This article is regarding the Other Tools > Tax Activity & Settings section for our Canadian / Australian / New Zealand Dealerships
If you are one of our United States of America Dealership, please reveiw this article - USA only - Other Tools > Tax Activity and Settings
Basically anything to do with sales tax or purchase tax is in this section from setup / editing / reporting etc
Accessing the Tax Activity & Settings
To access the Other Tools > Tax Activity & Setting section, the user needs to have the User Permission - Tax Management
For further information about User Permissions, please review our article - Current User Permissions
Once the user has the relevant User Permission, then the user will be able to access the Tax Activity & Settings section from the Blackpurl Header
- From the Blackpurl Header > click
and then select
- Once you have logged into the Tax activity & settings screen, you will notice 4 tabs:
ACTIVITY
SETTINGS
TAX CODES
MANUAL TAX RATES
We are going to go through each tab separately below
A. Activity
To run your Tax Activity report (also known as the Tax Detail Report) - add your From and To date range > click
By default, the report will automatically Exclude Internal Invoices but if you want to include Internal Invoices, uncheck the relevant checkbox and then just run the report again
The Tax Activity report will then summarise your Tax Collected on Sales as well as list the relevant tax names that make up that section and summarise your Tax Paid on Purchases as well as list the relevant tax names that make up that section
Our example below is for our training environment that will show you how things list - remember that your taxes will be specific to your own Dealership:
- We ran the Tax Activity report for the period 1st April 2024 to 30th April 2024 (excluding Internal Invoices) and the search results are as follows:
- Let's go through the search result screen
Tax Collected on Sales
1. | Tax Name - This will list both the Totals of all the Tax Collected on Sales together with a list of Sales Taxes that make up this total |
2. | Transaction Count - this will list how many transactions make up this tax |
3. | Taxable Amount - this will list the taxable amount that makes up this tax |
4. | Tax Amount - this will list the tax that was calculated |
5. | Non Taxable Amount - this will list if there was any non taxable amount |
6. | TOTAL: Tax Collected on Sales - this is the total of all your Sales Taxes |
7. | This will list the total tax amount that has been calculated for all your Sales Taxes |
8. | It will list each of your Sales Taxes and in this example, this dealership only has one Tax Collected on Sales ie bp gst collected If you have multiple Sales Taxes then it will list all of them individually |
9. | The total transactions that make up this Sales Tax |
10. | The total taxable amount for this Sales Tax |
11. | The total tax amount taken for this Sales Tax |
12. | If there are any non-taxable taxes taken for this Sales Tax |
Tax Paid on Purchases
13. | Tax Name - This will list both the Totals of all the Tax Paid on Purchases together with a list of Purchase Taxes that make up this total |
14. | Transaction Count - this will list how many transactions make up this tax |
15. | Taxable Amount - this will list the taxable amount that makes up this tax |
16. | Tax Amount - this will list the tax that was calculated |
17. | Non Taxable Amount - this will list if there was any non taxable amount |
18. | TOTAL: Tax Paid on Purchases - this is the total of all your Purchase Taxes |
19. | This will list the total tax amount that has been calculated for all your Purchase Taxes |
20. | It will list each of your Purchase Taxes and in this example, this dealership only has one Tax Paid on Purchases ie gst payable If you have multiple Purchase Taxes then it will list all of them individually |
21. | The total transactions that make up this Purchase Tax |
22. | The total taxable amount for this Purchase Tax |
23. | The total tax amount taken for this Purchase Tax |
24. | If there is any non-taxable taxes taken for this Purchase Tax |
Remember at any time you can click on and when you do one of these actions, it will print or export both the summary as well as what transactions make up the section (depending on what screen you are on)
Should you wish to see what transactions make up the Sales or Purchase Tax - simply click on the Tax Name
In our example below we want to know what transactions make up the bp gst collected tax so we clicked on that tax name
Then it will provide you with a list of transactions which you are view on the screen or
To go back to the home Activity screen search result, click
B. Settings
This section is broken up into different areas:
- General Settings
- Account Type / Tax Exemptions
- Accrued Tax Controls
- Default Applicable Tax Codes
General Settings
25. | Tax Id on documents - If your government required you to have your Tax Id on your Customer Order documentation ie Invoice, then this is where you would record the Dealerships Tax Id number (example: our Australian Dealerships and their ABN) |
26. | Prices include sales tax - this is just an indicator if the Prices in your Blackpurl include sales Tax or not - our Australian and New Zealand Dealerships need the prices to customer to include sales tax so this indicator will say Yes - our Canadian Dealerships are not required to have their prices to customer to include sales tax so this indicator will say No |
27. | Trade tax credit cannot exceed unit tax - This means that when you take a trade in on a Unit Deal, that the trad in tax credit cannot exceed the amount of the unit tax payable For further information, please review our article - Trade In Tax Credit cannot exceed Unit Tax |
28. | Unit options that are taxed like the unit - you get to select what options are taxed at the same rate as the Unit sale Simply click on the field and then it will give you the options available for you to make your selections as to which options are to be taxed at the same rate as the Unit ![]() |
Account Types / Tax Exemptions
This will list the Account Types / Tax exemptions currently setup in your Blackpurl
![](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51162764498/original/Ew-ovuRgwiDbufQ4RzNIzLDoSDceBqtMuQ.png?1717115898)
This is the relevant article going through Account Type and how to create new ones etc - Setting up Account Types (includes the control of tax exemptions)
Accrued Tax Controls
If you move this toggle to ON > further information will be required
![](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51162781244/original/N6KocEDIz4CX28-04Sh40OH-FVgdH_4jBg.png?1717118623)
This setting is usually completed for you during Activation
For further information, please review these article:
Default applicable tax codes
These are the default applicable Tax Codes that are in your Blackpurl
These are usually setup for you during Activations
If you need to change the defaults, simply click into the relevant field > the drop down will give you the options available for selection
If you don't understand what you need or understand the ramifications of changing these defaults, please reach out to Blackpurl Support for assistance
D. Manual Tax Rates
We are going out of order and going to go through D. Manual Tax Rates first as it will help to then explain C. Tax Codes
This section is broken up into Sales transaction manual tax rates and Purchase transaction manual tax rates and the title explains exactly what they are:
- Sales transaction manual tax rates - These are tax rates that are only applicable for sale transactions ie Part Sales / Unit Deals, Service Jobs etc
- Purchase transaction manual tax rates - These are tax rates that are only applicable for purchase transactions ie Vendor Invoices for Parts and Units etc
What are tax rates?
