Pay sales tax in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac

Learn how to pay sales tax in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.

When it’s time to pay your sales tax, run a Sales Tax Liability report in QuickBooks. This will give you the info you need when you’re filling out the sales tax forms.

Note: To avoid any errors in your books or sales tax report, don’t use Write Checks or Pay Bills to pay your sales tax. Only use the Pay Sales Tax section of QuickBooks.

How to pay your sales tax

The Pay Sales Tax section will show you the amount of sales tax you owe for each sales tax item and adjustments you’ve entered that need to apply to your payments. Here’s how to pay your sales tax.

1. From the Vendors menu, select Sales Tax, then Pay Sales Tax.
2. Select the Pay From Account dropdown and select the bank account you want to use for tax payments.
3. From Show sales tax due through, make sure the date is correct.
4. From Starting Check No., make sure the number matches the next check you’re going to use.
5. Make sure the sales tax list shows all the sales taxes your company owes, the tax agency you need to pay, and the amount due as of the date.
6. If you want to make a partial payment, go to the Amount Paid column then type the amount you’d like to pay for each tax item on the list.
7. Choose Select All if you want to make a payment for all the taxes due. This is recommended if your tax agencies are on the same payment schedule.
8. Select Adjust if you need to still need to make an adjustment for a credit, fine, etc.
9. Select the To be printed checkbox if you need to print or hand write the checks later.
10. Select OK.

If you want to check the sales tax transactions or add memos to them, you can view and edit them in the sales tax payable account register.