Pastel v11 Tax Report Difference

[Sasha]

Hi There

I am using Pastel v11 for the first time and on printing the tax type report for Jan & Feb, I'm finding the following difference:

Balance of Tax Control Account as at 28/02/2013 R43 912.18
Tax Total as per this report R43 780.35
Closing Balance of VAT/Tax Control Account is R43 912.18

It gives me a difference of R131.82. As far as I know, the report printed out at the end of December balanced and that amount was paid to SARS. I notice in the VAT/Tax Control Account, however, that the opening balance for Jan/Feb differs by the same amount yet we have checked through our processing and cannot find anything that may have been backdated to the previous tax period.

Would anyone be able to help us figure out what other things we could look at that may have caused this difference? Any help would REALLY be appreciated!!

Thanks
Sasha

[Neville Bailey]

Hi Sasha, something else that you can check is whether any transactions have been allocated directly to the VAT control account, apart from your payments/claims to and from SARS.

[Mike C]

Hi Sasha - an invoice dated the previous month and entered after VAT was paid will show a difference. Also check your journal entries ... if you use 01 in Journals they do not always show correctly in the report.

[Sasha]

Thanks so much...really appreciate your help! Will let you know if I manage to sort it out.

[Sasha]

Thanks all - managed to resolve the issue. The previous bookkeeper had left out a VAT amount for an entry posted in June last year. Thank heavens we managed to find it!

[Mike C]

Thanks all - managed to resolve the issue. The previous bookkeeper had left out a VAT amount for an entry posted in June last year. Thank heavens we managed to find it!

The latest Pastel (Xpress 12) now has an option where you close your VAT after doing your return. Any "late" entry after that is flagged and shows in your report. I think that this will be quite a helpful feature.

[Michelle271]

Hi I'm now learning about pastel, etc. When I was searching for how the balance of tax control account is worked out, I came across your question. So we have been using pastel for many years and for the last few years the balance of tax control account and the tax total as per this report is way different.

In another thread I read that it should be the same? here is the link to that thread. https://www.theforumsa.co.za/forums/...ort+difference

So what I want to know is:
1. What is the balance of tax control account?
2. How is it calculated?
3. Must it be the same as the tax total as per this report?

For example our Tax Type report for the tax period 201812 (01/11/2018 - 31/11/2018)
The Balance of tax control account as at 31/12/2018 is R 1133128.01
The tax total as per this report is R-227738.73

Thanks for your help

[Kevin Smith]

Hi Michelle

1 - The balance of the tax control account is the general ledger account you have setup for VAT. It can be found under Setup...Tax... General Settings. If you are using Pastels standard chart of accounts, it will be 9500/000.
2 - All entries that are processed with a tax type that is not 0% will go to the VAT Control account. When you make your payment to SARS for VAT, it should also go to the 9500/000 account as a tax type 00 entry. If you have a difference between the Tax Total and the tax control account, you need to investigate why. This can be caused by journals that have been processed to the control account, or by processing entries into a period after the VAT report was run and submitted. Eg you run the vat report for December, pay the VAT in January, then process entries in December again. The tax control account is a balance sheet item, and the differences in any prior period would accumulate over time, leading to a large discrepancy between the report and the control account.
3 - The control account should balance to the tax report

[Michelle271]

Thanks for all the info. We will look for the time they did balance and search from there>

Thanks

[Michelle271]

Hi how can we fix the problem? (question 3 from yesterday) We think it started in 2011.

[Michelle271]

Good day

Sorry to post here again. I tried to contact Neville on the forum and a personal message, but no answer. Is there anyone who can help us or give me a number of someone who can. Our bookkeepers aren't getting back to us either on this matter. Please help and thanks.

PROBLEM:

To balance these:

For example our Tax Type report for the tax period 201812 (01/11/2018 - 31/11/2018)
The Balance of tax control account as at 31/12/2018 is R 1133128.01
The tax total as per this report is R-227738.73

[Mike C]

Hi Michelle271 - Is this the first time that a difference has arisen? Perhaps you should send your Tax Control Account to Excel and compare it with your Tax Type report using the "show details" and "print descriptions" ticked.

Also make sure that your tax report "start type" and "end type" includes all your tax types from 01 to 17 (or wherever your settings end).

[Michelle271]

Thanks I'll try that, but no it's been like this since the last book year we have. We think it started in 2011. I started asking questions about how it is calculated etc because I'm learning how pastel works and like to know things in detail. That is when we realized that they differ, etc. We don't have the book year of 2011 anymore. We only keep 5 years so that makes it even harder to track.

[TGP]

Hi i have been reading the posts on the vat control account not being the same as the tax total on the tax report. I have the same issue. I have checked the audit trail the tax report which i compared in excel. I have also checked the tax type report in excel with the descriptions and details. I see that the input tax is not what it should be, so there is a difference between the tax control and tax total. Can anyone give me any suggestions as to what to check. This goes back to 2021.

[Mike C]

Hi TGP. Check your Journal entries as I seem to recall that it does not automatically adjust the tax. I was instructed to always use a separate line for tax when using Journals.