Which Account does a QBO v3 API (IPP) Invoice or Sales Receipt's TxnTaxDetail touch?

Question

Using the v3 QBO API (part of the Intuit Partner Platform), I'm querying an invoice that includes sales tax, expressed as follows:

"TxnTaxDetail": {
    "TxnTaxCodeRef": {
        "value": "3"
    }, 
    "TotalTax": 35.13, 
    "TaxLine": [
        {
            "DetailType": "TaxLineDetail", 
            "Amount": 35.13, 
            "TaxLineDetail": {
                "NetAmountTaxable": 395.87, 
                "TaxPercent": 8.875, 
                "TaxRateRef": {
                    "value": "4"
                }, 
                "PercentBased": true
            }
        }
    ]
},

When I run a balance sheet (using the web UI), I can clearly see which sale tax payable account the $35.15 hits, but I can't figure out how to access that information through the API and I really want to.

I try following the trail of business objects, hoping to find it that way, beginning with the TaxRate, which, when Querying Id 2, turns out to be:

{
    "RateValue": 8.875, 
    "AgencyRef": {
        "value": "2"
    }, 
    "domain": "QBO", 
    "Name": "NYC Sales Tax", 
    "SyncToken": "0", 
    "SpecialTaxType": "NONE", 
    "DisplayType": "ReadOnly", 
    "sparse": false, 
    "Active": true, 
    "MetaData": {
        "CreateTime": "2013-02-04T15:18:23-08:00", 
        "LastUpdatedTime": "2013-02-04T15:18:23-08:00"
    }, 
    "Id": "4", 
    "Description": "Sales Tax"
}

I gather that maybe AgencyRef has the answer to my question, so querying TaxAgency 2, I get:

{
    "SyncToken": "0", 
    "domain": "QBO", 
    "DisplayName": "New York State Taxes and Finance", 
    "TaxTrackedOnSales": true, 
    "TaxTrackedOnPurchases": false, 
    "sparse": false, 
    "Id": "2", 
    "MetaData": {
        "CreateTime": "2013-02-04T15:18:22-08:00", 
        "LastUpdatedTime": "2013-02-04T15:18:22-08:00"
    }
}

Now this is where I feel I'm at a dead end.

Taking a different tack, I looked at the TxnTaxDetail's TaxCode Ref, but I didn't find any help from TaxCode 3 either:

{
    "SyncToken": "0", 
    "domain": "QBO", 
    "TaxGroup": true, 
    "Name": "NYC Sales Tax", 
    "Taxable": true, 
    "PurchaseTaxRateList": {
        "TaxRateDetail": []
    }, 
    "sparse": false, 
    "Active": true, 
    "Description": "NYC Sales Tax", 
    "MetaData": {
        "CreateTime": "2013-02-04T15:18:22-08:00", 
        "LastUpdatedTime": "2013-02-04T15:18:22-08:00"
    }, 
    "Id": "3", 
    "SalesTaxRateList": {
        "TaxRateDetail": [
            {
                "TaxTypeApplicable": "TaxOnAmount", 
                "TaxRateRef": {
                    "name": "NYC Sales Tax", 
                    "value": "4"
                }, 
                "TaxOrder": 0
            }
        ]
    }
}

What am I missing here? Is it really not possible to access through the API the information of which Account the sales tax portion of this transaction hits?

nimisha shrivastava nimisha shrivastava · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-07T17:22:36

The QBO Api posts Sales Tax to a default liability account based on this logic-

Transaction => TaxRate => TaxAgency => LiabilityAccount. However, the api is not smart enough to provide you the details of this default sales tax account. We might have support for this in future.

Which Account does a QBO v3 API (IPP) Invoice or Sales Receipt's TxnTaxDetail touch?

1 Answers