This article is regarding all things Tax for our USA Dealerships 

Basically anything to do with sales tax or purchase tax is in this section from setup / editing / reporting / changing tax on Customer Orders etc will be covered in this article


At any time you are unsure, PLEASE reach out to Blackpurl Support and they can give you a call to go through any tax concerns you have


Summary  


  • Both QuickBooks Online and Xero do not allow third parties (like Blackpurl) to integrate directly to any of their Tax General Ledgers or Tax defaults  


  • As this is the case, at Activation, your Dealership would have been setup with new BP Tax Collected and BP Tax Paid General Ledgers in your Accounting package which would that then been subsequently mapped to in your Blackpurl


  • When a Customer Order Invoice and / or a Vendor Invoice with tax, integrates from Blackpurl to Xero / QuickBooks Online, the tax will show in Xero / QuickBooks Online as a line item pointed to the relevant BP Tax Collected or BP Tax Paid General Ledgers


  • When reporting on your taxes, instead of using Xero / QuickBooks Online to pull the relevant reports, you would use Blackpurl


  • Then when accounting to the relevant government authority, you will need to allocate 'payment' to the BP Tax Collected / Tax Paid General Ledgers in your accounting package 

  • Blackpurl uses a Third Party Tax Specialist to make sure that your tax rates are kept up to date and that the correct tax rates are being used


Tax Settings 


All of the Tax settings for your Dealership, are under the Blackpurl Header - Other Tools > Tax Activity & Settings 


For users to have access to this section, they need to have the User Permission - Tax Management


Once the user has the relevant User Permission, then the user will be able to access the Tax Activity & Settings section from the Blackpurl Header


Tax Activity & Settings section 


Let us cover off this section of Blackpurl 


  • Once you have the correct permission, from the Blackpurl Header > click and then select




  • Once you have logged into the Tax activity & settings screen, you will notice 4 tabs:


ACTIVITY


SETTINGS


TAX CODES 

MANUAL TAX RATES 


We are going to go through each tab separately below


A. Activity 


Under Activity is where you can run your Tax Activity report (also known as the Tax Detail Report) - just add your From and To date range > click



By default, the report will automatically Exclude Internal Invoices but if you want to include Internal Invoices, uncheck the relevant checkbox and then just run the report again

This Tax Activity report will then summarise:


  • your Tax Collected on Sales as well as list the relevant tax names that make up that section


  • your Tax Paid on Purchases as well as list the relevant tax names that make up that section


Our example below is for our training environment that will show you how things list - remember that your taxes will be specific to your own Dealership:


  • We ran the Tax Activity report for the period 1st April 2024 to 30th April 2024 (excluding Internal Invoices) and the search results are as follows: 



  • Let's go through the search result screen


Tax Collected on Sales 


1.Tax Name - This will list both the Totals of all the Tax Collected on Sales together with a list of Sales Taxes that make up this total
2.Transaction Count - this will list how many transactions make up this tax 
3.Taxable Amount - this will list the taxable amount that makes up this tax 
4.Tax Amount - this will list the tax that was calculated 
5.Non Taxable Amount - this will list if there was any non taxable amount 
6.TOTAL: Tax Collected on Sales - this is the total of all your Sales Taxes 
7.This will list the total tax amount that has been calculated for all your Sales Taxes
8.It will list each of your Sales Taxes and in this example, this Dealership only has one Tax Collected on Sales ie bp gst collected

If you have multiple Sales Taxes then it will list all of them individually 
9.The total transactions that make up this Sales Tax 
10.The total taxable amount for this Sales Tax 
11.The total tax amount taken for this Sales Tax 
12.If there are any non-taxable taxes taken for this Sales Tax


Tax Paid on Purchases  


13.Tax Name - This will list both the Totals of all the Tax Paid on Purchases together with a list of Purchase Taxes that make up this total
14.Transaction Count - this will list how many transactions make up this tax 
15.Taxable Amount - this will list the taxable amount that makes up this tax 
16.Tax Amount - this will list the tax that was calculated 
17.Non Taxable Amount - this will list if there was any non taxable amount 
18.TOTAL: Tax Paid on Purchases - this is the total of all your Purchase Taxes 
19.This will list the total tax amount that has been calculated for all your Purchase Taxes
20.It will list each of your Purchase Taxes and in this example, this Dealership only has one Tax Paid on Purchases ie gst payable

If you have multiple Purchase Taxes then it will list all of them individually 
21.The total transactions that make up this Purchase Tax 
22.The total taxable amount for this Purchase Tax 
23.The total tax amount taken for this Purchase Tax 
24.If there is any non-taxable taxes taken for this Purchase Tax



Remember at any time you can click on and when you do one of these actions, it will print or export both the summary as well as what transactions make up the section (depending on what screen you are on)


Should you wish to see what transactions make up the Sales or Purchase Tax - simply click on the Tax Name


