I am beyond frustrated.  I can deal with having to select custom tax rate in the estimate/invoice for TAXABLE customers but having to open another browser to check tax status on exempt customers because the software defaults to based on location is ridiculous!  

I've wasted so much time fixing my year end sales tax because of this unwanted update.

We have the same issue with QBO and it has been since August and they refuse to fix it.  Has anyone migrated to QBD or away from QBO to see if it fixes the situation?

QBO lack of "giving a crap" is driving my business elsewhere.  

I am researching other non QuickBooks software today.  I could live with the update if the $#%$ program would save the customer tax settings I spent hours editing.  Nope, go to invoice and tax is charged to exempt customers.  Unacceptable.  Also, do any of the "programmers" have any actual accounting experience?  Gross sales on sales tax returns means total gross sales, not gross sales on taxable invoices only.  I don't have time for this and the service costs too much to be so glitchy.

 Quickbooks Online is now defaulting to Based On Location Sales taxes when importing sales, or when creating new customers (we have thousands of customers) and we have to change each and every invoice manually. It's currently a huge time sink, which is frustrating, because everything worked perfectly for years until QBO forced this update on us. HOW DO I DISABLE BASED ON LOCATION SALES TAX? 

Telling me to 'have a great day' will not help.

Hi Kstar137,

I'm here to share some information about computing sales tax.

The system calculates the taxes based on your customer's tax-exempt status, what you sell, and the location where you sell and ship the product.

If you don't want QuickBooks to calculate based on their location, you can deactivate the state tax. Let me guide you how:

1. Go to the Taxes tab and select Sales Tax.
2. Click the Sales tax settings link.
3. Locate the agency.
4. Click the Edit drop-down and select Make inactive.

Once everything's good, you might want to check out our article about sales tax in QuickBooks Online. It has detailed information about managing taxes. 

I've also added this reference if you want your customers to pay invoices online: Take and process payments in QuickBooks Online.

I'll be around if there's anything that I can help. Keep safe! 

But I need the state tax; I've used it in the past up until about 3 weeks ago when suddenly QBO started doing default 'based on location'. I don't want to eliminate my state tax. I just want QBO NOT to default to based on location. How?

Welcome back, Kstar137.

I understand the importance of disabling sales tax based on location. I'll share additional information about the new automated sales tax feature in QuickBooks Online.

Currently, the option to turn off the sales tax based on location is unavailable. The QuickBooks program calculates your sales tax automatically for the following reasons:

• Your customer's sales tax-exempt status.
• Where you sell and where you ship.
• Your service or product's sales tax category.

In the meantime, you can create or set up custom rates to manually calculate taxes on invoices or receipts. I'll show you how:

1. Go to Taxes.
2. Click Sales tax settings.
3. In the Custom rates section, choose Add rate.
4. Select either Single or Combined.

Check out this article for more details about the automated sales tax feature: Set up and use automated sales tax in QuickBooks Online.

You also mentioned that everything worked perfectly three weeks ago. I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Online Support. They have the tools to pull up your account and share a screen with you to double-check your tax settings.

For future reference, I've also included this article for a complete guide in recording invoice payments: Record invoice payments in QuickBooks Online.

You're always welcome to add any details if you have further questions about the new sales tax system. We're always here to help you.

Your response just shows that your unable to comprehend the problem. Please Low level responses to this are worthless! The fact that it's not fixed now over a year after the first sign for me is an absolute tragedy!

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@Giovann_G wrote:

Welcome back, Kstar137.

 

I understand the importance of disabling sales tax based on location. I'll share additional information about the new automated sales tax feature in QuickBooks Online.

 

Currently, the option to turn off the sales tax based on location is unavailable. The QuickBooks program calculates your sales tax automatically for the following reasons:

 

• Your customer's sales tax-exempt status.
• Where you sell and where you ship.
• Your service or product's sales tax category.

 

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Just start here!  "Where you sell and where you ship"

NO IT DOES NOT!!!!

Yes, it tries however I find so many errors in it's calculations it's worthless.  If it was one or two that'd be one thing but unfortunately the only option is to manually check each invoice one at a time.  The state sales tax auditor isn't going to hold QB liable. So frustrating!

I know the response is going to be just do a manually entered invoice every time, but come on importing data from CRMs is an established practice that is never going away. Yes Quickbooks is King but then you need to accommodate the CRMs.

Absolute tragedy they're pushing this update into more servers.

Giovann,

I do not believe you understand the importance of turning this off. This is very frustrating, as we are spending countless hours a week to fix the problems it is causing. No matter how many times we correct it in each customer it does NOT retain the setting. This was not a problem before this feature was added. Please fix this!

This problem needs attention from someone way up ranks. I have pled the case to a ton of low level support agents they all have said their supervisors know of this problem but there's no way to talk to those supervisors. I'm not sure how we can catch the ear of the programmer with a high enough stature to make a difference.

