Why We Are Different
Advataxes was designed first and foremost to handle Canadian Value Added Taxes (VAT) rules which are the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and the Quebec Sales tax (QST) on employee expenses. Canada has decentralized VAT rules and rates at the provincial level. It is important that these recoverable taxes are properly managed as they can represent a significant recovery of up to 15% of expenditures when a series of conditions are met (see simulation page).
Furthermore, non-profit organisations and financial institutions may need to track the taxes that are actually paid on expenses and deemed paid on allowances in each province in order to address GST/HST/QST compliance rules, such as expenditure in a province where there is no permanent establishment for the former and the special attribution method for the latter (see the GST/HST & QST parameters page).
Advataxes is specifically designed to store both the GST/HST/QST payable and the GST/HST/QST claimable. We don’t take a short cut to store solely the GST/HST/QST claimable. Our logic is different from the market as we do not require the organization administrator to create a series of tax codes to cover all tax eventualities, and moreover we are not asking all users to select a proper tax code for every expense and every allowance from the list provided by the administrator. Advataxes simply has no tax codes at all. Also, no need to venture into a data mining software to try to decipher the kind of taxes paid on employee expenses, for sales tax compliance purposes and for sales tax recovery purposes, as the information is there in the first place.
Should credit card transaction uploads be used, the software is built to attach each electronic invoice to each transaction, as the invoice is the proper document for tax purposes. For GST/HST and QST purposes we favor the exact methods since with a proper software design, we can maximize input taxes to claim (see the exact method vs the factors method page). Finally, with the magnitude of recent governmental deficits, we are expecting sales tax increases in years to come making it more relevant to address GST/HST and QST on employee expenses. Advataxes is owned and operated by Ad Valorem Inc.