Overview
The simple answer is, rounding differences. If you evaluate taxes in a report on a per product sold basis there is a rounding difference that occurs with each product. For example, $10.99 X 6.275% tax = .6896225 in tax (which would round up). The same amount of tax on an $8.99 item would be .5641225, which would round down.
When we compute the actual amount, the customer is going to pay, we perform this multiplication on a per transaction basis, not a per line basis. This results in only one rounding difference per transaction, which is more accurate and is a good thing! When compared to a report showing the individual items sold and the tax collected for each individual item, it becomes impossible to show the exact same data. This is because an individual item would have a slightly different tax value if tax is calculated on a per item basis.
There's one more variable to consider. When you go to pay the state, they use a different calculation - the tax percentage times the ENTIRE amount of sales of a certain type done in a month (1 rounding error per month). Due to this, it's natural for there to be small discrepancies.
References
- If you'd like the very long answer from a CPA - here you go:
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