QuickBooks accounting software| How does the GST works in QuickBooks?
Software: Intuit QuickBooks Desktop accounting software
There are four components in the GST setup:
Tax account > Tax agent > Tax item > Tax code
When setting up the GST in Quickbooks, you have an option of creating a single GST control account in the chart of account list or a group of three current liability accounts, which consist of GST input tax account, GST output tax account and a GST control account (The main account). If you are using a single GST control account in QuickBooks, then you have to view the breakdown of the GST input and GST Output transactions from the Tax Detail Report (under the Tax on Sales and Tax on Purchases section).
Balance Sheet report:
GST Control account
GST Input account
GST Output account
Next, set up a tax agent, which is a vendor type, and link the GST Output account to the “Track tax on Sales separately to” field and link the GST Input account to the “Track tax on purchases separately to” field. You may name the tax agent as “Comptroller of goods and services tax” or simply “IRAS (GST)”. This name is important as later Quickbooks will based on the name given to create a receivable or a payable after filing of tax in QuickBooks. Tax agent for GST should be separated from the other tax agent such as income tax or property tax agent.
The GST rate is set at the sales tax item. The sales tax item is one of the item type which can be found in the item list. You may set up the sales tax item such as “SR” for standard rated GST supplies (output) and “TX” for the standard rated GST purchases (input). Tag the sales tax item at the “Sales Tax Return Line” correctly, either the “Tax on Sales” or “Tax on Purchases” so it can be printed in the correct section of the tax report.
The tax code is essential as it is being used in the transaction. You have an option of associating a single sales tax item to each sales tax code or two sales tax items (both input and output) to one sales tax code. I prefer to have one single tax code for both input and output sales tax items. Example, I create a sales tax code and name it as “7” (for 7 percent GST) and link the SR tax item to the “Tax item for sales” and TX tax item to the “Tax item for purchases”. This will eliminate the error of using the wrong standard rated code, such as using SR GST code for Bills and TX for Sales Invoice.
Example:
“7″ GST Code
Tax item on Sales: SR
Tax item on Purchases: TX
So when selling an item with a “7” sales tax code, Quickbooks will automatically link it to the SR tax item (which is 7 percent) and grouped this tax item to the correct tax agent (IRAS) and the tax amount is being captured in the GST output account.