Final answer:
The sales tax collected by Posner Co. during May is $704,953 when rounded to the nearest dollar. Option b from the student's choices is incorrect, as the actual tax remitted appears to be miscalculated, not considering the total sales tax before the retailer's portion is retained.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asking how to calculate the amount of sales taxes collected by Posner Co. during the month of May, given that the total amount recorded in the Sales Revenue account was $754,350 and includes a 7% sales tax from which the retailer can keep 2% of the sales tax collected.
To find the amount of sales tax, we need to use the formula:
Sales Tax = (Sales Revenue) / (1 + Tax Rate)
Substituting the known values:
Sales Tax = $754,350 / (1 + 0.07)
Sales Tax = $754,350 / 1.07
Sales Tax = $704,953.27 (rounded to the nearest dollar)
Now, we need to calculate the actual tax remitted to the tax authorities, considering the retailer keeps 2%:
Tax Kept = $704,953.27 x 0.02 = $14,099.07 (rounded to the nearest dollar)
Actual Tax Remitted = Total Sales Tax - Tax Kept
Actual Tax Remitted = $704,953.27 - $14,099.07 = $690,854.21
However, since we only need the original amount of sales tax before deducting the retailer's share, the correct amount of sales taxes for May is $704,953 (rounded to the nearest dollar), making option b ($49,350) incorrect because it seems to erroneously calculate the retained tax by the retailer instead of the total sales tax collected.