Missing Local Colorado Sales Tax Jurisdiction

Hello,

Thank you for your help.  We are located in Golden, Colorado and do see the Jefferson County, Colorado sales tax being calculated.  What we do not see is an additional 0.5% local improvement district tax that we see when calculating this delivery through AvaTax, as well as the Colorado State website sales tax calculator.  On each of these calculators I'm getting a total of 5% sales tax.  QuickBooks Online is calculating a sales tax rate of 4.5%, because it is leaving out the "Jefferson County SE Lid" 0.5% local improvement tax.  My order is going from Golden, CO to Littleton, CO.

Unfortunately unlike AvaTax, I cannot find a way in QuickBooks Online to confirm if this local improvement district tax is in their database.  I have been a user of AvaTax and I've been debating switching to using the Automated Sales Tax within QuickBooks Online, yet I'm getting this discrepancy.

Thank you.

Hello there, R_Crane.

Thank you for getting back to us and adding more clarification about the local improvement tax. I'm here to help provide the support you need to correct the sales tax rate.

For those users with the Automated Sales Tax feature enabled, I recommend giving us a call. One of our Phone Support Specialists will need to check your account in the system to determine if the local improvement district tax is in the database.

Here's how you can reach them:

1. Go to: https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_US/contact.
2. Select QuickBooks Online.
3. Choose a topic.
4. Scroll down and click Get Phone Number.

Please get in touch with me here should you have any additional questions or concerns. The Community will keep an eye out on your response.
 

Hello,

After two unsuccessful phone calls to QuickBooks Support, I've been told that the QuickBooks Automated Sales Tax database gets all their information from what the Colorado Department of Revenue provides.  Would there be a reason why QuickBooks would not have the SOUTHEAST JEFFERSON COUNTY LID 0.5% sales tax in their database, yet AvaTax as well as other approved Colorado sales tax calculators include the SOUTHEAST JEFFERSON COUNTY LID 0.5% sales tax?

Without any resolution to this I'll need to revert back to a third party sales tax software service.

Thank you.

I don't want to see you leave because of this, @R_Crane.

Allow to me share additional information on how the Automated Sales Tax Center works in calculating your SOUTHEAST JEFFERSON COUNTY LID tax.

The calculation of your sales tax depends on how you set it up in the system. Since you're purchasing from Golden, CO to Littleton, CO. you'll have to indicate that in the system. Please refer to the screenshot below:

By doing so, all the related sales taxes that you'll need to pay will be applied.

On the other hand, I'd recommend consulting your accountant for you to be guided properly on the best route to take in calculating SouthEast Jefferson County tax.

If there are any features you'd like to learn more about, our Community articles can come in handy: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Help-articles/ct-p/help-articles-us.

Feel free to click the Reply button if you have other questions about calculating local sales tax in QuickBooks Online. I'm always here for you.

This is the major reason I am not letting QuickBooks Online calculate the sales tax for any jurisdiction in Colorado.  In November 2018, Colorado switched to destination based taxing.  If you have a Colorado Sales tax license and you ship to any location for that jurisdiction, you MUST collect for that destination.  Colorado since then has afforded some small businesses exemptions based on annual sales.  We were not so lucky.  Yes, there was a grace period until May 31, 2019, to give businesses time to get systems in place to implement the changes.  We were not going to wait that long because I have limited resources, and this was our slow season.  QuickBooks was not listed in the "Hold Harmless" databases for determining that taxability of an address.  I used sovos.com to determine tax for a location because they are on the "Hold Harmless" list.  As a side note, a sale made on Amazon collected the incorrect tax on one customer.  I am not going to trust my sales to QuickBooks when it is clear they have no idea what is going on in Colorado.

Hello there, CB5301.

Thanks for joining this thread and sharing your thoughts about QuickBooks Online (QBO) sales tax function.

It is our aim to ensure we meet the state requirements and cope up with the needs of our customers. All the information from our QuickBooks Automated Sales Tax depends on the information provided by the states.

Should you need to know more about how Automated Sales Tax works in QBO, here'a an article that you can read through: Set up and use automated sales tax.

