HST Payment and Report Difference
by Judy
(Sudbury, Ontario, Canada)
Release your tension before you begin fixing the bookkeeping problem!
The last quarter that we submitted HST it appears the amount paid was incorrect.
My boss paid his last quarter using the HST Return Report that I printed Jan 7th and when I went into QuickBooks to enter the payment I had to re-create the report in order to enter the payment. But it appears the report he had used to make the payment was not up-to-date.
We had received a bill from a supplier after printing this report and I thought the report he had was up-to-date but it wasn't. The amount he paid is now different on this report and I don't know how to make the adjustment so that the amount he paid matches the reporting amount.
The lines that are incorrect are:
108 - Total ITC and adjustments
109 - Net Tax
115 - Payment Amount
Can someone please tell me how to make this payment.
Judy, in QuickBooks desktop, you have a few options.
You can go to "File a Sales Tax Return". On the screen you will notice there are adjustment buttons for each line where you can adjust the return. You could make an adjustment there but that is not my favorite option for a situation like this.
My preference if you haven't filed the report QuickBooks yet would be to find the transaction that was not included in the preliminary report and change it's date to the first day after your reporting period (January 1) with notes as to why you changed the date.
If the reporting period happened to be the last day of your fiscal year (December 31) then you would also need to go in and accrue the transaction on December 31 that is creating the issue excluding the sales tax amounts and reverse the accrual on January 1. No need to make the accrual if December 31 is not your fiscal yearend.
If you already filed the return in QuickBooks, then I would delete the journal entry created when you filed. That should "unfile" the return. Then follow the steps I outlined above before you refile in QuickBooks.
As a reminder, before you do any of the solutions above, always TAKE A BACKUP FIRST just in case things go awry! And remember to take one or more deep breath and slowly exhale before starting, again about half way through and when you are finished. It's always easier to do fixes when you are relaxed rather than feeling stressed.
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