Why TALISK_HQ asks whether a tax report is the return you filed

When you build your books from a folder, TALISK_HQ may find a sales tax report for a period, such as a QuickBooks GST/HST tax detail report, or a notice of assessment from the CRA. It reads the figures and checks that they add up. It then asks you one question before it records anything: was this the return you filed?

It asks even after your first build, when other documents are recorded automatically. There are two reasons.

A report is not the return. QuickBooks and other packages produce a tax report from whatever is in the books on the day you run it. If anything in that period changed after you filed, such as a late bill or a corrected entry, a report run today shows different figures from the ones you sent. A report run before you filed may also not be the version you used. Only you know which figures went to the CRA.

The record is written once. Marking a period as filed keeps a copy of what you filed, and later returns are worked out against it. TALISK_HQ does not edit that record afterwards, so it has to be right the first time.

If the folder holds the return itself, such as a NETFILE confirmation, a BC eTaxBC return or the return summary QuickBooks prints, TALISK_HQ reads the figures off it, including line 101, and uses them instead of a tax report for the same period. Each figure has to appear on the return and the return's own arithmetic has to hold. It still asks you to confirm before recording anything.

If the report matches what you filed, say yes and the figures are recorded as your filed return for that period. If it does not, or you are not sure, say so and type the figures from the return itself. A notice of assessment is the CRA's own record of the return and is usually the safest source.

See Record a GST/HST return you filed somewhere else for what recording a past return does, and what it leaves alone.