Let me know if you have other questions and I'd be glad to help you some more.

Hi,

I'm new to QBonline, and will have the same issue...and have to go live Jan 1.

Did you just turn off the sales tax function and do it manually as a surcharge or service item?

Thanks.!

It's nice to see you here in the Community, @PinkMonkey.

I'd like to begin by thanking you for letting QuickBooks serve your accounting needs. Upon utilizing automated sales tax in QuickBooks, there's no need for you to turn off the feature nor add them as a surcharge.

Instead, make sure to enter the correct address of your customers' when adding them. This way, sales tax will be calculated properly, including the JEFFERSON COUNTY LID tax.

I've added sample screenshots below that contain the tax computation using the Automated Sales Tax for a customer from Colorado.

The following links below also provide more details about setting up sales tax in QuickBooks Online. 

• Use the Automated Sales Tax Center
• Set up your sales tax

I'm still to help you if you have any other questions. It'd be my pleasure to assist you, PinkMonkey. More power to your business!

I don't see any options for me to add the all agencies that we need to have for CO.  I am not able to get to any screen that looks like the one you sent me.  I dont have any data in to even test to see if it works, and I don't want to have to wait until the last minute to know how it works.  One customer may have several different "ship to" addresses for us.  We are an event company and will have to charge tax in the jurisdiction that we are having the event.  

Hi PinkMonkey,

You'll have to make sure that you've added the correct address for your customer to calculate correctly the sales tax. Let me guide you with the steps.

1. Click Sales on the left menu.
2. Go to the Customers tab.
3. Click New Customer.
4. Fill the necessary information under the Customer information page (make sure to enter the correct address).
5. Click Save.

I have attached screenshots for your visual guide.

I have included this article in case you have other questions about automated sales tax: Set Up And Use Automated Sales Tax.

Also, if you want to view your customer's sales tax rate calculation, you can click the See the match option on the invoice page. Please see below.

Here's an article for more additional information about sales tax frequently asked questions: Sales Tax in QuickBooks Online.

Fill me in if you need anything else. I'd be happy to help.

As I've tried to explain, that isn't going work.  FOr most of our customers, their address is not where the merchandise is going to be delivered to.  And for most of our customers, there will be multiple delivery addresses throughout the year.  CO tax laws say you have to charge sales tax where the merchandise is ultimately delivered, and you have to register that address as a non-physical address and pay all taxes associate with that address when they are due.  

I need to be able to add all those different tax items and groups to QB, like I can with QB desktop.  How does QB online handle this for Colorado?

As I've tried to explain, this will not work for our Colorado business.  Each customer will have multiple addresses, and in CO now, we have to pay sales tax based on all the tax entities in the location the items are being delivered.  For us, that is rarely the customer's physical address.  And it is very complex, as one city can have different sales tax amounts, so it cannot be based on just the city and state.  I need to know how QB online handles that for Colorado, and from all the forums I've read, it has to be done manually.  So please let me know if that is not the case and let me know how it can be done.  

Hello CB5301,

How did you set up your sales tax in QB online?  Are you just adding your own sales tax based on the SOVOS database tax location?  How do you record/pay it in QB online?  Are you having to do it manually in an excel spreadsheet?

Thanks in advance for your help.  I'm starting to panic now...I have it all set up just fine in QB desktop, but my company is switching to QB online. 

Hello R_Crane,

I've been trying to get QB Online to answer me about this CO sales tax issue, as my company is switching to QB Online Jan 1!  I'm able to add my own tax locations in QB desktop, but I don't see how you can do any of this in QB online.  And trying to explain this to anyone not familiar with CO sales tax is frustrating.

I'm hoping if you can just let me know if QB was able to resolve these problems for you, or did you have to do a work around of some kind.

Thanks!

Hello there, @PinkMonkey.

Thank you for getting back to us. I'm here to provide additional information about automated sales tax in QuickBooks.

As of now, QuickBooks Online doesn't have the option to set up multiple sales tax for the automated sales tax feature. The good news is, you can override the tax rate every time you record your transactions.

