Find the GST/HST worksheet

The sales-tax worksheet shows GST/HST you collected on sales versus the input tax credits you paid on expenses, plus the net owing (a negative net is a refund).

1. Go to Ledger › Reports › Tax › GST/HST. On a book registered for QST the tab reads GST/HST + QST.
2. Choose the filing period, either from the Filing period list or from the Filing periods tab in the period picker beside it.

See "Do I need to register for PST in another province" for how to record a provincial registration, and the section below for how the taxes are laid out.

The page lays out the full CRA GST34 return worksheet, and you can export it as a PDF or CSV. A line near the top names your last return, with an All returns link to the GST/HST returns tab. Every figure is derived from the general ledger, so it ties out to your other reports. Net tax = GST/HST collected minus input tax credits.

Each tax in its own place

Each tax goes to a different place, so each gets its own table with its own net.

• GST/HST return (CRA) is the return itself, broken down by tax type. Its Net column adds up to line 109, the net tax you remit, because that table holds only what line 109 is made of.
• QST is filed with Revenu Quebec alongside the GST, so it stays on this page under its own heading. It carries its own net, because QST you paid is recoverable for a registrant and reduces what you owe.
• PST is provincial. It is not on the CRA return at all and it is not recoverable, so it has its own PST tab, which appears once the book has a provincial registration. Each province there runs on its own filing period, because a province sets its own reporting dates and they usually will not match your GST quarters.

The CSV export carries the GST/HST and QST sections with the same figures, and a PST section as well.

A return you filed before this layout arrived keeps the figures and the rows it was filed on, under the heading "Tax breakdown (as filed)" and a line saying so. Nothing about a filed return changes when the screen does, which is the point: what you filed is what it keeps showing.

PST is not on the GST/HST return, so a filed return, whether you filed it from TALISK_HQ or somewhere else, holds no PST figure. The PST figures you see always come from your books as they stand today, and the CSV export and the printed worksheet label their PST figures that way.

If a GST/HST row is labelled just "GST/HST" rather than GST or HST, it means nothing in the period says which of the two it was. That happens on a book whose sales all come in without an invoice or a storefront payout behind them. The amount is right either way, and it is the amount you file.

On a book using the Quick Method, the table carries a "Quick Method adjustment" row. What you remit under that method is a flat rate on your sales rather than collected minus credits, so the row is the difference between the two and it is what makes the column add up to what you actually owe.

Once you have filed

The card at the bottom of the page carries two buttons, and which one you want depends on where the return was produced. Mark as Filed records a return you filed from these figures. Filed elsewhere records a return that came out of another system, such as QuickBooks, Xero or your accountant's software, which is what every book arriving mid-year has behind it. See "Record a GST/HST return you filed somewhere else".

Both buttons check first that the period's tax was not already cleared some other way, such as by a later return or a journal entry posted by hand, because recording it again would clear or report the same tax twice. When a check fires, a note above the two buttons says so before you file with the CRA, and the button explains what to fix or lets you go ahead once your accountant has confirmed it. When the note is about a journal entry posted on a return's due date, it carries a button to answer which return that entry records; TALISK_HQ keeps the answer for that entry and stops asking. See "Record a GST/HST return you filed somewhere else".

Neither button will take a period that has not ended yet. A return covers a window, so the window has to close before there is anything to file, and what you file is frozen the moment you record it. If the period you are looking at still has days left in it, wait for the last one.

A PDF you export for a filed period says which figures it carries, above the return lines: the figures as filed, the figures from a return you filed elsewhere, or figures rebuilt from your books because TALISK_HQ has no usable copy of what was filed. A period you have not filed carries no such line.

These two buttons are the only way a period becomes filed. Each of them does the same three things together: it freezes the figures exactly as you sent them, posts the entry for what you owe or are owed, and, unless you untick the box, locks the books through the end of the period so nothing can move behind a return you have already sent. Marking a period filed any other way would set the label without any of that, leaving a return whose figures kept changing afterwards, so TALISK_HQ refuses it.

If TALISK_HQ cannot save its copy of the figures at the moment you mark a period filed, the filing still goes through, because the return is already with the CRA. A note on the GST/HST tab says so as soon as you file, the figures for that period are then rebuilt from your books and labelled that way, and a card on your books-health panel says it cannot check that period. If you have the return, Record the figures you filed on that period's filed row gives TALISK_HQ the copy it is missing. See "Your books changed after you filed".

Which line is which

The worksheet uses the CRA's own line numbers, so you can copy each one straight across to the return:

• 101 total sales and other revenue
• 103 GST/HST you collected or could collect
• 106 input tax credits, the GST/HST you paid on expenses
• 109 net tax, which is 103 minus 106
• 110 instalments and other payments you have already made
• 113 the balance, which is 109 minus 110. This is what you owe, or what you are claiming back if it is negative.

Two more lines appear only if you enter an adjustment: 104 for anything added to net tax and 107 for anything deducted. When you use them the worksheet also shows 105 and 108, the totals that include them, because those are the boxes the return asks you to fill in.

Line 101 is all your revenue, not just your invoices

Line 101 is every dollar of revenue the period recorded, whatever brought it in: invoices you sent, Shopify and WooCommerce payouts, sales you were paid for directly, and any other income such as a foreign exchange gain. Refunds and returns are already taken off, so the figure is net.

The quickest way to check it is your Profit and Loss for the same period. Line 101 and total revenue there are the same number, taken from the same place, so if they ever disagree something is wrong and worth raising.

If line 101 looks lower than you expect, the usual cause is a period boundary rather than a missing sale. A storefront payout counts on the date it was recorded, which is typically a few days after the customer ordered, so a sale near the end of a quarter can land on the next return.

The periods on offer follow your fiscal year

CRA sets your reporting periods from your fiscal year, not the calendar. If your year ends 28 February, your quarters are March to May, June to August, September to November, and December to February, and that is what the Filing period list offers. A year ending 31 December gives you the calendar quarters.

TALISK_HQ reads this from the fiscal year end on the book, so set that first in Ledger › Setup. If the periods on offer are not the ones you file, the year end is the thing to check.

The same periods are on every ledger page

The period picker in the top right of any Ledger screen holds two lists on stacked tabs. Report periods is the usual set (Year To Date, This Quarter, Custom Range and the rest). Filing periods is this same list of returns, so you can put the Profit and Loss, the General Ledger or your Bills on exactly the window a return covers without typing dates.

A link that opens the GST/HST tab on a particular return, such as a period that is not filed yet on GST/HST returns, the worksheet link on a filed return's own page, or the link on a books-health card, switches the period picker to that return. Because the picker is shared, the other ledger pages follow it too. Pick another period whenever you want to move on.

The Filing periods tab appears only once the book has a GST number on it, because until then there is no return to file. Add it in Ledger › Setup.

Meals are already restricted on line 108

The input tax credits on line 108 are already net of the 50% limit on meals and entertainment. TALISK_HQ applies it when the bill or charge is recorded, so a $105 meal ($100 plus $5 GST) contributes $2.50 to line 108, not $5.00, and the other $2.50 stays in the expense.

This matters when an accountant reviews the filing. QuickBooks does it the other way round, claiming the full credit in-year and adding back 50% at year end, so someone used to that convention may add back another 50% here and restrict the credit twice. The handover package says so on its cover sheet, and it is worth mentioning directly.