Can the HST in an expense be recorded separately? And how ?

Hello lasilmos-yahoo-c,

Thanks for joining us! Working with sales tax in QuickBooks Online is a simply process: all you need to do is select the related sales tax code on forms like expenses and the program does the calculations for you. I know there are certain circumstances where you might need to record the sales tax in a specific way though, and I'm here to help with that.

For instances where you want to record sales tax differently than what the program does and calculates automatically, the first step is to consider why you want to record it that way. In your case, knowing why you want to record it separately makes a difference in how you go about recording it.

As an example, if you were simply wanting to change the amount of the sales tax calculated without changing the amount of the line items of the expense, all it takes is manually editing the amount of the tax in the field of the subtotal. No extra transactions needed!

If your situation is that you're recording sales tax for imported services or something of that nature, you can use the steps outlined here: How to record a sales tax expense on imported goods. Theoretically, you could use that for other "sales tax only" transactions as well if you'd like, although I recommend consulting an accountant to see if this is the best course of action.

The last way that you could record a sales tax only transaction would be a journal entry. The thing to keep in mind with journal entries is that the sales tax portion should be it's own line item. So while you would normally put the expense line and then attribute a sales tax to it, here, the sales tax account needs to been entered as it's own line and then you use the Sales tax column to choose how it maps to your sales tax filing. This is also a good opportunity to speak with an accountant to make sure that you have your debits and credits as they need to be.

The My Accountant tab is a great resource for working with an accountant. You can invite your accountant as a user to your books so they can have the QuickBooks Online access and tools to help you directly in the books. Or, there's the Find a pro to help button where you can search our directory of QuickBooks-certified accountants near you.

This should get you on track, but don't hesitate if you have further questions. I'm here to help.