Experience report: Applying for a Harmonized Sales Tax account

Posted: Feb 27, 2012 - Modified: Feb 16, 2014| business, entrepreneurship, experiment

In Canada, corporations are required to collect and remit Harmonized Sales Tax if their revenues are over $30,000 in a year or if they meet certain other conditions. If you’re starting out, it might be a good idea to register for an account anyway. That way, you don’t have to change things when you do earn more than $30,000 (doable with consulting), and you can claim input tax credits for the taxes that you pay (with some exceptions).

Registering for an HST account turned out to be more of a convoluted process because Revenue Canada didn’t have my ownership information on file. I had created a federally-incorporated company just the weekend before, and the process didn’t ask for the information that Revenue Canada needs. If you happen to want to register for GST/HST for a newly-incorporated federal corporation, the easiest way is to call Revenue Canada (1-800-959-5525 – redial if you get a busy signal), explain that the business registration online system won’t let you register for a GST account probably because you don’t have information on file, and give that information (SIN, etc.) to the call center agent.

Me, I took the scenic route.

First, I tried the Business Registration Online system. It asked for my business number. “What business number?” I asked. I couldn’t find anything remotely resembling it on my incorporation certificate. I called and found out that I could use Industry Canada’s Federal Corporations Search to get my business number. Okay.

With this business number in hand, I tried registering for an HST account through Business Registration Online. It reported that my details didn’t match the owner they had on file. I called the agency to clarify, and found out that it was because they didn’t have any owner information yet.

The first call centre agent I talked to directed me to the RC1A form for opening a GST/HST account, or to the RC1 form for registering a business number and applying for a number of other accounts. The RC1 form looked more complete, so I filled in the general information section and the GST section, checked the box for the corporate income tax account (I’d probably need that!), and attached a copy of my certificate of incorporation. I figured that if the business number I looked up wasn’t the business number they were looking for, they could get the right one.

After I sealed the envelope and put a stamp on it, I hesitated and decided to call for confirmation. Was I sending the right form in? Would it create a duplicate account? Would sunglass-wearing agents from the Canada Revenue Agency break down my door?

I explained my situation to the second call center agent, who told me that yes, the ownership information wasn’t on file, but this was something that we could set up easily over the phone. I gave her my social insurance number and company details, and she set up the corporate income tax account and the GST/HST account for me. By golly. We were done in ten minutes or so.

So, if you want to set up a Harmonized Sales Tax account and the online forms just aren’t working for you, see if you can do it by phone. Sometimes that’s faster than trying to do things yourself.