Sales Tax Returns
Each month, quarter or year, depending on what Michigan Treasury assigned you, the business files a sales, use and withholding return (Form 5080), and every business files the annual return (Form 5081) for the year. Al-Mohaseb works the return out from your daily sales, service tickets and fuel deliveries, so the figures are ready to copy into Michigan Treasury Online.
| Menu | Taxes > Sales tax returns, Settings > Sales tax |
| Permission | View sales tax returns; Prepare, file and pay sales tax returns (to change them) |
| Feature | Sales tax returns |
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Before you start
Open Settings > Sales tax and set:
- Filing frequency: monthly, quarterly or annual, as your Treasury registration says.
- Prices include the sales tax: check it when your register prices already have the 6% in them.
- Discount account: where the discount for filing on time goes. Without one it reduces the sales tax expense.
- Penalty and interest account, and the Withholding liability if payroll holds the state income tax withheld somewhere other than Payroll Liabilities.
The return reads your sales categories: a category is on the return when Included in sales tax is checked; a taxable category is taxed; a category that is not taxable is deducted on the line of its exemption reason (5g for food, 5a for resale, and so on), or on 5k (other) without one. Lottery, refunds and the sales tax you collected stay off the gross sales.
The list of returns
Taxes > Sales tax returns lists the periods of a year, then the annual return, with their due date, gross sales, sales tax and payment due, and where each stands:
- In progress: the period is not over.
- To file: the period is over and the due date has not passed.
- Overdue: the due date has passed and the return is not filed.
- Filed and Paid, with their dates.
Returns are due on the 20th of the month after a month or quarter, and on February 28 after a year; a due date on a weekend moves to the Monday.
Prepare a return
Open a period. The Return shows lines 1a to 14 of the form, and the Worksheet how the gross sales become the taxable balance: each deduction line with the categories behind it, and the tax included in the prices when they include it.
Until you mark it filed, a return follows your books: correct a day's sales and the return changes with it. Under Also on the return, enter what the books cannot know, then Save and work out again:
- Gross use (1b): goods you took out of stock for the business, and rentals.
- Purchases subject to use tax: things you bought for the business without paying Michigan tax (line 7 is 6% of them).
- Withholding (8): the state income tax withheld from wages in the period.
- Prior payments (10): what you already paid for the period, and an overpayment carried from an earlier one.
- Tax collected in excess: sales tax you charged above what was due; it is owed too.
- Paid: by the 20th (the regular discount), by the 12th (the larger one), or no discount.
- Interest rate % a year: the state's published rate, used when the return is late.
The discount for filing on time is figured on the tax after prepaid, at the rate of when you pay, with a minimum of $6 a month ($18 a quarter, $72 a year) and never more than the tax. Fuel deliveries add their prepaid sales tax on line 3a.
A return filed after its due date loses the discount and owes a penalty of 5% for the first two months late and 5% more for each month after, up to 25%, plus interest at the rate you entered. A draft past its due date already shows them, as of today.
File and pay
- File the return with Michigan Treasury Online using these figures.
- Under Mark filed, enter the date you filed and the confirmation number, and select Mark filed. The return keeps its figures from then on.
- When you pay, choose the date and the account the money came from under Record the payment and select Record payment.
The payment posts to your books: the sales tax you collected comes out of Sales Tax Payable, use tax and the penalty and interest go to their expense, the discount to its account, and the payment out of the account you chose.
Reopen as draft puts a filed, unpaid return back to following the books. Take out the payment removes the payment from the books; the return stays filed.
The annual return
The annual return (5081), due February 28, has two columns: A for sales tax and B for use tax. For a monthly or quarterly filer it reconciles the year: the year's sales from the books against what the filed returns of the year paid (line 12) and the discounts they took (line 10). A sale entered after its month was filed shows up as a balance due on line 25; paying more than was due shows as an overpayment (line 22), credited forward or, if you check Refund an overpayment, refunded.
An annual filer files only the annual return; it takes its own discount (at least $72) and counts what you enter as Paid during the year.
Enter the year's rentals (2B) and telecommunications (3B), the purchases subject to use tax, and, until payroll does it for you, the gross payroll (16), the number of W-2 and 1099 forms (17) and the income tax withheld (18).
Amend a return
When a filed return was wrong, open it and, under Amend this return, choose why and select Start Form 5092 (5082 for the annual return). The amended return is a new draft worked out again from the books, with what you already paid counted as paid (line 10 on the 5092), so it shows only what is still owed or overpaid. File and pay it like the original; the return shows its Versions, and the list shows the latest one. An amended return filed after the due date keeps the discount the original earned on time; only the tax it adds is late.
Filing straight to Michigan from Al-Mohaseb (e-file and the electronic payment) comes in a later release. Until then, file on Michigan Treasury Online and mark the return filed here.