Paying Sales Taxes with credit card

Let's make sure that you can reconcile your account, s diaz.

The option to pay your sales tax using a credit card is unavailable in QuickBooks Desktop. To reconcile it, we can select a bank to record it and manually clear the transaction. Then, we'll have to ignore the downloaded credit card transactions to eliminate.

Here' how to manually clear it:

1. Select List from the top menu bar.
2. Choose Chart of Accounts.
3. Select the appropriate bank account.
4. Choose the appropriate transaction.
5. Click the column between the PAYMENT and DEPOSIT column to clear the transaction.
6. Select YES to confirm.
7. Hit Record, then click Yes again to confirm the changes.

Here's how to exclude the downloaded credit card transactions:

1. Select Banking from the top menu bar.
2. Go to Bank Feeds, then choose Bank Feeds Center. 
3. Choose the appropriate credit card account, then click Transaction List.
4. On the Transaction List page, put a checkmark on the box column to select the transactions you want to eliminate.
5. Click Batch actions, the choose Ignore.
6. Select Yes to confirm the changes.

Check out this article that will guide you in reconciling your accounts: Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks.

To review your past reconciliations, you  can run the Previous Reconciliation Report.

Visit us anytime if you have other concerns or require further assistance in handling your bank and credit card transactions. I'll be right here to keep helping.

So how do you get your credit card statement to reconcile if you are ignoring transactions?  I don't download, I manually enter. In order for the balance to be correct I have to enter these transactions into the credit card register.  What account do I code them to?  As an aside, it is unacceptable to have to do any type of workarounds, when the simlple fix would be to allow credit cards to pay taxes. I am sure many states allow online payments, I can't believe you don't have a way to properly record them.

Unless I am not seeing something..I was able to create a 'credit card charge/purchase' to pay my sales tax.

I entered the pay to detail to the tax agancy, the amount, and the date of the payment.

In the account menu, I used my 'sales tax payable' account and in the 'customer:job' I entered my tax agency as I have it listed for this sales tax account.

I also recorded the credit card convenience fee on the next line under the appropriate expense account.

It seems to have recorded the payment in all the appropriate places and reduced the liability.

Please advise if this does not record everywhere it needs to.

Hello, DFinc. 

Thank you for reaching out to us here in the Community. You're doing it right. To utilize the pay sales tax feature, you can refer to this article: Pay sales tax. 

Then, you can set up and pay a credit card account to keep track of the charges and payments made. 

Here's how to Set up credit card accounts:

1. From the Company menu, select Chart of Accounts.
2. Select Account or the plus + icon, then New.
3. Select Credit Card, then select Continue.
4. On the Add New Account window, enter the credit card name.

   Note: If you are setting up a sub account, select the Sub account of checkbox, then select the parent account from the dropdown ▼.

5. Select Enter Opening Balance... then enter the account's balance and date.
6. Select Save & Close. 

To learn more about this process, you can check out this article: Set up, use, and pay credit card accounts. 

Please feel free to reach back out if you have further questions in QuickBooks Desktop, I’d be happy to answer it for you. Have a great day!

I just put it in Clearing Account and then move with simple journal entry to credit card in question.

I paid my sales tax with an existing credit card.  I can't find a way to add that card into the Pay Sales Tax accounts window.  What am I doing wrong?

I am in this exact situation. I have an existing credit card that I use and I pay sales tax, but am unable to reconcile the credit card account or the sales tax liability account because the only option is to pay sales tax with a bank account. Come on QB catch up with the times!

I have the same issue trying yo pay sales tax with an existing/active credit card account. It does not show up in the drop down payment method for paying sales tax. I seems QuickBooks is not answering this question. Creating a new credit card account to resolve this issue is not an option.  

Why does QB desktop not allow another "account" type for paying sales tax other than a bank account??

In these days of paying via credit card and earning rewards, my state allows me to pay sales tax via credit card. Come on QB!! I have to believe this is an easy fix to your programming.

Hi there, @katalysticd.

You can set up your credit card as a bank account in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). This way, you can use this account in recording your sales in QuickBooks. 

If you already created this account, you can change its account type to a bank. Here's how:

1. Go to List and select Chart of Accounts.
2. Click the credit card account, then press CTRL+E.
3. From the Account Type drop-down list, choose Bank.
4. Select Save & Close. 

For more details, you can also check out this article: How to add, edit, or delete accounts from your chart of accounts in QuickBooks Desktop for Windows.

You can add more accounts if you need to track other types of transactions. Here are different account types you can add to your Chart of Accounts.

The Community always has your back, so please let me know if you have any other questions. I'll be more than happy to help. Keep safe. 

If you do it this way, doesn't the "pay sales tax" still show those amounts due to the agency and never clear? 

Referring to DFINc's method

Hi ReymondO.  If I change my credit card to a bank account, then the account will no longer show up in the "enter credit card charges" and I won't be able to enter credit card charges and credits.

This was a simple solution.  I entered the pay sales tax to the tax agency using a "temp bank account" and then a general journal entry from the temp account to the credit card account.  Thank you!!!

Thank you to Mauldin

Same here ... I should be able to use existing credit card account already in QB.  Otherwise I'm creating a fake credit card account only to use for sales tax purposes, and of course that complicates reconciling my credit card statement each time I choose to pay sales taxes with my credit card.  Intuit/QB should stop putting binders on us that don't match the way we work things out.  There was no reason for this.  People have been paying sales taxes with credit cards for a long time now.  

If there is an existing credit card account under the Credit Card type, why would you add the existing credit card to the Bank type? Makes no sense, and a reconciliation nightmare.  Common Intuit / QB.

I don't know if this will help anyone or not, but what I did was change the Credit Card type to a Bank Account, made the Sales Tax payment by that account, and then changed the account back to a Credit Card Account. Solved, Credit Card payment in ledger for Credit Card.

Are you doing this each month?  Going from CC Account to Bank Account when paying sales tax?

a much easier method:

1) make a CC purchase in QB to your tax agency for the full amount (sales tax payable plus the CC fee)

2) under Expenses tab:

      - select sales tax payable account for just the sales tax portion of the payment

      - select bank service charge account (or whatever you have set up for "fees") for just the CC fee amount.

This hits all the correct categories in one entry.

The instructions by KentB are not correct.

I was able to make the Sales Tax Payment from the Pay Sales Tax window by FIRST choosing the credit card account I wanted to use, then the date and then enter the amount.  

For whatever reason (QB's infinite wisdom) this worked.

Previous posts are incorrect.

I was able to make the Sales Tax Payment from the Pay Sales Tax window by FIRST choosing the credit card account I wanted to use, then the date and then enter the amount.  

For whatever reason (QB's infinite wisdom) this worked.

You do not need to change the credit card type to a bank account just to make a sales tax payment with a credit card.

I was able to make the Sales Tax Payment from the Pay Sales Tax window by FIRST choosing the credit card account I wanted to use, then the date and then enter the amount.  

For whatever reason (QB's infinite wisdom) this worked.

I appreciate you for sharing the troubleshooting steps that resolved the issue, insightoc.

This will also helpful to all the users that encounters this sales tax issue. If you need help in managing and running reports, please let us know. We're always here to help you out.

I've also added our View All Help article for future reference. There, you can search topics that'll help you in completing your other QuickBooks tasks.

Have a great day ahead!