In our example below we want to know what transactions make up the bp gst collected tax so we clicked on that tax name



Then it will provide you with a list of transactions which you are view on the screen or

To go back to the home Activity screen search result, click



B. Settings

This section is broken up into different areas:


  • General Settings

  • Account Type / Tax Exemptions

  • Automatic Tax Rate Controls 

  • Accrued Tax Controls

  • Default Applicable Tax Codes


General Settings



25.Tax Id on documents - If your government required you to have your Tax Id on your Customer Order documentation ie Invoice, then this is where you would record the Dealerships Tax Id number (example: our Australian Dealerships and their ABN)

26.Prices include sales tax - this is just an indicator if the Prices in your Blackpurl include sales Tax or not

- our USA Dealerships are not required to have their prices to customer to include sales tax so this indicator will say No

27.Trade tax credit cannot exceed unit tax - This means that when you take a trade in on a Unit Deal, that the trad in tax credit cannot exceed the amount of the unit tax payable

For further information, please review our article - Trade In Tax Credit cannot exceed Unit Tax

28.Unit options that are taxed like the unit - you get to select what options are taxed at the same rate as the Unit sale 

Simply click on the field and then it will give you the options available for you to make your selections as to which options are to be taxed at the same rate as the Unit

29. Group Individual Taxes on Sales

- if you disable this toggle than all your sales taxes on Customer Orders, will list all separately on the relevant Customer documentation ie Invoices


- if you enable this toggle than all your sales taxes on Customer Order, will list as one item and you get to select what to call your grouped taxes ie Sales Tax
30.Group Individual Taxes on Purchases

- if you disable this toggle than all your sales taxes on Vendor Invoices, will list separately


- If you enable this toggle than all your sales taxes on Vendor Invoices, will list as one item and you get to select what to call your grouped taxes ie Sales Tax



Account Types / Tax Exemptions

This will list the Account Types / Tax exemptions currently setup in your Blackpurl


We do provide you with a small list of  Account Types / Tax exemptions when your Blackpurl is first created with consultation with your  Activation team but you can amend or add more as required

This is the relevant article going through Account Type and how to create new ones etc - Setting up Account Types (includes the control of tax exemptions)



Automatic Tax Rate Controls 



31.State Tax / County Tax / City Tax / District Tax 

It will list out these taxes so that you can control the Tax Category (32.) you want to use and the Forms Label (33.) you want to use on documentation

32.Tax Category 

For each of the State Tax / County Tax / City Tax / District Tax you have the option of what Tax Category you want to use 

This is usually discussed and set up at Activations 

33.Forms Label

This is the name you want to give each tax and this name is then printed on the documentation 

This is usually discussed and setup at Activations

34.Current Default Tax Rates

Your default taxes are based on where you Dealership is located so this will just list the relevant taxes 

35. Blackpurl uses a Third Party Tax Specialist to make sure that your tax rates are kept up to date and that the correct tax rates are being used

If you feel like the taxes are not right OR you know that a change has been made but is not reflected in Blackpurl, simply click on the   and it will go and review to see if any rates have changed

Keep in mind that Blackpurl will also automatically check for updates on a regular basis

36.States which you collected & remit sales taxes for:

This is where it will list which states that your Dealership collects and remits sales taxes for

If the state is not listed in this section, when a user processing a Customer Order, the user will not be allowed to select as the customer does not reside in a state that the Dealership collects and remits sales sale for

Instead the default Dealership taxes will be charged etc

If you want to add additional states that your Dealership collects and remits sales taxes for, then click on and find the state from the list

Once you click on the state name, it will be added to the list of States which you collected & remit sales taxes for 

37.For deals, auto enable Tax based on customer address

This will allow the Dealership to have the default on a Customer Order > Unit Deal to be Tax based on customer address so each time a new Unit Deal is created, the toggle will automatically be enabled

 
Keep in mind that - if the user is selling to a Customer that does not reside in one of the states which the Dealerships collected & remit sales taxes for (as per list in 36.), then the tax will automatically default back to the Dealership's default taxes and the toggle will remain not enabled



Accrued Tax Controls 


Accrue input tax until units are sold (NITC) - this is only for particular locations ie Australia



If you Dealership requires this setup, please reach out to Blackpurl Support 


Default applicable tax codes 


These are the default applicable Tax Codes that have been setup in your Blackpurl 


 
These are usually setup for your Dealership during Activations 


If you need to change the defaults, simply click into the relevant field > the drop down will give you the options available for selection

If you don't understand what you need or understand the ramifications of changing these defaults, please reach out to Blackpurl Support for assistance 

D. Manual Tax Rates 


We are going out of order and going to go through D. Manual Tax Rates first as it will help to then explain C. Tax Codes 


This section is broken up into Sales transaction manual tax rates and Purchase transaction manual tax rates and the title explains exactly what they are:


  • Sales transaction manual tax rates - These are tax rates that are only applicable for sale transactions ie Part Sales / Unit Deals, Service Jobs etc 


  • Purchase transaction manual tax rates - These are tax rates that are only applicable for purchase transactions ie Vendor Invoices for Parts and Units etc

What are tax rates?


