Accounts Receivable/ GST Return

[Nusrat]

Hi there,

I have filed my first GST return from vendor/sales Tax/File Sales Tax menu. I got a credit for $ 900 as a GST return. Accounts Receivable is showing this amount.

Now I have received a cheque for this GST credit, but not sure how to enter in the quick book. I am using Quick book pro 2006.

I will really appreciate your help. Thanks

Nusrat

[Joey]

I'm in the US but I would think that you use Make Deposits and select the account that the $900 is sitting in to record the deposited refund. I'm not sure why you have it in an Accounts Receivable account though??

[bright_ideas]

Originally posted by Nusrat
Hi there,

I have filed my first GST return from vendor/sales Tax/File Sales Tax menu. I got a credit for $ 900 as a GST return. Accounts Receivable is showing this amount.

Now I have received a cheque for this GST credit, but not sure how to enter in the quick book. I am using Quick book pro 2006.

I will really appreciate your help. Thanks

Nusrat

Welcome to the forum,

There is a procedure for filing GST and for refunds it is outlined in your help menue in QB but here is the portion on collecting a GST Refund: I have tried to attach it, I hope this works.

Cheers

[gibbo]

Read the way they are suggesting and thought "strange!" We have a GST in Australia and this is not what is normally done here. So, while it may not be correct for Canada, this is what we would do.
The GST control account for the period would show that a refund is due for the period. We would simply make a deposit into our Bank account for the amount, from the Tax Office, posting into the GST control account. This would zero out the amount owing.
There are issues here with the fact that you only report full dollars, so there are always cents you need to get rid of. If you want to get rid of these, you need to create a sales receipt (no GST) for the cents to an Income account and make a payment into the GST control account to clear the amount. This clears the GST Liability account totally for the period.

[bright_ideas]

Originally posted by gibbo

The GST control account for the period would show that a refund is due for the period. We would simply make a deposit into our Bank account for the amount, from the Tax Office, posting into the GST control account. This would zero out the amount owing.
T

Thats pretty much the basis of what happens here John, but the exception being that it is best to use the "File Sales Tax" feature to first create the gst refund, the same way you would use it to create the GST payment. By using this form you will then be able to print off the GST Remittance forms. And what happens then is QB creates the AR Receivable for the GST Refund so you need to use the Recieve payments to enter the payment when you receive it from Revenue Canada. If you were to just deposit the cheque then you would still have an outstanding receivable. Does that make sense? :)

[gibbo]

In Australia the inbuilt feature is useless. We have GST Payments, "Pay as You Go" (changed from "Pay as you earn" previously - you wonder who thinks of these) for employee withholdings and Personal income Tax installments all included in the payment we make to the Tax Department. So you often find that a refund on GST is swallowed by the other amounts due. So if you do get a return, it may not be the total of the GST owing, meaning that you need to make adjustments to bring everything into balance. Then the problem that you only report whole dollars means you really need to clear off the cents. The inbuilt bit does not take any of this into account - it simply expects everything to be to a single account, when it actually may be to a number. At least there they seem to have found something that works - even if it does seem strange to us.

[kenilworth]

Nusrat - I'm using an older version, but the same principle should apply. Somewhere near the menu - vendor/sales Tax/File Sales Tax - that you used, there should be another choice that says something like "Process GST Refund" - the wording on my version. Logically (hmm, well this is QB, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt), if they have a menu item to file the tax, they should also have an item pay the liability or process the refund. But here's a real basic question also: are you using the Canadian version of QB? Does it refer to "GST" not just "Sales Tax"?

[LorenzoD]

Hello everyone,
I also received a QST refund cheque for the period Jan.1-Mar.31. I went into receive payment and it deposited it in an A/R account. How do I remove it from the A/R?
Thank you

[kenilworth]

Lorenzo,

You should have a Vendors/GST Activities/Process GST Refund option to receive a refund. The amount due is a B/S item, and should not show up in your A/R. Did you Receive Payment against an invoice? This is not the correct procedure - you don't invoice CRA. The QB on-line help is not bad for GST procedures. The cheque is applied to your bank account, and to your GST B/S account. Use a Sales Receipt to process it if you can't locate the GST menu item.