If you use Automated Tax Center QuickBooks Online will calculate sales tax for you based on the customer’s address on file. If you need to change the tax rate, simply select the correct one from the drop-down. 

Also, QuickBooks Online calculates your sales tax based on the following information:

• The physical address of your business.
• The physical address on the sales receipt or invoice.
• The product mapping on your products or services you're selling.
• The exemption status of your customer.
• The sate where you have nexus and are registered to collect the sales tax.

Please check this out for more details: Sales tax in QuickBooks Online.

I also suggest contacting our Customer Support team. They can further check the sales tax tab and pull up your account to investigate for you. To contact support, you can check this article: Contact the QuickBooks Online Customer Support team.

For future reference you can check this article on how to track collection of Sales tax in QuickBooks Online.

Loop me in if you have further concerns.  I will get back to you. Take care!

I know how to do sales tax in CO, I've been doing it all year on QB desktop, and it works there.

You keep sending me to the generic set up sales tax that everyone else uses, and CO sales tax isn't like everyone else's anymore.  I will never be using the customer's address we have on file for the delivery address.  Customer's are booking events for different venues and addresses. 

We also have two states we are registered to collect sales tax, so it needs to be able to handle that too. 

Is there a way in QB online to easily navigate the CO sales tax issue?  I'm going to have designers in here creating invoices that aren't going to know how to change sales tax rates, fix addresses, etc., and that is going to make trying to submit my sales tax a big mess.  It sounds like to me that it is going to be easier for me to turn it off and track it myself in a line item and then use a spread sheet to get it paid to all the localities.  

I have other steps that you can try, PinkMonkey.

You’ll want to enter the plus-four code instead of the traditional five-digit zip code. I’ll show you how.
 

1. Go to the customer’s information and click on Edit.
   
2. In the Address tab, enter the customer’s address.
3. Make sure to enter the five-plus four zip code.
4. Click on Save once you’re done.
    

You can use this address lookup tool to find your five plus 4 zip code: https://www.usps.com/nationalpremieraccounts/findzipcodes.htm.

The following link will provide more information on why sales tax calculations based on zip codes are not enough.
 

You can always come back here in the Community if you need anything else.

That doesn't do it, because as I've stated, the customer billing and shipping  address usually has nothing to do with where the items are being delivered. 

And this system is not approved by the CDOR as a verified way of doing it.  If we are audited and QB gives us the wrong zip code, we are liable for all the taxes and penalties.

Hello there, PinkMonkey.

The best thing that we can do here is to contact our specialist to investigate why it is happening. 

These steps will walk you through contacting them:

1. At the upper right corner, click the Help icon to see the Contact us button.
2. Then, hit the Contact us button at the bottom part.
3. Add a short description of your concern by entering it inside the What can we help you with? box.
4. Select Get a callback to talk yo our payroll specialist.

We'll be around.

So I have all the jurisdictions in Colorado but have a problem with exemption reporting.  When I fill out the State of Colorado, sales tax forms it asks for exemption amounts for "resale" "local government" etc...  for each taxing jurisdiction.  Tax liability report has everything but that.  I need a report that tells me exemption totals by each of the exemption categories as noted above separated by jurisdiction?

Thanks for joining this conversation, @mr_P.

In QuickBooks Online (QBO), the ability to pull up a report that shows the exemption totals by each category is currently unavailable. I can see how having this option would be helpful for you and your business. Rest assured that I'll pass along your suggestion to our Product Developers. They're always looking for ideas to consider on how to improve QuickBooks.

In the meantime, I recommend visiting our Blog site. This is where we share recent happenings and future developments, such as updates to newly added features.

Just in case, I'll add these articles for future reference:

• Run reports.
• Customize your reports in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know in the comment if you have any other issues or concerns, and I'll get back to you as quick as possible. I'm always here to help. Have a great weekend!

Explore this AST Reporting and Filling app to complement QBO

https://taxjar.grsm.io/mytax

Hope it helps.

Welcome to 2020,  

This issue still has not been resolved.  Figure that over the last 2 years someone might address this  but nope.