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Are your invoices in an electronic format stored outside Canada?

July 14, 2025 by Serge Vanier, CPA Leave a Comment

Canada Revenue Agency General Requirements for Record Keeping

The Canada Revenue Agency published last month a revised version of their guidelines regarding how books and records EDM9-1-1 entitled “General requirements for Records”, such as sales invoice, purchase invoice, and other accounting documents should be maintained by taxpayers.

Location of Accounting Records

The general rule is to the effect that a person must keep their books and records in Canada in either English or in French. Yet, a person may seek written authorization from the CRA to keep records outside of Canada as explained in section 10 of that guide;

“10. To seek written authorization from the CRA to keep records outside Canada, a person or their authorized representative must make a written request to their regional excise office and provide the following information:

• a clear identification of the records requested to be kept outside of Canada, including the format of those records
• the complete address of the location where the records are requested to be kept
• a signed undertaking by the person making the request that they will be responsible for ensuring that any records kept outside Canada will be made available within 30 days for review or audit by the CRA upon request
• details of the circumstances that may justify keeping the records at a location outside Canada
• any other information considered pertinent to the request”

Electronic-Keeping Method and Imaging
The CRA supports the digital transformation of accounting documents. Here is an abstract of their rules:

“22. Persons that must keep records are responsible for keeping them in a manner that will ensure the reliability and readability of the information recorded.

23. All records and supporting source documents originally produced in paper format must be kept in that format, unless they are saved in an acceptable electronic format.

24. All records and supporting source documents originally produced in electronic format must be kept in an electronically readable format, even if printouts are available.

25. “Records are considered to be kept in an electronic format when information is entered directly into any device for electronic processing, manipulation, or storage on electronic or optical media.”

Comments

Advataxes ‘clients’ data is stored in datacenters located in Canada. Furthermore, clients can extract expense reports as well as all receipts attached to them in a readable PDF format (see our video here).

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Creditcardstatement, exactmethod, Expensereport, GST, gst/hst, HST, Meal, OCR Expense Report, qst, SAAS

GST/HST Holiday on Meals for 2 Months ?

November 22, 2024 by Serge Vanier, CPA Leave a Comment

On November 21, 2024 finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a GST/HST holiday on a series of goods including meals for a two-month period starting on December 14, 2024. As of this day, There is no indication that the Quebec Government, as it often does, will harmonize the QST regime with this announcement. Also the provinces with a harmonized tax have not confirmed this change, and they should since they will be the ones paying for the PVAT (provincial value added tax) portion i.e 8% or 10%. Finally assuming it will be adopted by parliament, has several implications on meals that are incurred by organizations in the course of their activities, such as the one contained on expense reports and on corporate credit card statements:

• There would be presumably no GST/HST on meals across the country
• In Québec, solely the QST would be applicable at a rate of 9.975%

As for Advataxes whenever employees select the “meal” category and the date of the receipt from December 14th, 2024 to February 15th, 2025 then the tax paid will be as follows:

• No GST/HST
• In Québec, the QST at 9.975%
• If some harmonized provinces do not harmonize wuth this measure, then we would use the PVAT (i.e. 8% or 10%)

Of course, employees should validate the tax amount on the meal receipt and the one in Advataxes and rectify as the case may be. With Advataxes, there is no configuration involved by accountants, we take care of automating this tax rule change for all of our clients.
Furthermore, for those clients where it is applicable, the QST input tax refund will be calculated at a rate of 50% of the tax paid. Lastly, any tip amount will, as usual, be excluded from the tax calculation.

Factors method

As for the factors method (see our page “Exact Method VS Factors Method“), one of the conditions to use it is that an expense report should be taxable at 90% or more. Considering that meal expenses are generally big-ticket items in an expense report, one would ponder whether input tax credits or GST/HST rebate can actually be claimed when using the factors method for expense reports covered by the GST/HST holiday. Advataxes is solely set for the exact method.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Creditcardstatement, Expensereport, GST, HST, Meal, SAAS, TAXholiday

Venture Summit – 2024 Toronto Collision Conference Edition 2024

July 2, 2024 by Serge Vanier, CPA Leave a Comment

During the Venture summit of the 2024 Toronto Collision Edition Conference on June 4th 2024 Advataxes, a software/app for the digital transformation of the employee expense, and credit card statement processes was presented to tech professionals. The Collision Conference is one of the largest north American conferences on Technology.

The presentation included the following 2 points:

1) Design for Canadian tax rules

Advataxes has a particular design, it stores a default jurisdiction (i.e. province, state) in the profile of each employee, which is an efficient way to implement the GST/HST and QST exact method, thus maximizing tax recoveries in an environment where the factors method is more difficult to implement than ever due to changing tax and economic landscapes (see our page exact method versus factors method)

2) Posting Credit Card Statement

An administrator of an Advataxes account can upload a single file listing all credit card transactions of all employees in the respective profile of each employee holding a credit card. Afterwards, employees, using our App or the website connection, will have to attach a digital file of their receipts with each transaction. A corporate credit card statement (i.e. VISA, MC, AMEX, etc…) is not a valid document both for Canadian income tax and Canadian sales tax purposes, so an invoice has to be attached to each transaction. That is why Advataxes is built with tools to facilitate the attachment of a digital image to each transaction.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: GST, HST, qst, SAAS

Revenu Quebec will strengthen its mission in terms of Audit

April 5, 2023 by Serge Vanier, CPA Leave a Comment

Within the tabling of the Quebec budget on March 22, 2023, the Quebec Government has notably announced the hiring of additional staff which will enable them to strengthen its mission in terms of audits. Budget 2023-2024 provides expenditures of $117 million over 5 years to ensure tax fairness.

One of the objectives is to “Step up its inspection activities in all sectors of activity, …” as stated in the budget documents. The Quebec government estimates that this measure will increase revenues by $200 million over 5 years. This plan also targets high-risk sectors.

Filed Under: Canadian Taxation Tagged With: employee expense software, GST, gst/hst, HST, OCR Expense Report, qst, SAAS

LATEST BLOG POSTS

  • Are your invoices in an electronic format stored outside Canada?
  • Handle GST/HST/QST on Employee Expenses with Ease
  • GST/HST Holiday on Meals for 2 Months ?
  • Venture Summit – 2024 Toronto Collision Conference Edition 2024
  • Dark Clouds on the Horizon for the GST/HST/QST Factors Method?

About Advataxes

Advataxes is an online accounting software for employee expenses that automates recoverable GST/HST and QST for small, medium and large businesses. Employees can fill out and submit their expense reports to their supervisors from anywhere using their PC, tablet or smartphone in no time. This online software is available in English and French. Advataxes is a product of Ad Valorem which is a member of Antea an internationnal association of independent firms.

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