Doing business in Canada means having to navigate the indirect taxes — GST, HST, PST and QST — or potentially face a costly tax bill.
Unlike income tax, sales taxes apply to most transactions done throughout the year, not just when you file your tax return. As a result, even small mistakes can quickly multiply, leaving your company on the hook for a substantial amount of tax it should have remitted, plus interest.
Such a mistake cost one Ontario company nearly $1-million, when it failed to give sufficient time to its IT department to change its systems from charging 5% GST to the new 13% HST. As a result, the company charged too little tax on several purchases, which it could not later collect from customers. ... Read more