Recording Use Tax

Modified on Wed, 29 Nov 2017 at 02:17 PM

To record and pay use tax in Design Manager you must first have a Use Tax Liability Account in your General Ledger Chart of Accounts.  The liability account would normally be numbered right after the Sales Tax Collected Account and named something clear to you. (i.e. 21100 - Use Tax Liability)

When you pay a vendor invoice, for merchandise or operating expenses, which requires you to pay use tax, you will post a negative number (or a credit) to this new account.  For example, you purchase 3 cases of paper from an out of state vendor for general office use and the vendor does not charge you sales tax.  The cost of the paper is $100.00 and your state sales tax rate is 7%.  Therefore, you owe the state $7.00 use tax.

To enter this, create an operating expense to the vendor, the first account on the list will be $107.00 charged to the Office Supplies Expense Account.  Then add a second account to the expense for -7.00 dollars (minus 7 or negative 7) charged to the Use Tax Liability account.  The amount of the check written to the vendor will be $100.00, what you really owe (that is $107 minus $7 = $100.00).

By entering expenses that require use tax to be paid as described above, money will collect in the Use Tax Liability account.  When you pay the state sales and use tax, print the Sales Tax Report to discover the sales tax that you owe.  Also, print an Account Inquiry Report or Transaction Register (found under General Ledger Reports) for the same period using the Use Tax Account; this will be the amount of use tax that you owe.

When paying the state, enter an operating expense to the State with two accounts, one for the Sales Tax Collected Account and one for the Use Tax Liability Account, the total will be the amount you need to pay the state for sales and use tax.

For a definition of use tax, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax