You know the old saying, "You can’t avoid death or paying taxes." But in the fine state of California, the new year brings a bit of good news. There was a quarter percent tax imposed by Prop 30, which expired Dec. 31, 2016.
Here, we show you how to change your tax rate in QuickBooks Point-of-Sale Desktop software. The screen shots below are for Version 12, but the steps are the same, no matter what version you're using.
While I'll be making the change in regard to California tax, for those of you who are not in California, you should still take note – Jan. 1 is a time that many states and taxing jurisdictions change tax. The same procedure can be used whether your own applicable tax increases (boo) or decreases (yeah).
Changing Tax Rates – Step-by-step:
1) In QuickBooks Point-of-sale, click on the file menu and choose Preferences, then Company
2) Within Company Preferences, click on Sales Tax:
POS Sales Tax Preferences
3) Identify the tax rate that must be changed, then click on the Edit Tax Code button:
POS Sales Tax Rate Edit
4) When the Edit Tax Code window appears, click Next:
POS Edit Tax Code
5) When the Edit Tax Options window opens, Click Next on Single Rate Tax:
POS Edit Tax Options
6) QB-POS will display the Edit Tax Calculation window displaying your current rate:
POS Edit Tax Calculation
7) Change the rate – in this case, we're changing the rate from the 8 percent (shown above) to 7.75 percent for San Diego County (shown below):
POS Edit Tax Rate to New Rate
8) Click Finish to save your changes
Since each state, county and city can have their own unique rates, you'll need to repeat this process, as necessary, to change each one separately.
William "Will" English is president of English Management Solutions Inc. in San Diego. Will’s company has been serving clients across the United States, including Hawaii, since 2002. He was one of the first employees Intuit hired when they released the first version of QuickBooks, then a DOS based product.