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Suzie Q

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I think I'm a little slow catching onto the correct way of figuring taxes. Last year, I took the total of my deposits, multiplied by my tax rate, and sent that in. DUH!
I realized I paid tax on top of the tax and room rate. How do you keep your tax collected separate from the room rate taxed? Sometimes I offer 10% discounts and once or twice I've offered a deep discount. If you do "extras" how do you keep that tax separate from your room rate?
Thanks!
 
Enter them separately in whatever accounting system you use (QuickBooks or whatever). That way you have the figures you need each month for paying occupancy tax and at year's end for both budgeting and paying taxes.
You can probably go back and refile for last year and get the money back that you overpaid. Worth looking into.
 
Are you talking about your lodging tax or your income tax?
For us, our rez form shows the room rate and the lodging tax. When we enter this into our accounting system it is already broken out. So, if the room is $100 the rez form shows:
  • Room Rate= $100;
  • Lodging Tax= $7.
If I do a discount, the rez form will show
  • Room Rate=$100
  • Discount= $10
  • Total for Room= $90
  • Lodging Tax= $6.30
For add ons, I include the tax in the price of the add on but we separate it out when we do the books. We just take the total of the add on and divide out the 5% sales tax (not lodging tax because it's not 'lodging' but a retail purchase).
Some things don't have a tax, like food or tickets.
If you do not already have some sort of reg form for the guest, this is a perfect reason to have one. You can keep it all sorted out ahead of time and enter it as you go along.
We pay lodging tax once/month so it doesn't add up over the course of the year. OUCH! I would NOT want to pay that bill even tho we SHOULD have the money to do so. If it was only once/year, I would open a separate bank acct and deposit the lodging tax money in there immediately.
I hope that answered the question because when we bought this place, the PO's filed their INCOME taxes showing the inn made $xxx. But they added in the lodging tax so they paid INCOME taxes on the lodging tax. WE pointed that out to them and they had to refile their income taxes (and hopefully fire their accountant).
 
This is where I really appreciated both SuperInn and now Rezovation for making calculation of sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and gross income very easy to keep track of. A few moments telling it what you want reported and out pops the information you need, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
 
This is where I really appreciated both SuperInn and now Rezovation for making calculation of sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and gross income very easy to keep track of. A few moments telling it what you want reported and out pops the information you need, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly..
swirt said:
This is where I really appreciated both SuperInn and now Rezovation for making calculation of sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and gross income very easy to keep track of. A few moments telling it what you want reported and out pops the information you need, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Yup, this works for me up to a point. I think it's because I started out wrong with how to use the different fields and now I find myself wondering what the ($23.97) is or the $400.59 that sometimes show up in fields other than for the room price and the taxes. Some sort of refund? A discount? What the heck?
Which is why we end up double entering into QuickBooks. That and our acct only accepts QB data.
I use SI info for a quick estimate, but not for tax man.
 
This is where I really appreciated both SuperInn and now Rezovation for making calculation of sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and gross income very easy to keep track of. A few moments telling it what you want reported and out pops the information you need, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly..
swirt said:
This is where I really appreciated both SuperInn and now Rezovation for making calculation of sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and gross income very easy to keep track of. A few moments telling it what you want reported and out pops the information you need, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Yup, this works for me up to a point. I think it's because I started out wrong with how to use the different fields and now I find myself wondering what the ($23.97) is or the $400.59 that sometimes show up in fields other than for the room price and the taxes. Some sort of refund? A discount? What the heck?
Which is why we end up double entering into QuickBooks. That and our acct only accepts QB data.
I use SI info for a quick estimate, but not for tax man.
.
Hmmm I never bumped into that problem.
 
This is where I really appreciated both SuperInn and now Rezovation for making calculation of sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and gross income very easy to keep track of. A few moments telling it what you want reported and out pops the information you need, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly..
swirt said:
This is where I really appreciated both SuperInn and now Rezovation for making calculation of sales taxes, occupancy taxes, and gross income very easy to keep track of. A few moments telling it what you want reported and out pops the information you need, whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Yup, this works for me up to a point. I think it's because I started out wrong with how to use the different fields and now I find myself wondering what the ($23.97) is or the $400.59 that sometimes show up in fields other than for the room price and the taxes. Some sort of refund? A discount? What the heck?
Which is why we end up double entering into QuickBooks. That and our acct only accepts QB data.
I use SI info for a quick estimate, but not for tax man.
.
Hmmm I never bumped into that problem.
.
I am always running into this. I would relabel the columns so I could at least figure it out. But then the original options would have to be better defined. Is this a 'discount,' an 'add on,' a 'taxable lodging add on?' What is it exactly. Without that, none of it makes sense. Even the room rate field only shows what was paid expressly for the room, it doesn't show what someone paid because they had an extra person in the room. And I can't tell what discounts were given why.
So, exactly how much did I 'give away' in repeat discounts last year? Or do I really want to know that?! Yikes!
 
I use an Excel spreadsheet for my guest ledger. I have the formulas in the correct columns so when I enter the room rate it automatically puts in the tax and totals it. I accumulate totals by month and by quarter and keep a running YTD. I also have it calculate my B & O tax to the City. I change the tax to zero if it is a government rate and note Government in a comments column so all I have to do is count those to know how much to take out of the total for non-tavable.
Unfortunately I have had to pay it annually for the last few years. I am hoping they put me back on quarterly this year. When I started they decided I did not have enough revenue to bother with quarterly.
 
I use an Excel spreadsheet for my guest ledger. I have the formulas in the correct columns so when I enter the room rate it automatically puts in the tax and totals it. I accumulate totals by month and by quarter and keep a running YTD. I also have it calculate my B & O tax to the City. I change the tax to zero if it is a government rate and note Government in a comments column so all I have to do is count those to know how much to take out of the total for non-tavable.
Unfortunately I have had to pay it annually for the last few years. I am hoping they put me back on quarterly this year. When I started they decided I did not have enough revenue to bother with quarterly..
gillumhouse said:
I use an Excel spreadsheet for my guest ledger. I have the formulas in the correct columns so when I enter the room rate it automatically puts in the tax and totals it. I accumulate totals by month and by quarter and keep a running YTD.
Yay! Glad to know I'm not the only one...
=)
Kk.
 
Thanks to everyone for their input. Will have to check out REZ or the other system.
C
 
i had to go a step further and set up a separate bank account for taxes. money was so tight, it was too tempting to say 'we need to fix this or that, i'll use a little of the tax money i have set aside and i'll pay it back.' or, the partner would see the money in the account and want to use it. nonono
room and lodging tax, any sales tax, payroll tax, and then a certain amount i was estimating toward property tax all went into that account. i know i mentioned it on forum and most people said they just know to keep that money on reserve. me, i needed it separate, not to be touched.
 
Use guest management system. You can run reports on anything at any time with the touch of your fingers, no need to input into diff spreadsheets manually, everything is there for you to query.
It is not expensive and works with your reservation software.
 
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