Sales tax

Hello sir
I’m really confused with the exact meaning of the word owed and owes. There is a question in Kaplan exam KIT that, laurel owes the sales tax authorities $23,788.
In making sales tax account I credited the sales tax account as b/f 23,778

But again in another question they said that ramsgate who is registered for sale tax at beginning of the period ramsgate owed $3400 .
I thought that now ramsgate should have a debited account of sales tax because he/she is owed not owes but in answers they made a credit balance on sales tax account as b/f

So need your help to get rid of this confusion.

Thanks