New United States sales tax report does not match Finances Summary

[Nate557]

We tried using the *new and improved* United States sales tax report and a quick accuracy check shows the total taxes captured on the report do not match the taxes reported on the Finances Summary. So, for now we will continue to use the old Taxes report and excel. Is everyone having this issue?

Any word on when Shopify will make this new report usable?

[BreezyFile]

Hey Nate,

Just curious to know which state wasn't matching up?  Have you had any luck since you posted?

[Nate557]

No luck, no Shopify support. The two reports still do not match, meaning, the new report is incorrect and cannot be relied upon. We only have sales in California.

[BreezyFile]

Hey Nate,

Yeah, we've had trouble using CA and had to devise our own way of filing in CA.  Some of the jurisdictions missing jurisdiction codes can be frustrating.

I have had to jump on a call with the CDTFA to get some guidance, but they are usually very helpful and friendly.  Have you figured out how to file in CA in the meantime?

[Nate557]

Yes, we've been filing for several years accurately. I just wany Shopify and others to know the new report they are trying to tell people to use is not accurate. 

[BreezyFile]

Awesome, glad you were able to figure it out, too.  A couple updates could be really cool for CA!

Just in case anyone reads this, one thing in particular would be adding the missing jurisdiction codes into the report.  This would be a giant win.

[Tigridia]

Hi Nate, we are having this issue too. Our US Stales Tax report is off by about $100 from our Finances summary, haven't figured out exactly why but very annoying. 

[BreezyFile]

Yeah, we've seen some short comings with the California report.  Do you mind if I ask if your CA US Tax report is showing an over-collection by $100?  We are trying to find some consistencies in the issues and build a new report.

[Tigridia]

We operate in Washington state, so our sales tax is destination based. I just looked at both reports again today for last month and they are closer, so I'm inquiring with the guy who actually does our tax reporting to find out what happened. I'm wondering if our draft orders are messing things up somehow? We also frequently need to "combine" orders, which means we just refund the shipping of one order, and use external systems to combine them, not within Shopify. I don't know enough about this side of things to dig any deeper though.

[BreezyFile]

Do you mind letting me know what you find?  I'm really interested in learning as much about this as possible.  I am happy to also look if you are okay with that, but I understand that might not be something you want to share.

Good luck with it either way!

[Tigridia]

Well now, a few days later, after not doing anything the US report is now accurate for March, and matches the Summary. It seemed to update gradually - I looked at it the other day and the number was a little closer to the Summary, but not quite. It was leaving out at least one order from March and we aren't sure why - maybe it's just slow to update for some reason? The order it was leaving out was placed on March 31st, but there was nothing unique about it. 

[RPQuestion24]

Mine is not working and has not been since the new report was created.  Mine is off 18k for March 2024. 

[umiajhu]

I have been having the same issue for months, and Shopify has been telling me to let them know where the inconsistencies are (specifically which orders) and they'll look into it. "My 2 reports are not matching and they should be" is apparently not enough for them. very frustrating.

In any case, I realized last month that after a few days the suddenly matched on their own. Today (the 3rd), they are closer (4 of the 5 match), but I will hang on a few more days and see if it's some kind of delay. I really hate reporting when I can't verify that the numbers are accurate.

[BreezyFile]

I noticed this for the first time this month that the sales tax reports might not update to the proper numbers for a few days into the month.  My guess is that it has to do with orders being marked complete after the fact?  I haven't gotten a good answer yet, but I'll update it if I do.

[balancegaming]

I just realized mine is off. Mine is not calculating in-store sales. It only calculates online orders as they have an address attached to the order. If in-store, there is no state or address and therefore does not add that collected tax into my US reports.

[BreezyFile]

Hi @balancegaming have you set a store location in your POS? I believe you need to add a store location in your shipping zones for taxes to be calculated correctly. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/taxes/set-adjust-pos-taxes

[msellery]

This might help: I've noticed Online Orders that have not yet been fulfilled or delivered yet are excluded from the Sales Tax Report, but ARE included in the Total Sales and similar reports, which also include the sales tax for items not yet fulfilled.