I have gone and set each client. I painstakingly review each invoice before creating it. I go back later and see the "Location" is too much! I agree with an earlier statement. Read the question.

Obviously no one likes BASED ON LOCATION as a default, non editable setting.  Get rid of it or make it an option to delete it.

Now I realize why so many people told us NOT to go to quickbooks online.  Customer service sucks because you don't listen to what we need.  We do NO business out of state and do not need a based on location setting.

THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE 

IT IS SCREWING UP EVERYTHING

Ohio is an origin-based sales tax state. So if you live in Ohio, collecting sales tax is fairly easy. Collect sales tax at the tax rate where your business is located.

COSTING ME THOUSANDS IN TIME TO FIX INVOICE AFTER INVOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is so very frustrating.  The type of industry we are in, we are allowed to take a 35% deduction on the taxable income so it changes our tax rate.  The "Based on location" is too generic and does not take into many variations that might arise for a company.  To have to go in and change each individual customer every time QBO syncs with our job scheduling software is extremely time consuming and frustrating when it should be a simple fix.  

Why can we default a custom tax rate to appear for every single customer?  Why can't we deactivate the base on location.  

And the responses that are being given by QBO support is a nightmare.  They are clearly not reading the frustration and concern but merely automating the responses.  I have encourage my boss (the owner) to discontinue working with QBO and going with another company due to this.  

I have attempted to do this; making the Tax Agency listed inactive but this does not remove the "Based on Location" when calculating tax.  

I still have to go in and manually change from Based on Location to the custom tax rate I have set up.  

This is NOT customer friendly and clearly causing many issues for many users.  Why can't it be changed?

This is not the impression we want you to have when using the program. I would also feel frustated when something isn't working as expected.

I recognize how relevant turning off sales tax based on location to your business is. As mentioned by my colleague above, this option is unavailable in QuickBooks Online.

At times, we roll out enhancements based on our customer's requests. That being said, I suggest sending a recommendation to our product developers. They'll review this idea and might consider updating it in the future.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear located at the top.
2. Under Profile, click Feedback.
3. Enter your recommendation and select Submit.
   
   

You can also utilize this link to check the status and keep you in the loop on our progress of your request: Customer Feedback for QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, let me attached these article you can utilize to help manage your sales tax in QuickBooks Online:

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

Should you have other concerns with managing sales tax in QuickBooks. Feel free to leave a comment below. I'll be around to help. Keep safe!

This feature is so annoying. For every invoice to enter sales tax and then go through the drop down list one by one which is a total time waste as you can't type in anymore to short list the drop down list. And it's still calculating wrong sales tax based on location. For instance, We do multiple location services for one client. It charges based on the office location but we collect Sales Tax based on the place of final sale. Now i Have to check the math with every invoice. this feature is a total waste of time. And if you forget to look at the math your Sales Tax is all wrong. 

Whenever I talked to a customer service representative they have no clue about what I am talking about. It's simple solution would be to allow removal of taxes based on location. 

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@Iceabenezer wrote:

Right, I have always used custom sales tax rates for my customers. I wasn’t asking how to create one. The issue is that we create dozens of new customers a day, and it now, after the update in August, defaults to “based on location” instead of my custom tax. We used to be able to set a default rate for new customers, but this functionality is now gone for no reason. “Based on location” does not accurately calculate tax for my county, so now my staff has to manually change taxes for each customer, which wastes time. When they forget, I have to open up each invoice and change it when I am reconciling, which sucks. Sales tax used to work fine, and now it is broken for me. Every time I call or report this bug, customer service tells me to create a custom tax, which doesn’t solve the main issue. 

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I switched to it last month! I think they have no clue how to correct this feature, I don't know why I switched to it:(

Same issue here. I have to go to every single invoice that has tax and change the tax field from Based on location to Tax in order for tax to calculate correctly. The subtotal before tax is always correct but the Based on location NEVER calculates for the amount of sales tax correctly. I am so unbelievably over this "feature". GET RID OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like it may be time for a class action lawsuit since Quickbooks has mandated a feature that is inaccurate.  

Hello All!

I have a workaround that you may want to consider. You can use the Custom rate feature for the taxes to be calculated correctly.

Here's how to add a single or custom rate:

1. Go to Taxes, then Sales tax.
2. Click Sales tax settings.
3. Select Add rate.
4. Choose either Single or Combined.
5. Enter the Name of the custom rate.
6. Select the Agency you file payments to.
7. Enter the Rate, then Save.

You can check this reference for more information: Use custom rates to manually calculate taxes on invoices or receipts in QuickBooks Online.

If you need more resources in managing sales tax, you can pin these links:

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

I'll be around whenever you have other concerns with sales tax.