Small business owners wear different hats. Especially at the startup stage, you are busy in working on the business and dealing with piles of bills and accounting records at the same time. Missing or misplacing the invoices and receipts always happen. What if you found the misplaced purchased receipts after you filed the GST/HST return?
You may already know that the HST paid on purchased goods and services can reduce the HST payable as input tax credit (ITC). Missing receipts means you have to pay extra. If this situation apply to you, you don’t need to adjust previous filed return. You can claim the previously unclaimed ITCs on future GST/HST return within the time limited.
For regular business, the time limit is four years after the end of the reporting period in which the ITC should be included.
For example, ABC Inc. (CCPC) is quarterly filer who didn’t included an ITC of $1,300 on capital purchased, when the return covered Oct 1 ~ Dec 31 2018. ABC can choose to include this unclaimed ITC on any GST/HST returns ended by Dec 31, 2022. The final period allowed is Oct 1 ~ Dec 31 2022 and due on Jan 31 2023.
For listed financial institutions and corporations with annual sales more than $6 million, the time limits to recover the unclaimed ITC is two years.
Remember always keep your invoices and receipts to support your ITC claims. If you paid GST/HST on purchased, you should make sure that vendor’s invoices include HST number, rate and total amount.