How can I change the way Square rounds when calculating sales tax?

[lipstickconnie]

Apparently Square uses the bankers method for calculating sales tax but my accounting software does not.  The amounts are always a penny or two off.  

Is there a way I can change the setting to calculate the same?

[Yulia1oz]

Hellen, 

What can we do to make the rounding more true to the real numbers?

My business loses between $500-$1000 quarterly on sales tax due to the rounding. We have to pay it out of pocket to make up for those differently   rounded pennies on each transaction. It comes to $2000-$4000 a year which is a huge number for a coffee shop.

Thank you,

Yulia 

[lbduxbury]

Agreed!! We are also losing money every month when we pay our sales taxes, because Square refuses to make this change.

Square why are you ignoring your loyal customers?

This is a legitimate request, not some frivolous feature. Please provide a reason as to why this cannot be fixed. 

[lbduxbury]

Helen it is clear you have no concept of how accounting works. Perhaps you can escalate this issue. Your text book answers don't suffice. 

[Alex_1Oz_Coffee]

Hello Helen,

Square doesn’t take the sales taxes correctly (not the same way as California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (using math rounding) cdtfa.ca.gov ). Due to that there is a discrepancy in the taxes, CDTFA wants: 100.26 (for example), but square gathered from the customers only 100.25. The penny results into $500-1000 per quarter or $2000-4000 per year we have to pay out of pocket since Square didn’t take the proper sales tax from the customer (the same way as the tax agency). My understanding Square customers are small-medium businesses where every penny counts. Is there any solution to the problem?

[dbarnum]

This is also of concern to us.  We are syncing to Quickbooks as well and quickbooks, which has its own automatic sales tax calculation, is coming up a penny different.

[Joe]

Thanks for adding your concern here, @dbarnun. While we don't have a current shareable timeline for adjustments into transaction rounding, I will work with Helen to insure that your concerns are posed to our Product Teams so that we can get some more detailed information for you.

We appreciate your patience, here.

[Kport]

I am following this thread and would also like to be informed when we have the option to chose the rounding method for sales tax.

[Kport]

This has been an ongoing issue for your customers for much too long, we need square developers to fix this issue now?  If it can’t be fixed, is square willing to reimburse its customers for the tax loss?

[lbduxbury]

That's a good point @Kport  perhaps Square should reimburse it's customers all the uncollected taxes, since they refuse to add one line of code to their code base. How long would this take to fix? One day? 

It's not just a money issue. Having to reconcile everything that doesn't add up takes an inordinate amount of time and effort. 

[Littleramen]

We are a new small business who has spent way too much time “fixing” how Square calculates taxes. And while our CFO “fixes” it in Quickbooks, we’re eating the cost of these extra tax amounts and really can’t afford to do that. Square needs to fix this, and as a paid for service, that would be great if they reimbursed the difference from what has been collected so far. 

[aadams]

Hi Joe.  This issue is still going on.  No solutions yet?  Funny this thread is marked "solved".

[Roam_Coffee]

Yeah, this is such BS, I can't beleive this is still an issue. If its solved i would love to know what the heck the solution is. I contantly have to override my entries in Quickbooks because they don't match.  

[Quandary]

Square's use of banker's rounding incorrectly calculates sales tax for the State of Texas. Square should provide an option to select the round-half-up method for calculation of sales tax. 

The State of Texas uses the round-half-up method as explained on the https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/faq/collection.php web page.

By miscalculating (rounding down), Square does a disservice to its customers by causing businesses to under-collect sales tax. This is not acceptable.

It reflects very poorly upon Square that incorrect calculation of sales tax has been a known issue since 2017.

[aadams]

I am joining in to find out if square can remedy the way they calculate sales tax v. the rest of the universe.  Reading the old threads, it only has been an issue for users for a couple of years.  There should be a toggle on the set up on how you want to calculate tax.   Isn't there a programmer that can do that?

[AndreyV]

I think we have to remind them more often. So they will at least create a ticket to resolve the issue. Square team understand the problem but refuse to make an update with optional tax calculation. It's either ignoring customers or lack of their development capabilities. It's not complicated to implement, there are a lot of request for this option. Let's just remind them more often.

[AlexG]

I’m wondering how does it look from the legal prospective, since a small business has to pay what Square refuses to take properly from the customer. Is it not violating their service agreement?

[lbduxbury]

That's a great question @AlexG . I wander what Square has to say about that... I know a lot of us are getting very very frustrated having to cover the cost of this massive oversight by Square, which is only a part of the bigger headache it causes. It seems a letter from our lawyers is the only way since requests on this platform are not being recognized or valued. 

[sugarloaf]

I too am having problems with this rounding of sales tax. Our county sales tax is .875. Your rounding really messes up my QB accounting. Why can't/won't you fix this???

[sayra]

Hello @sugarloaf.

We're here to listen to your concerns and understand the frustration around this topic. As mentioned in this thread by many of our other Community Moderators at Square, at this time we don't have a way to accommodate your request. Please note that this is a great place to post your comments for visibility. We will make sure to notify you of any updates regarding tax calculations should this change at any time.

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

[aadams]

Sayra, that is the lamest response.  

[Doorh2h]

@AlexG I agree that perhaps it is time square customers get together to see if the user agreement is being violated or there is a legal way to get them to assist us. They make no meaningful response to our requests for 2+ years. It makes me wonder if they have no respect for us losing $ in our businesses. Especially during this time of Covid 19. I wonder if we started a media campaign if they would sit up & take notice?