Posting Expenses When Not GST Registered
by Peggy
(Alberta, Canada)
How to Record the GST Expense
I just started a small business and I will not be registering for GST at this time.
When I'm posting these invoices, do I post the entire amount (including the GST) to the account or just the amount less the GST?
For example, if I paid $10.50 for something and $0.50 was GST, do I post the entire $10.50 to the expense account of just $10.00?
Hi Peggy,
When a business is not registered with the CRA as a GST/HST registrant, it loses the ability to claim their input tax credits. Therefore, as you are not a GST registrant, you need to expense the entire amount but you have a choice on how to post it.
Option One - Post the entire amount (ie. $10.50 in your example) to the appropriate expense account; or
Option Two - Post the expense excluding the GST (ie. $10.00 in your example) to the appropriate expense account; then post the GST ($0.50 in your example) to an expense account "Sales Tax Paid". This way you track the amount of lost input tax credits you could be recovering if you were a GST/HST registrant.
I wrote a short chat on how to handle GST in QuickBooks if you are not a registrant.