Ask the Accountant…
Question: I have to file sales tax in multiple states. How does QB Premier handle that?
Answer: In QB Premier (and Enterprise), you create sales tax items to reflect each location and rate for which you make sales and collect sales tax. Many states, such as Louisiana, have sales tax codes that are quite complicated, and can have 100 or more sales tax rates and items.
Each sales tax item is tied to a sales tax vendor, which is the department responsible for collecting sales tax for each state. For instance, the sales tax vendor for collecting sales tax in North Carolina is the North Carolina Department of Revenue. There is one such entity in each state.
A sales tax item needs to be assigned to each of your customers that includes the sales tax vendor and the tax rate. When you run your sales tax reports, you will get totals for each sales tax item arranged under each sales tax vendor. In NC, for instance, all sales tax item amounts for any selected period will be listed and totaled for the North Carolina Department of Revenue so the amount due is neatly visible.
If you have multiple states, each order will be listed and totaled per each state’s vendor.
QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise can be modified to better serve ad specialty distributors. Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor. She advises ad specialty distributors to use QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise, often in conjunction with other industry-specific software, to manage the complexities of the ad specialty business, with the results being time saved, errors eliminated and an overall accurate accounting of your business. Contact her at [email protected].