For our Australian / New Zealand Dealerships - it is quite easy as there is only one tax rate (GST) in these countries (NZ GST 15% / AUS GST 10%)
For our North American Dealership - it can be quite complicated with some USA states having numerous tax rates that may need to be combined together as a Tax Code
Your tax rates are usually setup during discussion with your Activation team but it may be necessary for you to setup a new tax rates
To create a new rate > click on and then complete the New selling tax rate or New Purchase tax rate window
New selling tax rate window will look like this:
![User-added image](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51163008742/original/hjw06IwfAk9lngtQXLVzAJgWwUSA5o04sQ.png?1717372856)
B. Category - Allocate the new Tax Rate a Category (accounting integration)
C. Type - There are three options:
Fixed - the tax rate is a fixed or set rate. For example the tax rate is fixed at 10% across the board
Escalating - the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases. For example the first $5000 the tax rate is 10% / for the next $5000 the tax rate is 12% etc
Tiered - the tax rates would be setup based upon the total transactional amount. For example - normal tax rate is 7% but will change to 7.5% once the order is over $3000
D. Rate - Type in the percentage of the rate
E. Forms label - When this tax prints on a Customer Invoice etc, what do you want it to read?
F. Minimum tax - This fields come into play if you select the Type: Escalating or Tiered in C.
G. Maximum tax - This fields come into play if you select the Type: Escalating or Tiered in C.
H. SAVE - Once you have completed the New Selling Tax Rate, don't forget to click on SAVE
![User-added image](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51163009686/original/SzpRtI7g4cqpCOYZUNryPP9_rdBq3kPlfg.png?1717372986)
![User-added image](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51163009683/original/fpM2T7zpdKEa2Kt0WpOUyQFjiJrJ7dbn4A.png?1717372985)
Once you have the relevant Tax Rates available for selection, you can then create Tax Codes - see the next section C. Tax Codes
C. Tax Codes
Tax Codes will allow you to join two or more tax rates together to make up the relevant taxes applicable
For example a customer is in a location that the Dealership needs to be charged a State Tax of 5% and a GST tax of 8% when this customer purchases from the Dealership
The Dealership would set both of these as Tax Rates (using D. Manual Tax Rates) and then use Tax Codes to join the relevant tax rates together as a Tax Code (making sure the total correct tax is calculated and charged to the customer)
Tax Codes are split into two sections:
- Tax Codes for sales transactions
These are Tax Codes that are only applicable for sale transactions ie Part Sales / Unit Deals etc - Tax Codes for purchase transactionsThese are Tax Codes that are only applicable for purchase transactions ie Vendor Invoices etc
Your Tax Codes are usually setup during discussion with your Activation team but it may be necessary for you to setup a new Tax Code
To create a new Tax Code > click on as a New selling Tax Code or New Purchase Tax Code window
For example - New selling Tax Code window looks like this - Tax code definition:
![](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51163014283/original/qh2b_zro2h9kStWWcCQ5Zz4GJA0mophNZA.png?1717373796)
B. List rates on forms - do you want to list the rates on the documentation in Blackpurl?
Blackpurl
make up Tax Code
G. Assign rates - if you need to assign rates, search for and then select what are the applicable Tax
![](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51163021027/original/kVI5cVXCiDlJ0Q2SxT-662zWQKLnw6971w.png?1717374976)
![User-added image](https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aus-cdn.freshdesk.com/data/helpdesk/attachments/production/51163013534/original/7dSNwMSynN0tIP-F-rO_RPfzhn-odt8OhQ.png?1717373670)
To review a Tax Code with a view to editing > click on on the relevant Tax Code