A bad debt deduction is allowed in all states if "a retailer is unable to collect all or part of the sales price of a sale" or such similar language. (4) The principle is simple enough: if a retailer reported the sales price as gross receipts but was unable to collect the sales price, then the gross receipts from that sale were far less than originally reported. As a result, some portion of the sales tax remitted based upon the sales price should be returned to the retailer. (5)