Tracking State Sales Tax

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Hi there,

As of last Friday, our memberships are now subject to 5% state sales tax even as a 501 c 3 non-profit. It was a bit of a suprise to us so now we're trying to tackle the best way to go about recording these transactions. Has anyone ever encountered this? Is there a way to track the sales tax seperately in Raiser's Edge? The base membership fee will still be considered a donation, so we're looking for a way to record both.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks!

Comments

  • YIKES!!  What a nightmare!


    I just did some experimenting and couldn't find a clean way to do it.  Using a Split Gift (one fund for the membership fee, another for the tax amount) you have to make the Gift Amount total the amount of the Splits, but I wouldn't want to include the tax in the Gift Amount, only in the Receipt Amount.


    If you include the tax in the Gift Amount I think it will really screw up your reporting.  I certainly wouldn't want the tax included in my giving totals.


    I'd just view the tax amounts as "outside of membership dollars" (after all, you just pass that money on to the government, you never really "have" it to use for programs, etc.) and only track the membership fees in RE and let your accounting team worry about the tax stuff.  If you feel you really need some record of the taxes collected then I'd use a Gift Attribute for that amount.
  • I concur with John's suggestion of Gift Attribute.  It's the cleanest, and what we use to track the fees that are deducted from our total before disbursement from BBMS.  If you use a BB solution (or anything that is integrated with RE) for online membership sales, and even if you don't, you might want to post this in the appropriate Idea Bank in the Community.  I would suspect that of others in your state, someone is bound to be using Online Express or something integrated, and that may be a big enough headache to need BB involvement in a better, more automated, solution.

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