How to file your PST return

A provincial sales tax return is filed with the province, on the province's own calendar, separately from your GST/HST. Everything you need to file is on Ledger › Reports › Tax › PST: choose the province's filing period and the tab shows each figure beside the box it goes in on the return. The same steps sit under How to file this return at the top of the tab, and at the end of the printed worksheet. On a book registered only in Manitoba the tab reads RST.

1. Check the period is complete. Once the period has ended, the 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 table on the PST tab (for British Columbia, What to enter on eTaxBC) gives each figure with its box: total sales (Box A, the same sales figure as line 101 of your GST/HST return), the PST you collected (Box B), the commission (Box C), and the total due if you file and pay on time (Box K). You do not need to download anything; to have it on paper, select the worksheet button beside See every sale (for example, BC PST worksheet).
3. File the return on the province's site. British Columbia is eTaxBC, Saskatchewan is SETS and Manitoba is TAXcess. Open eTaxBC in the steps opens the site; in the desktop app HQ asks whether to open it as a tab beside your books or in your browser. Enter your total sales and the PST you collected, plus any PST you owe on things you bought for the business without being charged PST, such as from a seller in another province. Keep the confirmation number.
4. Pay by the due date. Pay on the province's site or through your bank. In British Columbia, paying after the due date costs you the commission.
5. Record it in HQ. Select Record the return on the PST tab. It opens with the PST collected from your books. Tick I filed and paid in full by the due date and HQ fills in the commission; check both figures against your return, add any PST on purchases and the confirmation number. Recording posts nothing; it is what stops the reminders.
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, pick PST and this return. The commission is recorded with it. See "Record a PST remittance to the province".

The commission

British Columbia lets you keep 6.6% of the PST you collected, up to $198 a period ($22 on a small return), when you file and pay in full by the due date. eTaxBC works it out for you in Box C. Before you record the return, the PST tab shows the same figure and says it holds only if you file and pay on time; the total due beside it shows what you owe on time and what you owe if late. HQ cannot see when you filed or paid, so the commission only goes into your recorded return when you tick that you did. If you filed after the due date, the tick is turned off. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have their own rules: type the commission your return shows.

What the worksheet leaves blank

Until you record the return, the printed worksheet leaves the commission, the PST on your own purchases and the amount due as blank lines, with the commission the province's table gives printed beside the commission line. PST you owe on purchases is tax nobody charged you, so it is not in your books. Once the return is recorded, the worksheet prints your recorded figures.

The Sales the PST was charged on line adds up the sales HQ can trace. If part of the PST could not be traced to a sale (see "See the sales behind your PST figure"), the worksheet says the line covers the itemised sales only, so check your total sales before you enter them.

Reminders

HQ reminds you with a banner across the top of the app, for each province's return not yet recorded:

• 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. Recording the return stops them for that period, and a later return on record stops them for every earlier period too, because the earlier ones were filed elsewhere. A period from before your registration date (or, with none, from before you recorded the registration in HQ) gets no reminder.

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; change it if you stayed unregistered longer, then select Save. HQ saves the next day as the registration date on your PST registration in Ledger › Setup.