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. HQ gives you the figure and a worksheet to file from; the same steps sit under How to file this return on Ledger › Reports › Tax › PST, 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. The period's sales should all be in and its bank lines matched or categorized. The Books health panel on the Dashboard lists anything still waiting.
2. Download the worksheet. On the PST tab, choose the province's filing period and select the worksheet button beside See every sale (for example, BC PST worksheet). It has the PST you collected and every sale behind it, your PST number and the due date.
3. File the return on the province's site. British Columbia is eTaxBC, Saskatchewan is SETS and Manitoba is TAXcess. Enter the PST you collected from the worksheet, plus any PST you owe on things you bought for the business without being charged PST, such as from a seller in another province. British Columbia lets you keep a commission of 6.6% of the PST, up to $198 a period, when you file and pay on time: note the commission your return shows, and the confirmation number.
4. Pay by the due date. Pay on the province's site or through your bank.
5. Record it in HQ. Select Record the return on the PST tab and type the figures from your return: the PST collected, the commission, 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".

What the worksheet leaves blank

Until you record the return, the worksheet prints the commission, the PST on your own purchases and the amount due as blank lines. Whether the commission was earned depends on filing and paying on time, which HQ cannot see, and 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. 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 and enter the date your registration started. It is saved as the registration date on your PST registration in Ledger › Setup.