Adjust sales tax payable?

[dzog]

Is there a way to adjust Sales Tax Payable without adjusting the tax owed on the Pay Sales Tax screen? During my research of the books, I have found that taxes were figured manually and no adjustment was entered in QB. Three of the quarters were paid through payables and not the Pay Sales Tax screen. The correct tax was paid, but now my Sales Tax Payable is not correct. I have seen this question on a couple of forums and it never seems to have an answer, so I am beginning to realize that this is probably not possible. Any help would be appreciated.

[Joe Williams]

You can enter a journal entry that Debits Sales Tax Payable for the amount it needs to be reduced. Enter the Tax Agency name in the name field. The credit on the JE should be the account you used on eh check that was used when paying the taxes.
On the next Sales Tax payment, check the tax items and the "credit" for the vendor.

[dzog]

Thank you for the response.
I tried that, but I don't want to reduce the amount of sales tax that QB has figured for the current period. I just want to reduce the amount in the Sales Tax Payable account only. It doesn't reflect what is currently owed. When I go to the Pay Sales Tax, it shows the correct amount from taxable sales.

[Joe Williams]

Trying to understand the issue. If the Pay Sales Tax is correct, I do not understand why the Sales Tax Payable is incorrect. The balance in the Sales Tax Payable register is normally never zero.
Are the Sales Taxes paid on Cash basis in the preferances? This will cause lots of "discrepancies" because the register is always in Accural, NEVER in Cash mode.
There is no way to increase/decrease the balance in the Sales Tax Payable without affecting the Pay Sales tax amount because all entries require the "Tax" vendor in the name field and they show in the Pay Sales Tax.

[dzog]

When the sales tax is paid on the 15th of the month following the end of taxing period, the check amount should match the balance in sales tax payable at the ending date of the taxing period. (Accrual basis) Mine does not due to happenings before my time. The first sales tax I find was paid in Sept. of 2005. I found 3 times since that the sales tax was paid through payables and not Pay Sales Tax. I also found several periods (including the first period) that the taxes were figured by hand. The hand figured amount and the amount that quickbooks figured were not the same. Quickbooks amount was larger. No adjustments or correcting entries were made. I assume that there were some invoices that were not correct for whatever reason. The amount paid was only a portion of what QB said we owed. I am sure they figured and paid the correct amount of sales tax just no corrections. Somewhere along the way, someone must have made changes to include the correct invoices. The amount that QB has figured for the current period is correct, but due to all of the above, the Sales Tax Payable is overstated by $1693.80.

I hope I have explained with enough detail so that you can understand my problem. I sure need help with this! I am beginning to think that I will have to live with it.