Sales Tax Group

Hi @NumbersByNelson,

Welcome to the Community. I can assist you with adding sales tax groups to your invoices in QuickBooks Desktop.

Your sales tax group is automatically populated based on the tax item/group you assigned to the customer during setup. This can only be used at the bottom of the invoice in the tax field.

For additional guidance on how to make changes to the assigned tax group, check out this article (scroll down to Understand a taxable sales transaction): Collect sales tax.

Sales tax groups allow you to track and report sales taxes individually, although they show as a single line item on your invoices and sales receipts. You use the tax code: TAX for items and customers you need to collect tax for in the system. It can be use to set up the status of an item or a customer.

Also, you might encounter different tax due amounts when comparing the Sales Tax Liability Report (STLR) and the Pay Sales Tax window. For more information about how to fix the issue, you can visit this link: Sales Tax Liability Report and Pay Sales Tax window do not match.

Let me know if you need more help with the sales tax feature in QuickBooks. We're always available here in the public forum.

@AlcaeusF 

RE: Your sales tax group is automatically populated based on the tax item/group you assigned to the customer during setup.

That is not correct. A sales tax group is only 'populated' with sales tax items when you set it up. The tax on the customer, whether a single tax item or a group is used as the default tax when creating a new sale, but that can then be changed at will.

You didn't answer the OP's question, which is why can't they use the sales tax group after setting it up.

Thank you for your responses.  I went back in and realized that instead of setting up a Sales Tax Group in Items, I just set up a Group.  (User error!)  I deleted it and set up a Sales Tax Group, and it works perfectly!

@NumbersByNelson 

RE: I tried using the Sales Tax Group on the last line item of an invoice It shows the correct rates in the Rate column, but the Amount columns says $0, and the Tax column is blank.

If you are able to select and use the group item on the table of the invoice and also not in the tax field of the invoice, then it is actually a regular group item and not a sales tax group item: Sales tax groups can't be selected on the invoice table, and regular group items can't be used in the tax field.

While QB will let you set up a regular group item with only tax items, it basically has no utility. It will behave as you noted in your post.

To fix this, set up a new item and make sure to pick "Sales Tax Group" as the Type, which is at or near the bottom of the list of item Types.