Withholding Taxes on Bill Payments

Important:

This topic pertains to withholding tax in NetSuite accounts that do not have the SuiteTax feature enabled. If you are using a NetSuite account where the SuiteTax feature is enabled, go to Withholding Taxes in SuiteTax.

Withholding tax is no longer being updated for new features and reports in accounts that do not have the SuiteTax feature. All version upgrades of the Withholding Tax SuiteApp include fixes for reported issues only.

To record withholding tax on bill payments:

  1. To pay multiple vendors, go to Transactions > Payables > Pay Bills. To pay a single vendor, go to Transactions > Payables > Pay Single Vendor.

  2. On the Bill Payment page, select the bank account you want to use to pay these bills.

  3. Select a posting period.

  4. The Bill Payment page displays all your open bills. Check the Apply box next to the bills you want to pay.

    When paying a single vendor, NetSuite calculates and shows the total amount to be withheld from the selected payments.

    When paying bills from multiple vendors, NetSuite does not show the amount to be withheld from the selected payments, but deducts the appropriate withholding tax on posting of the payments. You can enter a date in the Start Date and End Date fields to limit the transactions that appear in the list.

  5. For each item to be paid, enter the payment amount net of withholding tax.

    Note:

    When paying a single vendor, if you want to see the amount of tax to be withheld from each individual bill, you can customize the payment sublist on the Apply tab to show the withholding tax amount and total amount, including withholding tax for each bill. See Displaying the Withholding Tax Amount and Total Amount Columns on the Bill Payment Page.

  6. To apply a partial payment for a bill, enter the payment amount (net of withholding tax) in the Payment column of the bill. The system calculates the withholding tax amount (to come up with the total amount due, including withholding tax).

  7. To apply a discount on a payment, enter an amount in the Disc. Taken column of the bill. The system recalculates, and the amount in the Payment column changes, taking into effect the cash discount.

    Note:

    Currently, cash discounts only affect the final cash payment, and are not included when computing the withholding tax amount.

  8. Click Save. Upon saving the bill payment, NetSuite automatically deducts the withholding tax amounts from the payment.

    • When paying a single vendor, the amount to be withheld is shown.

      Example of a withholding tax amount on a Bill Payment
    • When paying bills from different vendors, the calculated withholding tax amount is not shown but will be posted after completion of payment processing.

    • Posting of the withholding tax amounts might take a few minutes to complete. The withholding tax amounts are posted to the appropriate general ledger accounts. NetSuite creates a bill credit memo for each bill paid but can only process up to 1000 bill records. When paying a vendor, you must only have up to 1000 open bills for NetSuite to create a bill credit memo.

      Note:

      The payment record cannot be edited while the posting of withholding tax is ongoing.

    • To see all associated credit records, click the Withholding Tax tab. This tab is available only on the parent payment record. The credit records are also associated with the parent payment record.

      Screenshot of the Withholding Tax tab on a payment record
    • In the More Actions menu, click GL Impact to view the GL Impact page for this transaction.

Displaying the Withholding Tax Amount and Total Amount Columns on the Bill Payment Page

When paying a single vendor, if you want to see the amount of tax to be withheld from each individual bill, you can customize the payment sublist on the Apply tab to show the withholding tax amount and total amount, including withholding tax for each bill.

Important:

Each user who wants to see these columns must customize the payment sublist in his own account. You can perform this step only one time, after which the columns will show up each time the Pay Single Vendor page is displayed.

To customize the payment sublist of a bill payment to show the Withholding Tax Amount and Total Amount columns:

  1. On the Apply subtab, click Customize.

  2. On Customize Sublist page, under Additional Columns, select the Tax Withheld and Total Amount fields. Click Save.

    The Tax Withheld and Total Amount columns will now show up in the sublist next to the payment amount.

    Note:

    If there are more than 100 unpaid bills on the page, you should clear the Apply box next to the bill you want to pay, and then check the box again, to show the payment amount net of withholding tax.

    Screenshot of the Tax Withheld and Total Amount columns

Related Topics

Withholding Taxes on Bills
Withholding Taxes on Checks
Applying Withholding Taxes on Transactions as a Buyer
Withholding Tax Overview
Setting Up Withholding Tax
Creating or Customizing Roles to Use Withholding Tax Features
Setting Default Withholding Tax Codes
Recording Withholding Taxes on Transactions as a Seller
Importing Withholding Tax Transactions
Withholding Tax Reporting
Withholding Tax Troubleshooting Guide
Known Limitations of the Withholding Tax SuiteApp

General Notices