About Calculating Sales Tax

A tax amount is calculated for invoices, credit notes, and debit notes if all of the following conditions are true:

The customer is subject to tax.
The document contains taxable details.
You select the Calculate Tax option.
Tax rates are entered for the tax authorities and classes in the Tax Services module.

Changing Tax Amounts

Accounts Receivable uses the tax rates in entered for tax authorities in Tax Services to calculate taxes for a document each time you save it. The tax total for each tax class and for the document appear on the Totals tab on the A/R Invoice Entry screen.

If you need to change the calculated tax amounts, you can change sales tax rates for the whole system by changing tax rates in Tax Services.

If you want to change tax amounts for a single document, you can enter the tax amount manually, or you can change one of the following on the A/R Invoice Entry screen:

The customer’s tax class for the invoice on the Taxes tab.
The tax class for a detail using the A/R Detail Taxes screen.

In addition, if you specify a ship-to location that is subject to a different tax authority than applies to the customer, Accounts Receivable automatically changes to the tax group assigned to the ship-to location. You can still choose another tax group, if necessary.

Entering Taxes Manually on Invoices

You can stop Accounts Receivable from calculating tax on invoices, for example, if you need to enter a different amount or if you are adding details that already include taxes or are not taxable.

You can also prevent recalculation of tax amounts when you change the tax group or tax classes on invoices, credit notes, and debit notes.

Before you can enter taxes manually, you must clear the Calculate Tax option on the Document tab or on the Taxes tab.

Allocating Document Tax Amounts to Summary Details

If you clear the Calculate Tax option, additional buttons become available on the Taxes tab:

Distribute Tax. Click this button to prorate the tax you enter and allocate it to invoice details.
Note: You cannot prorate tax to a tax authority for an invoice detail if the authority uses an exempt tax class.
Calculate Tax. Click this button to have the program recalculate taxes using the tax base and tax class entered for the tax authority on the Taxes tab.

To view the tax amount allocated to a detail, select the detail on the detail table (on the Document tab), and then click the Detail Tax button. The A/R Detail Taxes screen appears showing the new tax amount calculated for the detail.