Solved: Why is my Tax on the sales report wrong ?

IndigoSkin · ‎05-04-2019

I cannot figure out why the sales tax is incorrectly calculating on a daily basis. I have pulled reports for individual days to try to see what the issue might be, but there is no one thing that can be pointed to that is throwing it off. Sometimes there are discounts, sometimes there are non-taxable transactions, sometimes not. I looked at my settings for the items and they seem to be toggled correctly to the appropriate tax rate. Please help !!

GlassJudy · ‎05-09-2019

I don't know what Square system you're using, but we can apply discounts to individual items in the Register system. Once an item is chosen and on the screen, we can tap on it and bring up a menu with, among other things, a list of all the discounts we have defined. Tapping on one of those applies that discount to the item. If the discount is used as a separate item (not as per each item), then it's applied to the entire ticket as you described in your post. I don't know if this ability is available throughout all the Square systems, but it works in the Register.

Here's a screenshot of part of one of our receipts:

Judy T Shumway

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ryanwanner · ‎05-05-2019

When you say it's not matching, @IndigoSkin , how much is it off? If it's just a penny or so, there probably is some rounding issues happening. Usually by the end of your taxing period those numbers will even out. If it's more than a penny, make sure all items are being taxed correctly. What I mean by that is: where I am my bottled beverage tax is different than my regular sales tax. For a bit I had the bottle beverages have both taxes enabled. When I sat down to file, the numbers didn't match. It took me some time to verify the correct taxes were charged everywhere.

Ryan Wanner
Golden Pine Coffee Roasters
Colorado Springs, CO, USA

Super Seller: I know stuff.
Beta Tester: I break stuff.
he/him/hey you/coffee guy/whatever.

Happy Selling!

IndigoSkin · ‎05-05-2019

@ryanwanner It is off by more than a few pennies.....sometimes a couple of dozen. I have checked the tax rates ( I only have one ) to see and that is not it. From what I can tell it seems totally random !! I have multiple taxed categories, discounts, and also non-taxable ones. It just doesn't add up ! I think I'm going to have to actually get help. I can see transactions that don't add up and I don't know why..

For example, I am at 8.75% tax rate.

I have 2 items totaling $42.00

Discount of $5.00

The tax should be $3.24

Tax showing is $3.42.

GlassJudy · ‎05-05-2019

Is that a real-life example, @IndigoSkin? Because you are correct in your tax calculation (not that I doubted it). Is Square's tax amount always higher than what it should be, or is it lower sometimes? Is it sometimes correct?

Judy T Shumway

IndigoSkin · ‎05-05-2019

@GlassJudy Yup real life example. Just a couple of day ago. I didn't realize it was going on until I did my quarterlies and couldn't get my numbers right. I Just started using Square in November 2018. I just noticed the discrepencies a few days ago so I haven't yet figuered out what all is the problem. Some transactions are fine, some are wrong. There does not seem to be a common thread for why this would happen. It is sometimes correct. I believe it was all good for my 4th quarterly taxes for 2018 or else I would have been concerned before now....

GlassJudy · ‎05-05-2019

That is a real puzzler. It's extremely hard to troubleshoot a problem that doesn't consistently exhibit itself. I guess you're going to need to contact Square's support team so they can look at the transactions to see what's going on. In case you don't know how to get ahold of them:

Click here to get to the support site,
Scroll to the bottom and click on More,
Scroll to the bottom again and click on I Don't See My Problem,
Click Call Support
You'll go to a page with your customer code, which you'll need when you call in, and the phone number to call.

Good luck, I hope you get this straightened out soon.

I would appreciate it if you'd post what the problem is when you get it figured out. It may help someone else down the road.

Judy T Shumway

ryanwanner · ‎05-05-2019

yeah, @IndigoSkin you have me stumped there.

At at first I thought that Square was taxing the pre-discounted price, but that would have given you a tax of $3.68. And since it’s inconsistent, that makes even less sense.

I agree with @GlassJudy on this one: give customer support a ring on this one. They’re going to need to dig deeper into what is going on on the back end of your account. Best of luck!

Ryan Wanner
Golden Pine Coffee Roasters
Colorado Springs, CO, USA

Super Seller: I know stuff.
Beta Tester: I break stuff.
he/him/hey you/coffee guy/whatever.

Happy Selling!

IndigoSkin · ‎05-09-2019

So this is what I have gotten from customer service. It took a bit, but what it appears to be is :

@ryanwanner , @GlassJudy When I have taxable items and non-taxable services rendered and a discount is applied , the discount is portionally applied across the whole transaction - So, although I thought I was applying the discount to actual physical items that are taxable sales, the tax was not reduced by the whole discount $. It was only portionally reduced.

( non-taxable ) $30.00 fee (discount ) $2.08 (tax ) $0.

(taxable 8.75%) $22.00 item (discount) $1.39 (tax) $1.63

(taxable 8.75%) $20.00 item (discount) $1.53 (tax) $1.79

Discount $5.00 (tax ) $3.42

I wish that we could discount specific items. There does not seem to be the ability to do this at this time, correct @Helen ?? PLEASE tell me I'm wrong ?? This will make it impossible to track my service fees vs. item sales correctly for my state sales taxes unless there is a formula of percentages for calculation purposes.....but still, that seems to be a totally unnecessary step. I want the ability to discount certain categories - NOT spread it across the whole transaction.

GlassJudy · ‎05-09-2019

I don't know what Square system you're using, but we can apply discounts to individual items in the Register system. Once an item is chosen and on the screen, we can tap on it and bring up a menu with, among other things, a list of all the discounts we have defined. Tapping on one of those applies that discount to the item. If the discount is used as a separate item (not as per each item), then it's applied to the entire ticket as you described in your post. I don't know if this ability is available throughout all the Square systems, but it works in the Register.

Here's a screenshot of part of one of our receipts:

Judy T Shumway

IndigoSkin · ‎05-09-2019

@GlassJudy AAAAAAAA !!!!! I think this is it ! I did not realize I could do this. I have only been using Square since November.

Bless you for your insight !!!

I will not go in and toggle each discount to apply to specific item categories.

Percentage discounts can be applied individually, but amount discounts can only be applied across the entire transaction, unless using automatic discounts - in which case we cannot choose when to add these.

GlassJudy · ‎05-09-2019

Yay! Hopefully this solves your current problem, but it doesn't help with your original problem does it?

Judy T Shumway

IndigoSkin · ‎05-09-2019

@GlassJudy I'm still new to all of this, so my clients aren't expecting a quick fix either. I am just going through and changing dollar amounts to the equivalent %. That way I can choose to apply the discount or not.

My original issue was answered with how the amounts are spread out across the whole transaction. I get it now, but it is going to be no fun to try to figure it out taxwise. With my new change to % discount, I will be able to keep the items and services seperate.

We'll see how it all goes over the next couple of days.

I still do not like that wee cannot charge a specific $ discount for individual items.

Square; change this please !

GlassJudy · ‎05-09-2019

I think I might have good news for you on that front too. You can define discounts as dollar amounts as well as percentages so if you do that you should still be able to apply a preset discount to any line item that you have. Also, if you leave the amount blank then you’ll be able to enter an amount at the register. Anyway I’m not at my computer right now but you can check that out and see when you define a discount it gives you the option of doing percentage or dollars so pick dollars and just enter whatever amount you want, or leave it blank.

Judy T Shumway