For our USA Dealership - it can be quite complicated with some USA states having numerous tax rates that may need to be combined together as a Tax Code

Your tax rates are usually setup during discussion with your Activation team but it may be necessary for you to setup a new tax rates

To create a new rate > click on  


New selling tax rate window will look like this:


A.   Tax Name - Type in the name of this new Tax Rate

B.   Category - Allocate the new Tax Rate a Category (accounting integration)

C.   Type - There are three options:

Fixed - the tax rate is a fixed or set rate.  For example the tax rate is fixed at 10% across the board

Escalating - the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases.  For example the first $5000 the tax rate is 10% / for the next $5000 the tax rate is 12% etc

Tiered - the tax rates would be setup based upon the total transactional amount.  For example - normal tax rate is 7% but will change to 7.5% once the order is over $3000 

D.   Rate - Type in the percentage of the rate
  This would depend on what Type of Tax you selected in C.

E.   Forms label - When this tax prints on a Customer Invoice etc, what do you want it to read?

F.   Minimum tax - This fields come into play if you select the Type: Escalating or Tiered in C.
     This is if there is a Minimum tax

G.  Maximum tax - This fields come into play if you select the Type: Escalating or Tiered in C.
      This is if there is a Maximum tax that can be charged 

H.   SAVE - Once you have completed the New Selling Tax Rate, don't forget to click on SAVE

To edit a Tax Rate that already exists > click on on the relevant line item and the system will open up the Tax Rate for you to make the amendments

To delete a Tax Rates > click on  on the relevant line item and user will be asked to confirm the deletion


Once you have the relevant Tax Rates available for selection, you can then create Tax Codes - see the next section C. Tax Codes 


C. Tax Codes  


Tax Codes will allow you to join two or more tax rates together to make up the relevant taxes applicable 


For example a customer is in a location that the Dealership needs to be charged a State Tax of 5% and a GST tax of 8% when this customer purchases from the Dealership

The Dealership would set both of these as Tax Rates (using D. Manual Tax Rates) and then use Tax Codes to join the relevant tax rates together as a Tax Code (making sure the total correct tax is calculated and charged to the customer)


Tax Codes are split into two sections:


  • Tax Codes for sales transactions
    These are Tax Codes that are only applicable for sale transactions ie Part Sales / Unit Deals etc

  • Tax Codes for purchase transactions
    These are Tax Codes that are only applicable for purchase transactions ie Vendor Invoices etc

Your Tax Codes are usually setup during discussion with your Activation team but it may be necessary for you to setup a new Tax Code

To create a new Tax Code > click on  as a New selling Tax Code or New Purchase Tax Code window


For example - New selling Tax Code window looks like this


A.   Tax Code name - Type in the name of this new Tax Code

B.   Active -indicate by moving the toggle if this Tax Code to be active and available for selection in 
      Blackpurl

C.   Default  -  indicate by moving the toggles if it will be the Default 

D.   Automatic Rates - indicate by moving the toggles as required on each of the tax types

 Maximum Taxable Amount - add if there is any maximum taxable amount

E.   Applicable manual rates - add in any Applicable manual rates 


F.   Assign rates as required 


G. when finished 

To delete a Tax Code > click on  on the relevant line item and user will be asked to confirm the deletion


To review a Tax Code with a view to editing, click on on the relevant Tax Code 

Customer Orders 


There are sections in a Customer Order - Unit Deals / Parts & Accessories / Service Jobs that will give you what tax options are available to you 


Unit Deal section

Each time you add a new Unit to the Unit Deal section, the default tax setting will automatically load

The user can leave as is and it will default to the default tax (usually based on the Dealership's address) but there are other taxation options available


Under the Summary section:



1.
Sales Taxes 

This will list any Sales Tax that is attached to the whole of the Unit Deal - remember that a Unit Deal may have multiple units being purchased

If you wish to see the breakup of the taxes, click on

Example:
2.
Tax based on the Customer address

If you need to charge tax that is based on the Customer address, then please enable this toggle
Blackpurl will then "look" at the address indicated on the Customer Record and then calculated the tax based on that address

You will need to ensure that the FULL address of the Customer is indicated on the Customer Record so that the applicable tax is charged 

You can also set this as default - see item 37. under B. Settings > Automatic Tax Rate Controls in the above document

If the user tries to enable the Tax based on the customer address action and sell to a Customer not in a state where the Dealership collects and remits sales tax for, the user will receive an error message to say that - You don't collect/remit sales taxes for the state indicated on the customer address



