Setting up tax groups

By grouping tax items, you can track taxes separately, but display them simply to customers.

To set up tax groups:

  1. Choose Lists > Items.
  2. Choose New from the Action pop-up menu ( image).
  3. From the Type list, select Sales Tax Group.
  4. Enter a name for the group.

    This name becomes one of the sales tax choices available to you when you are filling in a sales form.

  5. Enter a description to describe this sales tax on your sales forms.

    The description prints on your sales forms after the final line item. You cannot edit it on the forms themselves.

  6. In the Tax Item column, choose the single taxes that make up this group.

    When you press Tab, QuickBooks fills in the rate, tax agency, and description of the single tax you have selected. Continue to add single taxes to the group until all the correct taxes are included.

How QuickBooks calculates the total tax

When you use a tax group on a sales form, QuickBooks calculates each tax individually, then adds the individual taxes together to get the total tax. Because QuickBooks rounds the individual tax amounts to the nearest cent, the total for tax group may be slightly different than the total you would get if you combined the rates of the individual taxes and applied the single rate to the sale. Don't worry about this discrepancy; QuickBooks calculates and reports each individual tax amount correctly.