GST/HST - Fundamentals

Overview:

One way or another, the taxman gets everyone. If it’s not personal or corporate income tax, it’s sales tax. The application of Canada’s federal sales tax, the GST/HST is often far more complex than practitioners or businesses realize. The GST/HST principles involved are often quite different from those applied to income tax. This course provides an overview of a variety of important concepts related to the application and recovery of the GST/HST.

The course provides an overview of Canada’s federal sales tax relevant for accountants working with clients or in industry. The who, what, and when for GST commences with a review of the three different types of supplies and their significance. The GST and HST place of supply rules are presented in detail with a lot of examples because their misinterpretation often creates significant exposures for suppliers located in both harmonized and non-harmonized provinces.

Also reviewed are registration, collection requirements, who pays tax, documentation,  input tax credit entitlements, and some cross-border issues. The material highlights common sources of errors and assessments frequently discovered during a GST/HST audit or a review of a client’s books and records.

Course Content:

In this course, you will gain knowledge about the following topics:

• GST/HST Basics
• Who pays GST/HST?
• Collecting GST/HST
• GST place-of-supply rules
• HST place-of-supply rules
• Other collection issues
• Import issues
• Export issues
• General recovery rules
• Employee reimbursements and allowances
• Reporting net tax overview
• Compliance issue overview
• Audits, assessments and director liability

Learning Objectives:

Upon completing this course, you should be able to:

• Describe how the GST works
• Determine the tax rate applicable on a taxable supply made in Canada
• Describe the importance of the recovery rules that are required to be met before claiming an input tax credit
• Describe and list the input tax credit restrictions and limitations
• Explain issues and exposures related to the importation and exportation of taxable supplies
• Identify and reduce other typical common audit exposures

Who Will Benefit: 

CPAs and students, practitioners to accountants in business/industry, and other advisors who want to obtain a greater understanding of the federal sales tax system in Canada. It will also be beneficial to those who deal with the GST and HST daily or those who would like a refresher and update of trending issues.