What Is a Sales Tax Code and How Should I Use One?

A sales tax code is a list item that is used to set the overall taxable or non-taxable status of both customers and items (goods or services).

You should use sales tax codes to identify a customer, such as a reseller, from which you don’t collect sales taxes, or to identify goods and services that aren’t taxable even to customers who are otherwise taxable.

Sales tax codes are maintained on the Lists->Sales Tax Codes menu.  There is a secondary method to maintain sales tax codes by visiting the the Edit->Preferences menu and choosing the Company Preferences tab on the Sales Tax submenu.

Primary Method to Maintain Sales Tax Codes

Secondary Method to Maintain Sales Tax Codes

There are only 2 types of sales tax codes: taxable and non-taxable.

If a customer is marked with a non-taxable code, all invoices for that customer are non-taxable.  If an item is marked as non-taxable, no sales taxes will be charged for that item even for a customer who otherwise pays sales taxes.

When you add or edit a customer, you can use a sales tax code to specify that customer’s overall taxable status.  The sales tax code is on the Additional Info tab in the New and Edit Customer windows.

When an invoice is created in the Create Invoices window, the sales tax code can be entered for each line item on the invoice and for the overall invoice.  These values default to the sales tax codes for the item and customer, but they can be changed for this invoice only.  For example, this capability could be used to eliminate sales taxes on a single invoice for an out-of-state shipment to an otherwise taxable customer.

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