Resolve ‘User Maintained Tax Tables are Missing or Damaged’ Error in Sage 50 – Step-by-Step Guide

Updated On: April 9, 2025 5:03 am

Sage 50 is a powerful accounting software used by many small and medium-sized businesses. Unfortunately, it is not immune to occasional errors. When the error involves User Maintained Tax Tables are Missing or Damaged, it can become a real headache. If you’re experiencing this issue with your Sage 50 installation, here are some steps you can take to fix it.

Are you unable to access Sage 50 due to the error stating that user-maintained tax tables are missing or damaged during payroll processing? Are you encountering a recurring error message that says, “A managed exception was caught. The error is ‘Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation'”?

This error indicates an issue with the user-maintained tax table. This could occur either because the ‘taxtable.dat’ file in your company directory is damaged or because a tax update has not been installed properly.

To fix this error, you need to restore a backup of the taxtable.dat, also known as your user-maintained tax table. Always create a backup of your data before proceeding with advanced troubleshooting steps to avoid accidental data loss or damage. If you face any difficulty following the steps mentioned below, expert technicians at AccountingAdvice.co are available 24/7 to help you resolve the issue easily. Expert technicians at Accountingadvice.co are available 24X7 to help you easily fix your error message.

The Sage 50 application has included all the latest updates to the payroll tax tables. These updates help businesses stay on top of their payroll processing. Installing these updates is necessary to track the processing of all taxation activities accurately.

However, it is not unusual for accounting software to have bugs and issues, and Sage 50 is no exception. Many users have reported that they have faced the ‘Sage 50 Error User Maintained Tax Tables are Missing or Damaged’ error message while processing their payrolls. If you are also experiencing this issue of late, we can be of great help. In this blog, we will look at how to fix this issue once and for all.

Also Read: How to Fix PERMISS.DAT Error in Sage 50?

What Causes the Sage 50 Error: ‘User-Maintained Tax Tables Are Missing or Damaged’?

There could be multiple reasons behind the occurrence of this issue. Two of the most common reasons include:

• The ‘taxtable.dat’ file (also known as your user-maintained tax table) in your company directory is damaged
• A tax update has not been installed properly.

Also Read: How to Restore Sage Company File Backups?

Steps to Fix User Maintained Tax Tables are Missing or Damaged Error

Note: You must turn off User Account Controls (UAC) on all computers that run tax updates. For this,

• Press WINDOWS KEY + R.
• In the search box, type “useraccountcontrolsettings”
• Click OK.
• Move the slider bar to ‘Never notify’.
• Click OK.
• Click Yes if prompted.
• Restart your computer

Step 1: Restore Backup to New Company

• Create a backup of your company.
• Now select Maintain and click on Company Information.
• Note down the location of the Directory.
• Click OK.
• Close Sage 50 on all computers.
• Next, browse to your company data folder noted in step 3.
• Right click on the taxtable.dat file.
• Click Rename.
• Rename taxtable.dat to taxtable.old.
• Now open Sage 50.
• Restore a backup to a new company. For this,
• Select File and click on Restore.
• Select Browse and then select the desired backup and click Open.
• Click Next to proceed further.
• Select ‘Create a new company using the restored data’ as the restore method.
• Click Next.
• Select ‘Company Data’ as the desired restore option.
• Click Next.
• Now verify the restore options and click on Finish.
• Once the company restore process is complete, open it by clicking Maintain and then selecting Company Information.
• Now change the company name to “Old Do Not Use”.
• Note the location of the Directory.
• Close Sage 50.
• Browse to the directory of the new company noted in step 14 and copy taxtable.dat.
• Next, browse to the original company directory (step 3) and paste taxtable.dat into the original company folder.
• Go back to the new company folder noted in step 14 and rename it to ‘old do not use’.
• Open Sage 50 and open your original Company.
• Check if you can now access the user-maintained tax tables and run a payroll.

If the issue has not been solved, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Change Backup to a Zip File

• Create a Company backup.
• Select Maintain and then click on Company Information.
• Now make a note of the location of the Directory.
• Click OK.
• Close Sage 50 on all computers.
• Browse to your company data folder.
• Right click on taxtable.dat file.
• Select Rename and rename taxtable.dat to taxtable.old.
• Find a backup file that was created before the occurrence of this issue.
• Copy the backup file.
• Now go to the Desktop and right click on a blank area and click Paste.
• Right click and select Rename to change the name of the backup file on the Desktop.
• Change the file extension from .PTB to .ZIP.
• Open the file and extract it, just like you extract a regular .ZIP file.
• Right click taxtable.dat file in the extracted directory and click Copy.
• Browse to your company data folder, right click and paste taxtable.dat file.
• Check if you can now access your user-maintained tax tables and successfully run a payroll.

Also Read: Fix Sage 50 Payroll Tax Calculations Could not be Found

Final Words

We hope the steps outlined above help you resolve the Sage 50 error: ‘User-Maintained Tax Tables Are Missing or Damaged’ on your system. If you are still unable to resolve this issue after following the steps or encounter any difficulties, we recommend consulting an experienced Sage professional.

Frequently Asked Questions: