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My accountant informed me that since I made over 30k last year, that I now require an HST number and must start charging my customers this tax. Does anyone else find themselves in this situation? Is there a way around this? Any advice would be appreciated! (I hate tax season - there's always a nasty surprise!)
ARRRRGGGGGG ..... NO
I need to start doing taxes for home childcare providers so they stop getting ripped off by stupid people .... sorry hun but IMO your accountant needs to go back to SCHOOL cause he must have missed a few days of vital information including KNOW YOUR CLIENTS NEEDS!
Childcare ... THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY is EXEMPT from HST .... it does not matter if your revenue is $1,000,000.00 you do not have to charge or collect or remit HST and that is right on the CRA website for everyone to see .... including your accountant who should IMO CHECK the rules and regulations that apply to CHILDCARE if he has a client who operates in that industry!
I would email your accountant the following link and explain to him that NO you do not need to do this!
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp.../menu-eng.html
I believe your accountant is mistaken, just look at the CRA website under home daycare. I once had a call from the GST office and they just wanted to confirm that my home business was a daycare saying that I did not need a GST number ( now it would be HST). Daycare is exempt from HST you can't charge it and you don't need a number. Google daycare CRA and you will find the explanation directly from the horses mouth. Hope this helps.
hmmmmm . . . . I should really do my taxes. Thanks for reminding me . . .
P.S. You should fire your accountant as I would not trust someone who can screw up something so simple. Even H&R Block didn't screw that one up on me last year! LOL
Yup - that would be a deal breaker for me ... I used an accountant my first two years in business to just help be get things 'set up' however I do my own now because well if you have not guessed I have 'control issues' in trusting other people and even with the accountant everything she 'told me' I could do I would than look up myself and have to read it first hand in order to believe it .... after all if I get audited it is not the ACCOUNTANT who has to pay the back taxes it is ME and well if I screw up I got no one to blame but myself but if the accountant screwed up on me I would be pissed beyond belief because I had paid them to 'take care of it' and they did not ... and honestly you cannot even sue them or have any recourse expect a 'better business complaint' because at the very bottom of the tax return you SIGN that ultimately YOU are responsible and agree that the return is accurate!Quote:
Originally Posted by Cadillac
Totally agree with Inspired and fire that useless human being!
Yep, he is totally wrong. The CRA tried to nab me a few years ago and I had to call them to tell them that the industry was exempt. Even the different departments within the government don't know what they are talking about.
GOOD GRIEF! It says right on the CRA website that we are exempt.
Reggio, I'll pay you handsomely to do MY taxes. I'm terrified. :D
LOL ... it really is pretty easy - I use Turbo Tax Home and Business and it walks you through everything!
This post made me chuckle and think that your accountant is on something....HE/SHE IS WRONG.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspired by Reggio
Hi Reggio, You are a star! Thanks for your reply! I feel so much better. I will enjoy discussing this with my (former) accountant and seeing his face when I tell him he is wrong. Thanks for the link. Mimi
I also do it myself! I have known people who had problems with accountants (such as the one you're having). This made me doubt them all! Reggio has a control issue, I think I have a huge thrust issue! hahaha!!!!! When I make mistakes, I cannot stop thrusting myself. lol!!! I just call CRA a thousand times when I need help.
I use Turbo Tax Home and Business and it even said I needed to get a HST number because I made over $ 30,000. I was surprised at that as I have known for years (30 years of daycare business) that our industry is exempt. I have had interviews with potential daycare parents who have asked me if I charge GST/HST!Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspired by Reggio
June
Yup - unfortunately even though you have to choose an 'industry code' when you are doing your taxes that is just so that CRA knows your business .... Turbo Tax itself is not 'industry specific' but generic to all home business ... so unfortunately that warning pops up for ALL businesses ... I just click 'ignore' ;)
You also need to be careful with the Turbo Tax and the use of home for business section at it is also generic and geared to be used with 'dedicated business spaces' that most home business are aka you NEVER use any portion of that space for personal use so the hairdressers salon, the massage therapist office, the mechanics garage and so forth - we do not tend to send our children in their to play on the weekend like we would with a daycare playroom which doubles as the kids playroom as well .... therefore the equation is incorrect for determining SHARED SPACE ... if you just put in the square footage of your home / footage used for business and include for example your kitchen / bedrooms for sleep room / your own kids play area and so forth you will write off way more than you are truly 'entitled' to according to CRA ... in an audit that would cause problems!
So our equations is square footage of home / square footage of shared space used for business x 24/ # hours open for business x 365 days in year / # days open for business = % you can write off .... we need to 'trick' Turbo Tax into writing off that correct amount ... so for example if you figure out manually using that equation that you can right off 25% telling the program that you use 250 square feet of a 1000 square foot home to get it to calculate it at 25% is what you need to do.