The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a tax that is paid on goods and services in Canada. You can also use the guidance in this topic for the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
If you have questions about tracking taxes, please consult your accountant.
To track GST / HST in Buildium:
1. Add a liability account to your chart of accounts
- Navigate to Accounting > Chart of accounts.
- Click Add account.
- Complete the form:
- Name: GST liability or HST liability
- Type: Long term liability*
*GST / HST, by accounting principle, is considered a short term liability because it must be remitted to the government within the year. Recording as a long term liability is a work around to the Buildium system for accurate cash balance reporting.
- Click Save account.
If your province requires that you track PST as a separate line item, just add an additional account - PST liability - to your chart of accounts.
2. Record transactions using the liability account
When you pay out money, part of which includes GST / HST, add a line item to the check or bill that uses the GST / HST liability account.
In this example, we will use the GST liability account.
| Property | Account | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Main St | Repairs expense | $100 |
| 15 Main St | GST liability | $13 |
| Total | $113.00 |
At the end of the year, use the liability account to tally your total remittance to the government.
Remittance to the government is calculated as:
GST/HST Collected - GST/HST Paid= Remittance
To report on GST / HST paid out, you can run a variety of reports to calculate these totals, including a Balance sheet or the Transaction detail by account report run for GST liability or HST liability.
| Article #: | 111125 |