To facilitate a fast, efficient desking experience, DeskManager Online requires you to pre-define Taxes and Fees Templates.
With a single click, these templates will copy taxes and fees from a template into a deal, which saves time and prevents mistakes. To learn more about making deals, read our article here:
But not every deal requires the same taxes and fees. That’s why you can have a variety of templates that cater to different types of deals.
For example, taxes might not be applicable to wholesale deals. Maybe you’re doing business in a county with a different rate, or selling a vehicle out-of-state.
However and wherever you’re selling, it’s a good idea to create Taxes and Fees templates for the most common types of deals you encounter.
Questions this answers
- "If I turn on Use Tax Table for our sales tax line, does it still use the tax rate I typed in, or does it ignore what I entered?"
- "Does the sales tax on our deals actually come from a live tax service or from the tax table we set up?"
- "I put in a trade-in allowance on a deal but the sales tax amount didn't go down like I expected. Shouldn't the trade always reduce the tax?"
What Use Tax Table does to a rate you typed
On the Taxes page of a template, the Use Tax Table option is the checkbox reading Tax Rates are automatically loaded from the System's Tax Table. While it is checked, the rates it covers are supplied by the system's tax table for your state and those rate boxes are no longer offered for you to fill in — so a rate you typed before checking it is not the figure the deal uses. Unchecking it hands the rates back to you.
Checking it also reveals a second option: Allow users to overwrite the System's Tax Table values when contracts are created. Leave that off and the table's rate arrives on the deal read-only. Turn it on and someone working a deal can type over the table's rate for that deal only, without changing the template.
If your state does not supply a tax table, this option is not available at all and every rate is entered by hand, which is why the section looks different from one lot's template to another's.
Where the rate on a deal comes from
For almost every state the answer is the built-in tax table plus what you entered in this template. There is no outside tax service being consulted.
Two states are the exception. On a California or Colorado deal the rate is looked up from the buyer's address — street, city, county and ZIP — when those are filled in, so the figure on the deal can differ from the rate sitting in your template, and correcting the buyer's address can change it. If a rate on one of those deals looks wrong, check the buyer's address first.
Either way, you are responsible for the rates your state requires. Confirm them with your tax advisor rather than assuming the table is current.
Whether a trade reduces the taxable amount is a state setting
A trade is not automatically deducted from the taxable amount. Whether Total Trade Credit comes off the amount that gets taxed is one of the Taxable Items settings, and it is set for the way your state taxes — it is not the same everywhere. Where the state's rule is fixed, the setting arrives already decided and cannot be changed.
So on a deal where the trade did not lower the sales tax, the trade is being handled the way your state's setup says to handle it. The screen carries this warning for a reason: Before changing the following settings, please check with your tax advisor about the taxable items in your State.
A manufacturer rebate is treated the same way — a separate setting decides whether it comes off the taxable amount.
Creating a Taxes and Fees Template
First, click the Settings cogwheel located at the bottom of the leftmost sidebar. Under the Deal category, select Taxes and Fees Templates.
In the Deal Templates page, users with multiple lots can select the lot for which they are creating a template.
If your dealership has only one lot, or you have the correct lot selected, click Add Template in the top-left.
Enter a name and effective date for this new template. The effective date determines when this new template will go into effect.
For example, if you are expecting a tax rate change in your state, you can create a new template in advance and set the effective date to the date of that tax rate change.
If this template contains the most frequently used taxes and fees at your dealership, check the box to Use as Default.
Once you’ve set the template’s name and effective date, click Save & Close in the top-left.
Now that you’ve named your template, click Taxes on the template list page.
Before making changes to these settings, check with your tax advisor.
Some states provide a Tax Table. If the state has a tax table available, this option will be checked by default.
In states that do not provide a Tax Table, any tax rates will need to be entered manually.
Depending on the laws of your state, the tax rates may be calculated based on your dealership address, or based on the buyer's address.
In addition, depending on your state, the list of applicable taxes and fees could be different than what appears in this article.
If there are any tax limits or other settings specific to your state, please enter those values as well.
Click Save & Close once you have completed your tax setup.
Now that you’ve set your taxes, click Fees on the template list page.
Enter the values for any fees that should be included in this template.
Check with your tax advisor and independent dealer association for the list of applicable fees, and whether any of those fees are taxable. If a fee is taxable, check the Taxable box beside the fee.
If a fee is marked as Read Only, this value cannot be changed within a deal and must be changed from within the template.
Once complete, click Save. Your template is now complete. You can always return to this template to make edits later on.
You can now apply this template to pending deals or when you create a new deal.
For more information about using templates within a deal, be sure to read our article here:
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