2122131 - Reconciliation: Differences in Calculated and Posted Tax Amount Due to Rounding Logic

You have executed a Reconciliation Run that shows Processing Status as Red and errors in the resulting log.
An error shows as:

'Calculated tax amount differs from posted tax amount for journal entry XXX' (XXX represents the Journal Entry ID).

SAP Business ByDesign

1. Go to the General Ledger work center.
2. Under Periodic Tasks select Reconciliation.
3. Press New and Reconciliation in order to launch a Reconciliation Run.
4. After finishing, select the respective run and follow the link Log Result.
5. Navigate to tab Messages and expand the node Source Document Type: 272 - Tax Ledger Account.

Here you see the error 'Calculated tax amount differs from posted tax amount for journal entry XXX' for at least one source document.

Further inside into the error-source can be gathered when going to the Tax tab in the log of the Reconciliation Run.
Under VAT / Sales Tax Calculation Details, in rows marked as red - differences show with respect to calculated - and posted tax amounts.
In this context these differences usually amount to less than 0,50 and are caused by the applied system-immanent rounding calculation logic.

Example: Customer Credit Memo with applied discount over 98% and an applied VAT-rate of 20%.

Select the Journal Entries shown as erroneous under the Messages tab.

Under  VAT / Sales Tax Calculation Details differences show for the involved 2 revenue-relevant journal-entry lines for the Discounts/Rebates Account YYY (YYY represents the Discount G/L Account ID) and Sales-Revenues Account ZZZ (ZZZ represents the Sales Revenues account ID).

Discounts - Account YYY:

Tax Base Amount:            -1175.02 EUR
Calculated Tax Amount:     -235.00 EUR
Posted Tax Amount:           -235.20 EUR

Sales Revenue - Account ZZZ:

Tax Base Amount:            1199.00 EUR
Calculated Tax Amount:     239.80 EUR
Posted Tax Amount:           240.00 EUR

In the original journal entry created by the credit memo postings show correspondingly as:

Revenue ZZZ:                  1199.00 EUR
Discounts YYY:               -1175.02 EUR

For VAT g/l account VVV (VVV represents the Tax G/L Account)only one entry is shown, combining the resulting VAT posting and VAT-adjustment for the preceding customer invoice.

VAT VVV:                            4,80 EUR

The reconciliation report however calculates each revenue item separately following this logic:

Sum of applied Tax Base Amounts: 1199.00 EUR - 1175.02 EUR = 23.98 EUR
Consequently sales revenues ZZZ represents a ratio of 1199/23.98 = 50.00.
The tax value attributed to revenues ZZZ is therefore 50 * 4,80 EUR = 240.00 EUR. (Calc. 239.80)

The ratio for applied discounts is correspondingly -1175.02/23.98 = -49.00.
The tax value attributed to discounts YYY is therefore -49 * 4,80 EUR = -235.20 EUR. (Calc. -235.00 EUR)

As illustrated, the differences between calculated and posted tax amounts resulting from the applied rounding logic in the Reconciliation Report cancel each other out for sales-revenues- and discount/rebate g/l accounts.

Errors originating from these rounding differences can hence be ignored.

Reconciliation. Rounding. Revenue. Tax Base Amount. , KBA , SRD-FIN-GL , General Ledger , How To