Payroll tax expenses duplicated on my P & L

Hello @lgfrer,

Welcome to the Community. I'm here to help you with your concern about the Profit and Loss report in QuickBooks Online.

The taxes you mark as paid will show as a non-posting transaction in our system. It clears the taxes from showing due and records the deposits but will not affect your bank register.

Since you've already cleared them from the Taxes section, you don't need to enter the data manually in the register. It causes duplicates when you run the Profit and Loss report.

To learn more about entering prior tax payments, check out this article: Recording prior tax payments.

If you want to check the details, you can click the amounts from the report. It'll drill down the details and show you the figures based on your existing transactions.

Additionally, this link will guide you on how to personalize the filters and columns of your reports in QuickBooks: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Fill me in if you have more questions about the financial reports in QBO. I'm always here to help. Take care.

Thank you for your response!

I've already entered in my tax payments as expenses in my ledger for 2021. Going forward I'll enter them with the instructions you included. If i go back and delete those tax payment as expenses for 2021, then my register will not be balanced. However, the payroll taxes will continue to be duplicated on my 2021 P & L if I don't correct it. I have quite a few tax payments, so would prefer not to delete them all and re-enter as tax payments in 2021. Also, if I enter in a tax payments going forward, it says it will not be a posting transaction and will not affect my bank register. How do I input the transactions into my bank register then so that it matches my bank account? (My bank account is not linked).

I hope that makes sense. I appreciate your help as I figure out my year-end reports using QBO Payroll for the first time!

L

Allow me to chime in, @lgfrer. I’m here to share some details about entering transactions into the bank register.

As mentioned by my peer above, the paid taxes will appear as a non-posting transaction in our system. This is because prior tax payments will only offset the balances. Thus, you won’t have to record the payment directly to the bank register.

The reason why you’re having duplicate entries in the Profit & Loss report is when you record the expense using an expense account, as well as recording the tax payments using the liabilities account.

Moreover, if you pay taxes in the future or current taxes moving forward, it will affect your bank register. This means the payroll liability or expense account will be involved too. Hence, you’ll need to use your bank.

I highly suggest consulting your accountant for the best way to input your transactions into the QuickBooks bank register. They can help you with the appropriate accounts to use to ensure your register is balanced.

In case you want to link your bank account to QuickBooks, you can read through this article. With this, your transactions will be automatically downloaded and categorized for you.

Let me know if you have any other bank register concerns or if you have other questions in mind. I want to make sure I've got you covered. I'll get back to you as quickly as I can if you need further assistance.

Thank you, that was helpful! I did figure out how to enter my payroll tax payments so that they do not duplicate within my P & L, and will see if my accountant has advice as well.

I will reach back out if questions arise. I appreciate both responses!

Best,

Laura