Budget-Friendly Cloud Bookkeeping Setup for Canadian Businesses

Sign in to CRA My Account, or use the CRA's mobile app, where the return shows as received, in process or assessed, and the refund amount and payment date appear once it has been assessed. The CRA also runs an automated telephone service giving the same information. A representative you have authorised through Represent a Client can check it for you. If the status has not moved past the published processing time, the return is probably under review.

No. Capital is the owner's stake in the business, so it sits in equity, not liabilities. On a balance sheet, assets equal liabilities plus equity, and the capital account belongs on the equity side alongside retained earnings. Money the owner lends the business is different, because the business owes it back, and that is a liability. Keeping owner capital, owner loans and drawings in separate accounts prevents a messy reconciliation at year end.

A refund liability is the amount a business expects to pay back to customers for returns, rebates, price adjustments or unused credits, recognised when the sale is recorded rather than when the money goes out. Revenue is reported net of that estimate, and a separate asset is set up for goods expected to come back. Revisit the estimate each period end against actual return rates, and adjust the sales tax reported on refunded sales as well.

No. QST is a separate Quebec tax administered by Revenu Quebec, and it cannot be recovered on your federal GST/HST return. Only a business registered for QST can claim input tax refunds for the 9.975% QST it pays, and registration normally follows from making taxable supplies in Quebec. An Ontario business with no QST registration treats the QST on a Quebec invoice as part of the cost of the expense. Check Revenu Quebec for the registration rules.

No. GST/HST you collect is not revenue: you hold it on the CRA's behalf and remit it. Report sales net of the tax on your T2125 or corporate financial statements, and post the tax collected to a liability account rather than income. Including it overstates both revenue and profit. If you are not registered and charge no tax, gross sales are simply the amounts you billed your customers.

Usually not. Most financial services, including account maintenance, interest, loan arrangement and transfers of money, are exempt supplies, so no GST/HST is charged and the bank claims no credits on them. Some charges billed on the same statement are taxable: safety deposit box rental, certain administrative or advisory services, equipment rental and merchant processing hardware. Read the statement, since taxable lines show the tax separately, and claim input tax credits only on those.

You cannot write off the income itself, but you deduct the costs of earning it. Common current expenses are mortgage interest (not principal), property tax, insurance, utilities you pay, condo fees, advertising, property management, and repairs that maintain the property. Improvements that better the property are capital and depreciated instead. Only the rented portion counts where you also live there. Keep invoices for six years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

Basic groceries are zero-rated, meaning no GST or HST applies to staples such as bread, milk, eggs, produce, meat and unprepared ingredients. Tax applies once a food falls outside that category: candy, snack foods, carbonated and sweetened drinks, bakery items sold in small quantities, and anything prepared or heated for immediate eating. Provincial rules can add or remove tax on top of the federal treatment, so the province of supply matters.

There is no application for most people. File your T1 each year and CRA works the credit out automatically from your adjusted family net income, then pays it quarterly by direct deposit, showing as Canada FPT. Both spouses must file, and only one of you receives the payment for the household. Newcomers to Canada apply once using CRA's benefit application for new residents. Eligibility turns on residency, age and family income, and the current amounts are on CRA's GST/HST credit page.

Bank charges and card processing fees on a business account are deductible in the year incurred, along with merchant discount rates, monthly service charges and interest on business borrowing. Fees on a personal chequing account are not deductible, and neither are the interest and fees on a personal credit card, even where you occasionally put work costs on it. Keep the statements, because the CRA asks for them on review of an expense claim.

Two different taxes are in play. GST/HST is not charged on long-term residential rent, which is an exempt supply, so the landlord adds no tax and cannot claim input tax credits on those costs. Commercial rent and most short-term accommodation are taxable once the landlord is registered, at 13% HST in Ontario or 5% GST in Alberta. Separately, the rent received is income to the landlord, reported on the T1 or T2 after deductible expenses.

The CRA charges compound daily interest on an unpaid balance starting the day after the payment deadline, at the prescribed arrears rate it sets each quarter. Because that rate is reset quarterly, check the current figure on the CRA site rather than relying on one you saw last year. The same interest applies to late instalments and to penalties already charged. Paying part of the balance now reduces the interest accruing on the rest.