Withholding tax and tax summary

See withholding tax deducted by customers and from vendors, customer by customer and vendor by vendor, and check every tax account against what the tax reports say.

For accountants and tax staffUpdated 4 Nov 2026

Before you start

  • Set up taxesA withholding tax must post to an asset account (tax withheld from you) or a liability account (tax you withheld) to appear in these schedules.
  • Set up posting groupsVAT posting setups decide which accounts belong to VAT in the Tax Summary.
  • Close a periodPeriods follow your fiscal calendar.
In this article
  1. Steps
  2. How the figures are worked out
  3. Related

Three reports under Reports › Tax Reports:

ReportAnswers
WHT ReceivableHow much tax did customers withhold from what they paid us, per customer? It's an asset: you claim it back.
WHT PayableHow much tax did we withhold from vendors, per vendor? It's a liability: you pay it to the tax authority.
Tax SummaryFor each tax type, what moved on its accounts, and does that agree with the tax report for that type?

Steps

  1. Run a withholding tax schedule

    Select Reports › Tax Reports › WHT Receivable (or WHT Payable). Choose the Period, the date, and if you like one Customer (or Vendor), then select Run.

    You see five totals: Opening balance, Withheld, Reversed, Cleared (on the payable side: Remitted) and Closing balance, then the same columns per customer (vendor). Select a line to see its ledger lines. Control accounts lists the withholding tax accounts read, with their opening balance, debit, credit, movement and closing balance.

    If the page says "No withholding tax is set up to post to an asset account" (or "a liability account"), set the account on the withholding tax in set up taxes.

  2. Run the Tax Summary

    Select Reports › Tax Reports › Tax Summary, choose the period and select Run.

    1. Period.
    2. Up to (or A date in the period).
    3. Run.
    4. Tax types found and the Total unreconciled difference.
    5. Each tax type's accounts: Opening balance, Debit, Credit, Movement and Closing balance. The heading says the closing position (payable or receivable).
    6. The same by tax: each tax with its Rate and the Account it posts to.

    Below each tax type: Ledger movement, Reported movement (what that type's own report shows, for VAT the VAT Return), the Difference, and Reconciling items that explain it.

How the figures are worked out

FigureHow it's worked out
Withholding tax accountsThe account each withholding tax posts to, kept when it is a live account of the right kind (asset for receivable, liability for payable). Others are named in a warning.
WithheldTax deducted in the period, per customer or vendor.
ReversedWithholding taken back because its document was reversed.
Cleared / RemittedJournals that clear the receivable (credit received from the tax office) or pay the liability (remittance). Lines with no customer or vendor go to "not allocated".
Closing balanceOpening + withheld − reversed − cleared (remitted).
A tax type's accounts (Tax Summary)The account each tax posts to, plus the sales, purchase and reverse-charge accounts of its VAT posting setups.
DifferenceLedger movement less the reported movement. A difference means something posted to a tax account that the tax report doesn't count, for example an invoice whose VAT tax points at the wrong account, or a manual journal.