How to file your GST/HST return

HQ builds your GST/HST return from your books; filing it is a few steps on the CRA's site and two clicks back in HQ. The same steps sit under How to file this return on Ledger › Reports › Tax › GST/HST, and at the end of the printed GST34 Worksheet.

1. Check the period is complete. Once the period has ended, the GST/HST tab shows Ready to file when every bank line, bill, receipt and payout for it is in and every account is reconciled. If something is still waiting it shows Not ready to file and lists each thing, with Show me beside it.
2. Have the figures in front of you. The GST/HST Return Worksheet on the GST/HST tab lists each figure under the line number the return uses. You do not need to download anything; to have it on paper, select GST34 Worksheet.
3. File the return with the CRA. Sign in to the CRA's My Business Account, or use GST/HST NETFILE, and open the return for the period. Enter lines 101, 103 and 106 from the GST/HST tab, plus 104, 107 or 110 if the tab shows them. Check that the CRA's net tax matches line 109, submit, and keep the confirmation number. Open My Business Account in the steps opens the CRA's site; in the desktop app HQ asks whether to open it as a tab beside your books or in your browser.
4. Pay by the due date. If you owe tax, pay the CRA through your bank's online banking or one of the CRA's payment options. If you are owed a refund, the CRA sends it to you.
5. Record it in HQ. Select Mark as Filed at the bottom of the GST/HST tab, or Filed elsewhere if your accountant filed it. HQ freezes the figures, posts what you owe or are owed, and the reminders stop.
6. Match the payment. When the payment leaves your bank, open that line in Banking, look under "Not what it looks like?", choose Tax payment and pick the period. A refund deposit is recorded the same way, with Tax refund. See "Record a GST/HST payment from a bank line".

In Quebec

Most Quebec businesses file one combined GST/HST and QST return with Revenu Québec rather than the CRA. Step 3 becomes: sign in to My Account for businesses, open the return for the period, and enter the GST/HST lines and the QST figures from the GST/HST tab. You pay Revenu Québec, and the rest is the same. A book with a QST number shows these steps on its tab.

Reminders

HQ reminds you with a banner across the top of the app, for every return not yet recorded as filed:

• two days after the period ends;
• seven days before the return is due;
• on the due date;
• from the day after, if it is still not recorded.

Dismiss hides a reminder until the next one comes round, on every device you sign in on: dismiss it on your phone and it is gone on your computer too. Recording the return, with Mark as Filed or Filed elsewhere, stops them for that period. On your phone the banner is one line; tap it to open the reminder, with its buttons, over the page.

HQ only reminds you about returns that apply to you. There is no reminder for a period that ended:

• before your books start in HQ;
• before your GST/HST registration took effect, if you have said when that was;
• before the business was incorporated, when no registration date is set and the incorporation date is filled in on the business details;
• before the latest return you have recorded as filed, because a later return on record means the earlier ones were filed elsewhere.

A return that fell due before you joined HQ gets no reminder either.

If a reminder names a return from before you were registered, select Not registered then on the banner. It asks for the Last day not registered and fills in the last day of that period, so if you were not registered at any point in it, select Save. If you stayed unregistered longer, enter the last day you were not registered instead. HQ saves the next day as the day your registration started, shows it under the date before you save, and that reminder and any earlier ones stop. A reminder for a return that is still due then says so: the first return after your registration started says it is your first return. The start date is GST/HST registered since in Ledger › Setup (click Edit on the business), where you enter the day your registration took effect, as it appears on your CRA registration. Leave it on Before my books start in HQ if you registered before you started using HQ. The date is used for reminders only and changes nothing already recorded.