Recently, I have had a number of clients come to me with issues regarding their GST. All of them had recently registered for GST, and shared this information with the clinic they were working with. The clinic then told them that they were already paying them GST on their payments!
This is a big No No!
ANY business is not allowed to pay GST to a non registered business or contractor. It is the paying person/business responsibility to verify that the contractors/businesses they are paying have a valid GST number at the time of the payment.
If you find yourself in this situation, please do not remit this GST to the government. This will cause you to be responsible for explaining and providing documentation to CRA as to why you got GST when you were not GST registered. This can cause a red flag against you for "not following regulations".
This issue needs to be rectified by the clinic itself. The clinic should either "deduct" this overpayment from future payments to you or you just repay the clinic directly and the clinic redo their GST reports filing them correctly. From the sole-proprietors side of things, you would want to try to have this resolved before the end of the calendar year, so you are not paying taxes on this overpayment.
If someone like the clinic you are working for pays GST/HST for a period that you weren’t registered, they will NOT be eligible to claim that GST they paid to you. This is another reason as to why working with a tax pro could be in your favour. My clients can reach out to me with these types of questions/issues and I will guide them on how to handle them so red flags with CRA don't wind up on their file.
Anyone can confirm and verify that a business is GST registered by using this link:
As a small business owner starting out, GST always seems complicated to understand how pays, how remits, and when you should be registered. It is always best to confer with an tax professional about your personal & professional situation.
Until next time,
Christine Walters
Comments