How I use only my custom tax rate, no location based tax

I don't understand what location based is all about. It always sets the tax rate to my business location, which is no help at all. 

If you want to use it you can start by adding the tax authorities for the different customer locations and then setting the ship to address of your customer to their physical and it should change the tax based on that.

In my case 99% of customers are local and the ones that arent are non-taxable and it was just an annoyance to have it intruding all the time.

Can you point me to Intuit's up-to-date documentation on location-based sales tax?

Greetings, @Service! We're delighted to have you here in our community forum. Our team is committed to delivering exceptional user experiences, and we truly value your ongoing support as we strive towards that objective. I'm pleased to inform you that I have some insights to share with you about how QuickBooks Online (QBO) computes sales tax.

QuickBooks simplifies tax calculations for sales transactions by automatically computing the sales tax based on the location of the transaction. This ensures accurate filings and ease of use. To provide more details, QuickBooks calculates the total tax rate for each sale based on the following factors:

• Your customer's tax-exempt status.
• Where you sell and ship.
• What you're selling.

To set up custom tax rates, please refer to the steps below:

1. Go to the Taxes menu and select Sales Tax.
2. From there, tap the Sales Tax Settings to add one.
3. Under the Custom Rates section, tap the Add Rate button.
4. To begin adding this rate to your company file, enter the name of the custom rate.
5. Choose the Agency you file payments to and enter the Rate. 
6. Once done, click Save.

I’ve added screenshots for visual reference.

For further details, refer to this article: Use custom rates to manually calculate taxes on invoices or receipts in QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, you can take your time to learn more about how QBO calculates sales taxes by referring to this article: Learn how QuickBooks Online calculates sales tax.

For future reference, I'm adding these articles to learn more about managing sales tax in QBO:

• Set up and use automated sales tax in QuickBooks Online
• Set up where you collect sales tax

It'll always be my pleasure to help if you've got other questions. Use the Reply button and leave your comment below if you need further assistance with sales taxes so we can assist you further. Have a great day ahead!

I have 15 combined rates already built within QBO. I enter the address into the profile of of each customer when I add the customer. If I create an invoice, the system always assigns the tax rate of my business address, until I update it by choosing one for where the customer is located. There is no time savings that I have found so far. 

No sorry as I said I don’t use it but generally I have found searching here for the exact thing you want to do, will lead you to it.

Do you have their address in the “ship to” part of their customer profile? I believe that is the address it uses.

Hello there, Service.

I can see the urgency of sending an invoice or receipt to your customers in QuickBooks Online. Let me share some information on how to send the correct sales tax to the customer's specific address.

QuickBooks automatically calculates sales tax based on transaction location, ensuring accurate filings and ease of use. QuickBooks calculates the total tax rate for each sale based on various factors, such as the customer's tax-exempt status, the location of the sale and shipment, and the nature of the product being sold.

To send an invoice using the custom rates, here's how:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Account.
2. Go to the + New button at the upper left then select Invoice.
3. In the Select tax rate section, select the Based on location dropdown located at the lower right.
4. Choose the custom rate from the list. If you need a new custom rate, select + Add rate.
5. Ensure the total tax amount is correct.
6. Select Save, or Save and send to email your customer their invoice or receipt.

For more information, you can check out this link: Learn how QuickBooks Online calculates sales tax.

Moreover, you can visit this article for future reference in running sales tax reports in QuickBooks Online: Check how much sales tax you owe in QuickBooks Online.

I'm all ears to hear your reply if you have any other concerns with managing your sales taxes in QuickBooks Online. Please leave a comment below and have a good one!

I think I figured out the secret: the address has to be in the shipping address section, not the just the billing address section.While the system may choose a tax rate, you don't know if it chose correctly unless you click on "see the math" on your pc, as the name of the rate is not on the invoice. And if you are using a mobile device with the app, there is no way to know if the system chose the correct rate since the name of the rate is not on the invoice. The bottom line is that it is better to choose a rate manually for all invoices, so that you can know for sure that the correct rate is selected.