the correct tax items do not show up. What is currently in my system is old so every month when I enter the payment it is deducting from the wrong account making that account go negative, meanwhile the correct accounts continue to grow since they are never recording the sales tax payment.

QuickBooks Desktop

R

Rusimyhr

QuickBooks Team

I appreciate your effort and providing details, Arke.

First, have you already tried to adjust the date on the Pay Sales Tax window? The window defaults to a limited date range, which can make it appear as though no tax is owed. If you haven't yet, follow these steps:

Navigate to Sales Tax under the Vendors menu.
Select Pay Sales Tax.
At the top of the window, you will see a date field labeled as Show sales tax due through.
Change this date to a range that includes all the sales tax payments you need to make. For example, if you need to pay for the last quarter, set the date to the end of that quarter.
Then click the data field, so that the tax items will show.

If the correct tax items still don't show up after adjusting the date, it's possible the tax accounts were entered incorrectly on previous transactions. The Sales Tax Liability Report is the best tool to verify this:

Go to Reports and select Vendors & Payables, and choose Sales Tax Liability.
Set the report Date to cover the period.
Review the report to see which tax items and accounts have an outstanding balance.
Double-click on any transaction listed in the report to open it.
Check that the correct sales tax item is selected and that the tax is applied to the appropriate sales or income account. If you find any discrepancies, correct them and save the transaction.

Please don't hesitate to let us know if you need further assistance in managing your sales tax. The Community space is available 24/7.

A

arkeAuthor

Thank you! I ran the report for sales tax liability and it is not showing all the subaccounts I have under Sales Tax on the balance sheet. On the balance sheet I have Tax and then subaccounts listed (for example Chandler, Maricopa County, California ....) all tax amounts are getting assigned to the subaccounts however when we go to make the sales tax payment (in manage sales tax) all payments are showing under Tax Other so that subaccount is showing negative. I do not know how to change this.

E

EvethC

QuickBooks Team

Welcome back to the Community, Arke. Let’s work on resolving why your sales tax isn’t displaying correctly in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

First, can you clarify how the subaccounts under the Sales Tax Liability account were created? Were they manually added in the Chart of Accounts, or were they set up as separate Sales Tax Items with specific rates and tax agencies in the Sales Tax Center? Knowing this will help us pinpoint the issue.

In QBDT, all sales tax collected from invoices and sales receipts is automatically recorded in the default Sales Tax Liability account. This process is automated, and you cannot manually assign sales tax amounts to specific subaccounts.

When you use Manage Sales Tax to make payments, QuickBooks pulls from the default Sales Tax Liability account and applies the payments to the correct jurisdictions. If you’re seeing a negative balance in your subaccounts, this could be due to an overpayment when settling your sales tax liability.

To fix this, you can use the Adjust button in the Pay Sales Tax window to make a Sales Tax Adjustment to correct the payment.

Additionally, when you mention that all payments appear under Tax Other, could you please provide screenshots of your setup and reports? This will give us a clearer picture of the issue and guide you through the exact solution.

Don’t hesitate to reply here if you have further questions. We’re here to help!

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