Sales Tax Payment
mage007
Member Posts: 3
When I make a payment to the government for my HST (sales tax) I had debited the HST Payable account and credited the Bank Account the payment was made from. The payment was made in January - but it was for the 4th Quarter owing - so Oct-Dec.
But then I end up with an incorrect amount showing as owing for my next period (Jan-March) because I have a substantial negative in the tax payable column of the sales tax audit report.
I'm thinking I need to some how take out the amount owing for the 4th quarter on Dec 31st but not sure where I put it - a dummy account? And then apply the payment in January to that?
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Did you find an answer? This is exactly the issue I was trying to sort out while attempting to netfile today. I tried to use the chat helpline but was not able to get anywhere. I also moved the payment to Dec 31, and this corrected Jan 1 - Mar 31, but obviously screwed up Oct 1 - Dec 31. I wonder if this is a feature lacking in Wave...and that maybe the only way is to manually move these payments/refunds to the previous quarter? There must be others who could jump in???
Hi @mage007 & @Marilyn , sorry for the late response here. When viewing the Sales Tax Report, you don't want to constrain dates to a specific quarter as the Report keeps a running balance.
For example, let's say you owed $100 in Q2. Your tax liability balance is now $100. Next, you collect more tax in the first month of Q3 for the amount of $200. Your tax liability is now $300. Finally, you pay off Q2's liability of $100. Your new liability balance is now $200. This would be what you see on the report if you make sure your report includes all dates prior.
With this being said, this is the current workaround for accessing proper balances in your Sales Tax Report. You'll want to filter for prior dates as well, as this will include your previous balances, giving you an accurate depiction of your Tax Liabilities.
What I ended up doing was creating an "HST owing account" and then transferring the amount I owe from the HST account over to the receivable account at the end of the period and then run the payment through there. Does that make sense? That was I could move it and make my payment without it affecting the sales tax report
What I ended up doing was creating an "HST owing account" and then transferring the amount I owe from the HST account over to the receivable account at the end of the period and then run the payment through there. Does that make sense? That was I could move it and make my payment without it affecting the sales tax report
Hey @mage007 what you've described sounds fine, like from an accounting perspective and how Wave calculates these balances; that said, it may make your reporting a bit more complicated from a glance. If you're ever unsure, I'd definitely recommend running this past a professional