Guest Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 Hello, I'm new on the forum. I'm an independent, Canadian, software programmer living in Alberta (no prov. sales tax). Most of my customers are in the US. When I setup my business a couple years ago, I registered for GST and dutifully charge it on all my service Invoices - including my US Customers. When I first got started, my accountant at the time said to charge GST no matter who it is. And having a mental block as I do whenever it comes to Taxes, I figured that was the safest thing to do. Anyway, lately I'm no so sure anymore about whether I should be charging GST to my US customers. None have ever questioned it. Does anybody have any input about this? Am I doing it right, or can I save myself the headache and heartache of remitting GST to Revenue Canada? Also, for those US Customers that want to reclaim the GST, where can I find information about that, for them? Thank you in Advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryK Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 My store has been online for 8 years. I charge GST to Canadian customers ONLY - never to US customers, and have never (knock on wood) been questioned on this when submitting my GST return. Though my Canadian sales are small enough that I wouldn't have to register for GST, I chose to do so because it means I get a GST rebate every year in the neighborhood of $5000 or more (mainly because I pay GST on the majority of my shipments coming to me from US distributors). So, in my case, it was worth it to go through the hoopla. Your mileage may vary... HTH, Terry Terry Kluytmans Contribs Installed: Purchase Without Account (PWA); Big Images, Product Availability, Description in Product Listing, Graphical Infobox, Header Tags Controller, Login Box, Option Type Feature, plus many layout changes & other mods of my own, like: Add order total to checkout_shipment Add order total to checkout_payment Add radio buttons at checkout_shipping (for backorder options, etc.) Duplicate Table Rate Shipping Module Better Product Review Flow * If at first you don't succeed, find out if there's a prize for the loser. * Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 30, 2005 Share Posted April 30, 2005 Thank you Terry. I'm going to phone the GST office about this to get more clarification. When it comes to Taxes I go really brain-dead, but I'm hopeful I can get a clear answer for this - it sure would be nice not to have remit so much every quarter. What a pain! And yes, I do make well over the $ 30,000.00 limit a year in billable programming services, and because it's custom software there is no shipping involved. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Hello, I'm new on the forum. I'm an independent, Canadian, software programmer living in Alberta (no prov.? sales tax). Most of my customers are in the US. When I setup my business a couple years ago, I registered for GST and dutifully charge it on all my service Invoices - including my US Customers. When I first got started, my accountant at the time said to charge GST no matter who it is. And having a mental block as I do whenever it comes to Taxes, I figured that was the safest thing to do. Anyway, lately I'm no so sure anymore about whether I should be charging GST to my US customers. None have ever questioned it. Does anybody have any input about this? Am I doing it right, or can I save myself the headache and heartache of remitting GST to Revenue Canada? Also, for those US Customers that want to reclaim the GST, where can I find information about that, for them? Thank you in Advance. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> GST/HST/PST are charged based on where the product is delivered/shipped to, not where it was sold to, regardless of where the buyer is. Somoeone can live in Australia and order something from a Canadian company, but if it's delivered within Canada taxes must be remitted. If the product(s) are being shipped/delivered outside Canada, no tax is remitted on the sale(s). Bottom line.. As long as the product(s) are shipped/delivered to somwhere in Canada, taxes must be remitted regardless of where the buyer is. The same goes the other way, if a Canadian orders something, but has it shipped somewhere outside of Canada no tax is remitted. Whether or not you have to remit taxes on a sale of taxable goods/services is based upon the place of delivery, not where it was billed to. ~James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aspiringCEO Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 If I understand correctly, the customer wouldn't be tax at all if they are outside the country? John :'( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 15, 2005 Share Posted May 15, 2005 If I understand correctly, the customer wouldn't be tax at all if they are outside the country?John :'( <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Depends if you're talking about billing or shipping location. Whether or not you collect taxes is entirely up to you, you don't have to charge tax to anyone if you don't want to.. You just have to remit it to the government where applicable. If you're a Canadian business registered for GST/HST/PST whether or not you have to remit taxes is determined by where the order's being delivered. If within Canada, you must remit taxes on the taxable products/services regardless of where the billing address is. If the order's being shipped out of Canada, you don't remit any taxes on that order.. Even if the billing address is in Canada. It's really very simple. Don't know why everyone makes it out to be so difficult. The best thing for any business to do (and should do) is call their local CCRA and RST office(s) and ask them. They'll tell you exactly when you must remit taxes. ~James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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