Pay Sales Tax showing balance from previous year.

Let me help remove the remaining sales tax amount on your account, stephenp.

The extra fee is part of the sales tax liability. In QuickBooks, you need to increase the amount by adjusting it.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Vendors menu and select Sales Tax then Adjust Sales Tax Due.
2. On the Sales Tax Adjustment window, enter the adjustment date, sales tax vendor, adjustment account, and other relevant information.
3. Choose an Expense account that tracks the extra amount or penalty. 
4. On the Adjustment section, choose if you need to increase sales tax then enter the adjustment amount.
5. (Optional) In the Memo field, enter any additional notes.
6. Click OK.
7. Once done, you can record again the sales tax payment. 

To ensure that your sales tax liabilities have accurate amounts before paying them, you can always run the Sales Tax Liability report. Check out this link for more details: Review sales tax reports.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if there's anything else you need about your sales tax payables. I'll be right here to guide you.

Thank you for your reply.  

Following your directions makes perfect sense to me but I'm not sure what I use as the "adjustment account".

Thank you again,

-Stephen

Thank you for getting back to us, @stephenp101. 

You need to make adjustments for specific sales tax items if there are several types of sales tax payable to the same tax vendor. Adjusting the sales tax items allows the allocated amount to match the reporting as well. I'll just explain the fields you need to fill-out so you can successfully create the sales tax adjustment.

1. Adjustment Date – The date you created the adjustment. This is important so you can easily look this transaction once you customize reports.
2. If you track classes, select a class for this adjustment.
3. Sales Tax Item – select the sales tax item for the return line you want to adjust, such as GST Adjustments.
4. On the Adjustment Account, choose the appropriate account.
5. In the Amount section, enter the adjustment amount.
6. Choose the Increase Sales Tax line radio-button.
7. Click OK to save the changes.

Next thing you need do is create a Sales Receipt to enter the positive adjustment in sales tax. For detailed instruction and visual presentation, you can prefer to this link: Process sales tax adjustment.

On the other hand, you can do a journal entry to post this to another account and I recommend consulting an accountant near you to keep your books accurate. You may find this thread handy, too, from the help given by one of our QuickBooks Community experts. 

Anytime you can post a comment if you have additional questions about adjusting the sales tax amount due. I'll make sure to help you out. Enjoy the rest of the day!