Applying a deposit amount to a transaction after the tax is charged

[RuthLakeLodge]

I run a resort where I sometimes take a deposit for bookings.  Then the guest pays the difference at time of check-in.  The problem I am having is, I don't charge the taxes on the deposit.  So I need to be able to subtract the deposit amount from the transaction after the taxes have been charged.  Everything I have tried so far takes the deposit amount off before taxes,  Thoughts?

[Chad]

Hello @RuthLakeLodge! Could you share how you're currently charging customers? Are you sending them an invoice for the deposit with no tax? Then at the time to pay the difference just charging that amount, but not getting the total amount of tax since it's a smaller charge? 

[RuthLakeLodge]

Hi Chad.  Thanks for the question.  For the deposit, I’m not generating an invoice in square, I’m running the credit card manually for the deposit amount (no tax).  Then at check in, I populate the charges which automatically adds the taxes, but once I have the total with tax, I need to subtract the deposit amount.  Hope my explanation makes sense? Example room charge $100 x 13% tax = $113.  Deposit amount $50.  I need the final invoice to show $113-$50 not $100-$50x13%.???

[Chad]

@RuthLakeLodge I see what you mean.

This is tough, because if you're using a discount to show the deposit amount as a credit, it will apply the discount before the tax is calculated. With Square the discounts will always be calculated before the tax. 

Currently I don't have a workaround for your invoice to display the deposit amount as a credit with the proper tax, but I will share this feature request with our Point of Sale Team. 

[AliTrav]

Any news here?  I have the same issue for deposits put

down on special order items.

[Tom]

Hello, @AliTrav, welcome to the seller community and thank you for checking in on this feature. I went to look for developments, though collecting security deposits is still not something that's on our road map. We will circle back to this thread as any information or solutions become available.

[JClinicSS]

Hello, has there been any further developments on this. We also have the same issue. We make custom Jewellery for which we take a deposit and the client needs to pay the tax on the total amount. If I deduct the deposit amount then the taxes are incorrect. Is there a way to manually key in taxes?

[Chad]

Hello @JClinicSS! We're still collecting feedback at this time. The only work around I can think of right now is to calculate the correct tax ahead of time and create an appropriate percentage tax at the time of the second payment. 

[claudrolet]

Hi.

It's been more than one year since the last update. Where Square is regarding this big issue?

Thanks.

[ashc]

Hi @claudrolet,

There's no update or timeline to give at this time, but if it does become available I will be sure to update the threads and tag you. 

[Cbtl]

Has there been any updates pertaining this issue? We are having to pay taxes out of our income this year because the calculations were incorrect when the deposits were not calculated with tax. 

[seabreeze]

We are following this thread as we have just started using the square program for our resort business and will have the same problem if we don't come up with a creative way to deal with it. This creates a huge hurdle for us and any other business that runs this way.. Please get on with it. 

[luvi]

This has become a big problem for us as well.

If you discount the deposited amount at the time of presenting the check, you are missing the tax.  You can add the tax as a menu item but then then this will inflate your sales when this item is really a tax.

We are thinking about moving to another POS system as all other systems allow you to apply a deposit to a check and it reduces the amount of the check while charging the appropriate taxes.

[AliTrav]

Fortunately I only do a few transactions per month.  I’ve resorted to sending invoices done up in word, and saved as PDF.  The reports generated by Square are pretty well useless at this point.

i use square strictly to collect money - especially at the customer’s location it’s handy.  But that’s it.  This has been an issue for 2 years now and Square doesn’t seem to think it’s important enough to rectify.

[gore]

Yes! What is the deal?! This thread is going on two years and this is important. I've been using Doordash for a month now and they were doing a commission free delivery for my restaurant, but they now charge 12.5% off the subtotal then normal tax is charged. If I settle out these tickets with a comp in the amount of the commission rate, it deducts It from the tax as well, which is illegal. And if I report that I made more than what I did, pretty sure that's considered money laundering. I cannot settle my ticket for today because Square doesn't have an answer so then my sales will also be off. Most importantly, my books should be accurate and why is this taking Square 2 years to figure out?! It's so important to accurately report to the IRS! I mean, we are talking about adding a button Square... What's the hold up? After tax discount... Seriously this is ridiculous.

[Kassi_]

Hey @gore -

Thank you for checking in on this Feature Request. I appreciate your feedback!

Unfortunately, I don't have an update on this request just yet. I completely understand your business need for this feature. Keep an eye out for the Product Update posts for new launches. As soon as more information is available - we will update this thread. 

Thank you!

[AliTrav]

Can you see how long this has been going on?  I don’t think it would take a programming genius to figure this out.

Your answer is meaningless.

I am using square to have a means to deposit money to my account.  The reports are useless.

[fishingtripsBC]

Still no fix for this issue?  Anyone in tourism that takes security deposits up front needs this darn feature added.  So frustrating.  Please add this simple fix.