This is a Unit section on a Unit Deal 




3.
Tax based on the Customer address

If you need to charge tax that is based on the Customer address, then please enable this toggle
Blackpurl will then "look" at the address indicated on the Customer Record and then calculated the tax based on the address

You will need to ensure that the FULL address of the Customer is indicated on the Customer Record so that the applicable tax is charged 

You can also set this as default - see item 37. under B. Settings > Automatic Tax Rate Controls in the above document

If the user tries to enable the Tax based on the customer address action and sell to a Customer not in a state where the Dealership collects and remits sales tax for, the user will receive an error message to say that - You don't collect/remit sales taxes for the state indicated on the customer address


The Unit Deal will automatically charge the default Dealership taxes


4.If there is a special tax that needs to be taken into consideration, then you would ensure that the taxable toggle is enabled and the select the special tax

5. Tax these options the same way

The Dealership has the option of taxing any options either the same way as the Unit Deal or leave as is and they will be taxed locally (as per the Dealership's setup)  


On each unit sold on the Unit Deal, you do have options as to the taxation calculations - here are few different scenarios:


Scenario 1 


Customer is buying this unit from the Dealership / Dealership default tax is to be charged / no special taxes / all options are to be taxed the same as the default settings.  The settings would be 



Scenario 2 


Customer is buying this unit from the Dealership / Default tax is to be charged / a special tax / all options are to be taxed as per the Dealership's default.  The settings would be:



Scenario 3 


Customer is buying this unit from the Dealership / Default tax is to be charged / a special tax / all options are to be taxed the same way (not locally).  The settings would be 



Scenario 4 


Customer is buying the unit from the Dealership / tax will be based on where the customer lives / there are no special taxes / options are to be taxed at the local rate.  The settings would be:



Scenario 5 


Customer is buying the unit from the Dealership / the tax charged will be based on where the customer lives / there is no special tax / options to be taxed at the same rate as the Unit.  The settings would be:



Scenario 6 


Customer is buying the unit from the Dealership / the customer lives in a state that the Dealership does not collect & remit sales taxes for 


If the user tries to enable the Tax based on the customer address action, the user will receive an error message to say that - You don't collect/remit sales taxes for the state indicated on the customer address


The Unit Deal will then automatically charge the default Dealership taxes



For a list of the states that the Dealership collects and remits sales taxes - see item 36. under B. Settings > Automatic Tax Rate Controls in the above document

If you have a different scenario that you need a hand with the settings, please contact Blackpurl Support 



Parts & Accessories section


The Parts & Accessories section will load with the default taxes but in the summary section, the user will be provided with other tax options 





5.
Tax based on the Customer address

If you need to charge tax that is based on the Customer address, then please enable this toggle
Blackpurl will then "look" at the address indicated on the Customer Record and then calculated the tax based on the address

You will need to ensure that the FULL address of the Customer is indicated on the Customer Record so that the applicable tax is charged 

If the user tries to enable the Tax based on the customer address action for a customer that does not reside in a state which the Dealership collects / remits sales tax for, the user will receive an error message to say that - You don't collect/remit sales taxes for the state indicated on the customer address


The sale will automatically charge the default Dealership taxes


For a list of the states that the Dealership collects and remits sales taxes - see item 36. under B. Settings > Automatic Tax Rate Controls in the above document


6.Override how taxes are calculated?

If the Dealership needs to override the default taxes with a special tax, enable this toggle and then select the relevant tax 

Example:


Then you will need to select which Item Types that you want to use this tax for:



7.Sales Tax Details

This will list any Sales Tax that is attached to the Parts & Accessories

If you wish to see the breakup of what taxes, click on

Example:



Service Job section


The Service Job section will load with the default taxes but in the summary section, the user will be provided with other tax options 





8.Tax based on the Customer address

If you need to charge tax that is based on the Customer address, then please enable this toggle
Blackpurl will then "look" at the address indicated on the Customer Record and then calculated the tax based on the address

You will need to ensure that the FULL address of the Customer is indicated on the Customer Record so that the applicable tax is charged

If the user tries to enable the Tax based on the customer address action for a customer that does not reside in a state which the dealership collects / remits sales tax for, the user will receive an error message to say that - You don't collect/remit sales taxes for the state indicated on the customer address


The sale will automatically charge the default Dealership taxes


For a list of the states that the Dealership collects and remits sales taxes - see item 36. under B. Settings > Automatic Tax Rate Controls in the above document


 
9.Override how taxes are calculated?

If the Dealership needs to override the default taxes with a special tax, enable this toggle and then select the relevant tax



Then you will need to select which Item Types that you want to use this tax for:



10.Sales Tax Details

This will list any Sales Tax that is attached to the whole of the Unit Deal

If you wish to see the breakup of what taxes, click on


Example: