David Crawford, our Indirect Tax Expert (GST/HST/PST/QST)
Canada’s various indirect tax regimes can be pretty complicated, and most general accountants are unaware or not fully knowledgeable of many indirect tax issues that small business owners face. Indirect tax, for those who don’t know, is everything that isn’t income tax, like GST/HST/PST/QST, excise, carbon and fuel taxes and the like.
At GURU by Achen Henderson, we specifically restrict our work around indirect taxes because it is beyond the scope of our expertise. We offer recording transactions and filing indirect tax returns based on those transactions. Still, we do not guarantee that the returns comply with Canada’s or the provinces’ indirect tax rules.
But there is good news!
Achen Henderson is one of the only CPA firms of our size with an in-house indirect tax expert who is, in fact, one of the most senior practitioners in this area in Canada, David Crawford.
An initial consultation with David runs only $500 and will:
- give you some comfort that your indirect tax affairs are in good shape,
- notify you that there is a problem to be rectified, or (the best scenario)
- Identify any opportunities to recover overpaid indirect taxes from the government, which can be substantial and often pays for David’s fees in multiples.
There are key industries and business scenarios notorious for incorrect reporting of their indirect tax obligations, such as medical practices, online sellers, those who sell their goods and services to customers/clients in other provinces or out of the country, and importers. We do our best to identify these issues during integration and recommend a consult with David, and you are always welcome to request a consult at any time.
You can visit the indirect tax section of our website here to learn more about our indirect tax service offering, which is entirely unique to Achen Henderson. In addition to David’s expertise in this area.
Customs and Trade Specialist
We have also added a senior Customs and Trade specialist to David’s team, who can help optimize your importing and supply chain for Canadian customs duties and tariffs.
In addition, there are many helpful articles there that you can review and learn about contemporary issues in this area. Finally, this section is constantly updated, mainly as David runs across issues with clients.
It should be noted that our accounting work in GST/HST and other indirect taxes is limited to compiling the bookkeeping and financial statements of the Client’s name.
Accordingly, we may not detect situations where you incorrectly apply GST/HST on revenues or claim input tax credits on expenditures. As you are aware, failure to properly account for the GST/HST could result in you or your company becoming liable for tax, interest or penalties. These situations may also arise for provincial sales tax, customs duties and excise taxes. Because most of these taxes are “collected in trust” for the government, directors of companies can become jointly liable for them.