Multi-Province Sales Tax Set-Up

Sales were recorded as the net amounts that landed in the bank from the selling platform. Platform fees, shipping charged to customers, refunds and chargebacks were all buried inside those deposits, so revenue was understated and expenses were invisible.

The business had grown past the small supplier threshold, was shipping to customers in several provinces, and had registered for nothing.

What the Client Needed

Revenue recorded gross with fees shown as the expense they are, a clear answer on which provinces created a registration obligation, and a filing calendar the owner could rely on. The sales tax charged at checkout also had to match what the business was actually registered to collect.

What We Did

We mapped the platform’s settlement reports so that gross sales, shipping revenue, fees, refunds and taxes collected are each recorded separately, then reconciled the payouts to the bank for the year to date.

Place-of-supply rules were applied to the shipping destinations to determine where registration was required. The business was registered for GST/HST and for BC PST, the tax settings in the storefront were corrected to charge the right rate by destination province, and filing frequencies were set against the expected volume.