Online accounting software that can cope with withholding taxes

[Gareth]

Hi all

I’m after a recommendation for free online accounting software with an English interface that can cope with withholding tax please.

I started using Wave for my expenses but realised that it cannot cope with withholding tax when it comes to income.

For those that don’t know withholding tax, it doesn’t exist in the U.K. and America, so many free online accounting software options in English can’t cope with it. For freelancers in Japan, the company that is paying you for your services “keeps” 10.21% of the money they pay you as withholding tax, so it goes on your accounting as a negative tax, i.e. the money that arrives in your bank account is less than you actually earned because of the withholding tax. The maths is easy but Wave and other software annoyingly cannot cope with that.

Many thanks for any good recommendations.

[DragonAsh]

The company isn't 'keeping' the 10.21%, they pay it on your behalf to the gov't several times a year.
It's a PITA; trust me, companies hate it every bit as much as you do.

Any decent online accounting software that uses double-entry bookkeeping should be able to handle it (obviously rounding here)

Code: Select all

Debit 			Credit
Cash 90,000		Revenue 100,000
Tax expense 10,000

[Gareth]

Hi. Not sure what you mean. I don't hate withholding tax? I much prefer paying tax bit by bit over the course of the year and (probably) have a nice refund at the end of the year, rather than having a nice tax bill at the end of the year.

Yes you are right, that's how to pop it in your accounting. Unfortunately, software "should" be able to handle it as you said but actually I have found that many online accounting software I have looked at can't cope with withholding taxes, hence my question. Wave, for example, will only allow a positive tax, adding it to the income, i.e. will only allow it on the credit side.

So my question still stands. Does anyone who does their own accounting have a recommendation for decent free online accounting software with an English interface? Many thanks!

[Gareth]

This morning, I received an email from Wave, the online accounting software I've been using for my accounts, that says it is no longer accepting those who have businesses outside North America. It says, "New local legislation such as Open Banking in the EU and UK make it infeasible for Wave to offer full services in these markets and has required Wave to limit functionality for those customers."

So I am now slightly more urgently in need of a recommendation for a good online accounting software. Thanks!

[guy]

Please have a look at the Cognito family of software. I have used it for more than 15 years and find it highly capable and reliable.

cognito.co.nz/product-range.php

[adamu]

Hi guy. Nice of you to subscribe to the forum to use your first post specifically to recommend that product. How does it handle withholding taxes, exactly? Clicking on "tax tracking" only talks about sales tax, and doesn't mention Japan at all:

Easily manage GST/VAT/sales taxes

MoneyWorks provides the best possible support for GST/VAT and sales taxes for most countries. Specific MoneyWorks versions are available for:

Australia - GST handling with BAS Guide
Canada - GST/HST/PST/QST handling for all provinces
Eurozone - VAT handling
Malaysia - VAT handling
Nepal - VAT handling with VAY Guide
New Zealand - GST handling with GST Return Guide
Singapore - GST handling with GST F5 Guide and IRAS Audit File IAF
South Africa - VAT handling
UK - VAT handling with VAT Guide
USA - Sales tax handling
Other countries - International version handles GST/VAT and sales taxes

These also appear to be desktop, not online applications.

[guy]

Hi adamu. Apologies for the delayed response. I can’t tell you how it handles withholding taxes - you could ask the company. The have an online version, though it might be too expensive for personal taxes.

[adamu]

This thread is about software to handle withholding taxes. Why are you recommending it if you don't know how it does what was asked for?

Sorry if this and the previous post come off as short-tempered, my spam sensors are tingling It makes me think guy just signed up here to put a link to the software because the thread title includes "online accounting software", and hasn't actually read Gareth's request.