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What to do when you receive reassessment notice for your sales tax

The legislation for the Goods and Services Sales Tax (GST) is complicated and not the easiest document to read.
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The legislation for the Goods and Services Sales Tax (GST) is complicated and not the easiest document to read. So it's not unusual for business owners to be totally confused when they receive a reassessment notice for a GST remittance from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), in the mail.

"I started working for CRA back in 1990," says Andrew Adolph, CPA CGA and General Manager of AHS Tax Group. "I started work in the GST department and, because the legislation was new, the only information available to explain the workings of the new tax were the actual legislation and the accompanying explanatory notes."

Since that time, the CRA, accounting bodies, and other parties have issued a plethora of publications covering every aspect of the GST, such as how to remit and how to claim eligible rebates. The tax can be confusing, particularly to owners of growing businesses who account for their own GST collections and remittances.

"The first thing to do if you receive a reassessment notice for either the GST or the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) is to call us," Andrew advises. "We have a combined working experience with CRA of over 75 years. We specialize in GST and PST. We're not year-end accountants and we don't offer income tax services."

Because of this specialization, Andrew and his colleagues at AHS Tax Group are able to focus on changes to the legislation and can advise clients accordingly.

"We can deal with the CRA on your behalf," says Andrew. "We can help with technical interpretations and rulings, too."

If you haven't received a reassessment notice, AHS Tax Group can review your GST and PST records to still make sure that you haven't been overpaying the tax.

"What many business owners don't realize," says Andrew, "is that there is a four-year limit to claiming overpaid GST and PST. We can look at the business data, identify and quantify any overpaid tax and claim it back. The potential amount that might be recovered could be substantial."

Working on a percentage of any refund means that AHS Tax Group doesn't bill if there's no tax to claim back.

"It's rare that we don't find anything," Andrew says, "but if we don't, then our services are free. So it's a win/win: either we get money for your business back from the CRA, or you don't pay us anything."

For more information about AHS Tax Group and their GST/PST services, call 604.200.5418, email andrew@AHStaxgroup.ca or visit the website. AHS Tax Group can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.