Adjust sales tax liability in QuickBooks Online

You'll need to make an adjustment to your GST/HST, PST, or QST liability (what you owe) in the following situations:

You need to write off the tax portion of bad debt.

• Example: If a customer's cheque bounces, you can write off the bad debt and claim back any sales tax you remitted to the government on the sale. You make the claim by adjusting your sales tax liability. If you just need to adjust the sales tax on a single transaction, for example, to adjust for rounding differences, edit the sales tax amount right on the transaction form.

You need to move money into or out of a sales tax liability account.

• Example: You need to pay a penalty or fine. You adjust your sales tax liability account to include the payment on the sales tax return.

Adjust the sales tax liability

1. Go to Taxes and select Sales tax (Take me there). (Tip: If you use payroll in QuickBooks Online, you may need to select Sales Tax as opposed to Payroll Tax.)
2. ​Next to Sales Tax, locate the tax agency associated with the return you'd like to adjust using the ▼ drop-down menu.
3. Select Returns.
4. On the line item you wish to adjust, select Prepare return from the Action column.
5. Select Adjust by the sales tax line you want to change.
6. Select an Adjustment date and Tax rate.
7. Select an account from the Adjustment account ▼ drop-down menu:
   • If you're making the adjustment because you received credit and you owe less sales tax to the government, choose an income account that you created for this purpose.
   • If you're making the adjustment to include a fine, penalty, or interest on a sales tax return, choose an expense account, such as Interest Expense or Non-deductible Penalties.
8. Enter the Adjustment amount.
9. (Optional) Enter a memo to describe the adjustment.
10. Select Save.