Sub-total for Taxes

VisionRx

On my expense report, I need to show the amount of HST tax was paid. At the top of my expense report, the total amount of the tax is shown. However, the amount of tax for each category of expense is not shown. Through Expensify chat, I have asked for this, however, they say it is not possible. So that leaves me using my calculator to determine the tax by category. To me, it seems like a very simple fix, to add the tax by category beside the total expense by category.

My request is this, can Expensify please add the amount of tax by category beside the total expense by category.

tylerzoll

@VisionRx There have been a few comments on the forum about HST tax. I had never heard of it until I joined the expensify Forum. There was also an idea post to have smart scan sort out the HST tax, but if you can simply calculate the HST tax off of the amount, this may work better.

VisionRx

The HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) is basically a sales tax. It's called a harmonized tax because it includes a component for both the federal and provincial governments. In Ontario, the HST tax is fixed at 13% of the sales amount.

My problem is that Expensify does not show the total of the HST amount by expenses category, only a total of all HST for the whole report. However, the government treats HST differently by expense category. For example, for 'Meals and Entertainment', you can only claim back half the HST paid, but you can claim the whole amount back for other categories. For this reason, we need to see the HST amount beside the total for each expense category.

VisionRx

I wish Expensify would take this simple request seriously.

Conor Pendergrast

Thanks for creating the post @VisionRx, and adding such great context on why you would find this so useful.

What do you use as your accounting system?

VisionRx

Hi Conor,
I work in a satellite sales office. We submit our expenses to our head office and I don't know what accounting system they use.
Have a look at the attached expense report. You will see that I have to manually add the tax amount beside each expense category total. Furthermore, for mileage expenses (entered using the 'Distance' expense form), there is no way to add a tax component at all, which is allowed under the Canadian tax system. Again, I have to do this manually. Expensify should be able to handle both these tasks instead of me doing it manually.

VisionRx

Conor, if you appreciate the importance of the request I have shown in my post above, then please pass this request on to your developers.
Thanks.

VisionRx

As the months go by, only silence from Expensify.

Rachael Hopkins

Hi @VisionRx , the software development process is not a super quick one (although in my 15 years experience Expensify's is very a fast timeline). From suggestion to fruition can take 6-18 months realistically and there are many things to consider. If it's a small software tweak with a lot of demand, it might be done in 3 months. But if it's a major undertaking we need to schedule it in as well as building business cases and working out the priority. It may dovetail into a larger project. Or it may have a knock-on effect.

The amount of votes an Idea has is very useful to us to gauge demand, as well as the general feedback we receive from all other channels. With half a million active users per month we do have to seriously weigh up the demand for what is likely (in this case) to be a very big project. We also have an open ticket internally for this where we are collecting all feedback and requests. In fact this is probably one of our largest of this type, and it's more of a 'when' than an 'if' situation.

All the information you have provided here has been exceptionally helpful, and we'll likely come back to you directly further down the track.

If you have colleagues and peers who would also like to see this functionality, feel free to get them to vote for your idea too!

VisionRx

Thank you for this follow-up info. It's greatly appreciated.

JoanAdminCMCRI

I need gst broken out, so more than just HST. taxes vary from province to province. It's complicated. Basically expensify is a tool for the end user to be reimbursed by their company (easy and quick). The accountant still has work to do to be able to claim back the taxes. My issue is with the quality of the receipt capture - yes it may be partly the photographer, but the photos are scunched to 8 (or more?) per page, and the resolution is impossible to read the details on the pdf report sent to me.

Daveweez

I have a different but similar request:

In Spain, we may have a report with 3 VAT codes (Standard rate + Reduced rate + Super Reduced rate) (& Tax Exempt too) on the report, so it would be great to display the total per tax code at the top.

This is different than the original request (tax amount per category), but thought I would share here.

Daveweez

Another request, would be to have multiple tax codes on the expense (if needed). Sometimes we have a receipt with line items that are Standard rate & line items with the Reduced or Super Reduced rate or Tax Exempt applied.

Current workaround is to split the expense into 2, 3, or 4 expenses and apply one rate to each. But this is not ideal.

renata

I also have a need to have HST totals for each category!

Jstevens

Another excited user who needs Canadian sales tax added to reports to make this a useful tool for us.

Sheena Trepanier

Thanks for commenting and voting @Jstevens! We'll continue to track this need and request.

SuzieDevil

Same thing here. We need to have the total for GST and another column with the total for QST. Now I just have the option to combine them but it's not how it's working for taxes report each 3 months...

VisionRx

I started this thread just over two years ago.  I wonder if Expensify has any update.
Here was the original request:
My problem is that Expensify does not show the total of the HST amount by expenses category, only a total of all HST for the whole report. However, the government treats HST differently by expense category. For example, for 'Meals and Entertainment', you can only claim back half the HST paid, but you can claim the whole amount back for other categories. For this reason, we need to see the HST amount beside the total for each expense category.

Jenna Hay

@VisionRx, sadly this request has not yet been made a priority but we do have some other changes which might be of interest to you.

First, we have introduced Category Default Tax functionality.  This will allow you to set a different tax rate for specific expense types (such as meals and entertainment) so you know that you are not claiming more than you are allowed.  For your specific use case, I suggest creating an additional tax rate which is 50% of the standard HST rate and then set this as the default rate for your Meals and Entertainment category.

You can then export your approved reports using the Detailed Export template which will then include the tax amount and rate which has been applied to each expense.  The Detailed Export includes nearly all the information you could need for each expense and report and is probably the easiest way to share this information with your head office (since they can also import it directly to their accounting system if needed).

Second, we have added the ability for you to track tax on mileage expenses.  Set the taxable component and applicable tax to your mileage rates and the tax amount will automatically be calculated for you.

Regarding splitting out taxes, @Daveweez does the Spanish tax authorities actually require you to split out the tax amount by rate?  It is very common in Europe for there to be 2 or 3 rates but in my experience, most tax authorities don't require the breakdown, they just want to know the total tax amount and therefore it isn't really necessary to apply multiple rates to an expense, you just apply the highest rate and then modify the tax amount to reflect the tax on the receipt if it is less.  Or if you are really set on applying each specific tax rate, then you can split the expense and apply the relevant rate to each portion.

Similar question for you, @VisionRx, do the Canadian tax authorities require you to tell them the specific tax amount for each expense type or do they just ask for the total which has to be calculated using their rules?

And for @SuzieDevil have you seen our article on handling multiple taxes to an expense?  This addresses your specific use case for the Canadian provinces where you have a GST and PST instead of a combined HST.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the above

VisionRx

Hi Jenna.  For Canada, we need to show the federal tax amount by category.  It has to be shown by category because certain categories of expenses are treated differently for income tax purposes.

Jenna Hay

Thanks for coming back to me @VisionRx. In that case, I'm going to suggest you go with my above recommendation, setting the 50% HST rate for the Meals and Entertainment category and then exporting your finalised reports to the Detailed Report CSV which will capture the tax amount and make it easy for you to calculate the amount and tax per category.

VisionRx

Thanks for the suggestion but that doesn't work for me. Our head office will that the 50% amount, I have to report the full amount.  What's missing is the Expensify report doesn't show the HST tax amount beside the Category total amount.  Yes, I can export CSV file and manually modify the file to what's needed, but I'm trying to avoid extra work and just have you modify the expense report.  That's the better solution.

VisionRx

This issue is almost 3 years old and the need has not gone away. Is any development being done on this problem?

Christina Dobryzynski

Thanks for following up on this @VisionRx! At this time, we're in the process of collecting user votes for this feature.

We'll continue to keep your Idea open so we can collect more use case situations from our community!