How to Pay Sales Tax in QuickBooks Online

In 2021, it's more important than ever to understand how to pay sales tax in QuickBooks to adhere to local and national laws. The emergence of ecommerce as a integral part of all sizes of companies has further increased the need to accurately track and attribute sales taxes within your accounting software. If you are making payments for sales taxes collected from your customers, it important that you use the correct section to record your payment.

We've put together an easy to follow guide with screenshots to help you accomplish your tasks.

‍

Step #1:

Login to your QuickBooks online desktop user interface. From there, go to the sales tax center, which is located is under Taxes on the left hand tab.

It's important to check this tab every so often as the sales tax module is being constantly updated by Intuit.

Note: I have used two versions for examples here – your page may look slightly different.  

Step #2:

Now that you've clicked on Taxes, you'll notice that there are now separate sections. In the taxes section there are two tabs, one for Sales tax, another for Payroll tax.

‍

The tax collecting agencies you collect for are either displayed across the top of the screen or listed along the left depending on what version of QuickBooks you are using. You can see from the screenshot below, that the program has identified the applicable tax locations for me and has started attributing sales taxes based on the purchases I've received.

‍

Step #3:

To record a tax liability payment, you need to select the payment tab under the agency you are paying.

‍

Step #4:

If you'd like to record a payment for the return period you are making the payment, navigate under Filings and select your filing period, then click Record payment.

‍

Step #5:

If you are wanting to make payments in the form of instalments, go to the Payments section and record a new payment.

You may also need to file and pay using a government website. Recording a payment in QuickBooks Online does not make the payment for you, it only helps you stay organized with payments made.

TIP: Be sure to enter the tax payment in the sales tax center before you update your bank feed.  The transaction will then automatically match on the bank feed.  It is not possible to correctly record payrollor sales tax payments directly from the bank feed.

‍