A short instructional video/transcript by Bob Gauvreau explaining how businesses file GST/HST (sales) tax returns on a quarterly basis (depending on sales thresholds). It covers frequency of reporting (monthly/quarterly/annually based on sales), how to calculate net HST/GST owing using collected vs. paid tax, and the two primary filing/payment channels (online banking where supported, or My CRA account).
Chapters
Okay, so one of the questions we get asked often is how do we file our quarterly taxes? Now specifically this is related to GSTHST or some form of sales tax. Because when it comes to business and personal taxes, we don't have to file those quarterly, we file those annually. So on the sales tax side, gsthst, there's as soon as you register, it depends on your sales, the frequency is which you have to report. So sometimes if a business is larger, you have to file monthly, like our business has to file monthly. You could also file quarterly if your sales are a little bit lower. That's where we used to be until we hit a certain threshold. And then sometimes businesses file annually. And now in order to file that, we need to do the calculations first of what the taxes are that we actually owe. And if you look at your sales, for example, if I charge $100 in Ontario, I would charge $100 plus HST and I would collect $113. In that instance, there's $13 that I've collected on behalf of the government that essentially I would have to remit and pay to them. Now at the same token, if I had $100 expense where I paid $13 as well, I'm also able to claim that $13 that I pay as a deduction in what I remit to the government. So I've collected 13, but I paid 13. That means when I file my taxes, I would include my revenue and my expenses and also my HST collected and my HST paid come out to zero. So we have to get the number of HST that we have to or GST that we have to remit first. Following that, there's a few ways that we can file it. Some of the banking platforms, so depending on how or who you bank with, will allow you to file your GST HST return online through your banking platform. My particular bank that I use does not allow this, but I do make my payment online. So the first calculation is how much you owe. I make that payment through my online banking. I then log into my CRA account or you know, where you go in and you check your corporate taxes, your personal taxes, HST and whatnot, and you can file directly your GST HST filing in there again, it's going to come out with a pre populated form. You have to include your revenue, your expenses and the HST GST that you collected and the GST HST that you paid, netting out to a balance owing. You do it on your bank platform or through your my CRA account. Those are the only two ways that you can file that. We used to be able to file paper. We used to be able to fax it back in the day as well. But now they've pushed everything online with online payments as well. So those are the two ways that you could look at filing your taxes. Regardless of your banking platform, you can always file your quarterly sales tax through your My CRA account.
