Why can't I post my GST/HST remittance against the GST/HST Payable account?

Hello alsuegignac,

Don't worry, I can help you figure this out to make sure your sales tax remittances and payments are properly recorded in QuickBooks Online.

One of the great things about the program is that it keeps the sales tax management all in one place. Setting up, filing, and recording payments all happen in the Sales Tax centre through the Taxes tab. Once you've filed your sales tax, you can Record a payment right within that sales tax module, which ensures you're hitting the proper accounts and reducing the amount you owe. Here's how a payment is recorded.

Record a payment to or refund from the CRA

1. Choose Filed from the All returns drop-down
2. Select Record payment from the drop-down in the Action column.
3. Select the appropriate Payment type. Tip: Select Payment if the number is positive and Refund is if the number is negative
4. Enter the Payment date, or the date which you paid the CRA or Revenu Québec
5. (Optional) Use the Memo to include anything you want to remember about this payment
6. Once you make the payment, you'll see it in your Account History under the date you recorded the payment.

I pulled these steps from our File sales tax article, which goes through the entire process.

This means you don't have to record what you've paid using a cheque or expense while trying to pick the correct accounts. Trying to record the tax payment outside of the module will negatively impact the sales tax amount owed, as you're noticing.

It's important to note that the sales tax module does not produce a cheque for you that you can print and send to the government. It's simply a recording system to calculated and show what you're already filed, paid, or received as refund. To write a cheque to the government, please do so outside of QuickBooks Online, otherwise your numbers won't line up properly.

To correct what you've done, I recommend deleting the cheques or expense transactions you've created and go through the above steps to record your remittance payments.

I hope that gives you a better grasp on how sales tax works in the program. I'm here if you have further questions. Just give me a shout!