My client “Sam” got a CRA audit on his GST/HST return.
CRA loves to audit these because people make so many mistakes and it is easy money for them.

He wanted to try to save some money and file his own GST returns. (this is the foreshadowing here….)

They were already auditing one return, and had 2 more after that they could look at and were holding.

When CRA finds issues with one, they will look at more.

 

When Sam came to me:
—>CRA has $28,635.28 of his money and soon would hold another $11,897.02.
—>He was struggling to explain to the auditor his business.
—>He couldn’t “prove” to them what they wanted.
—>Was nervous just talking to the auditor.

This caused him
—>To question what he gave them.
—>How can he explain the first mistake they found?
—>To question if he made more mistakes.
—>To question what he should say to them and what not say.
—>To hurt the businesses cash flow.

This was 3 months of him trying himself, spinning his wheels and avoiding it.

He reached out to me for help.

I reviewed the letter and the documents.
So I could understand how we could fix it.
And where the “issues” could be.

I immediately picked up the phone and called the agent.

Here is what I did:
—> Made a connection.  I read that the agent was in PEI on the letter so opened with me being a Maritimer and some jokes to start.
—> Explained the business model in terms the agent could understand.
—>Walked through the amazon sales taxes work with examples.
—>Showed him how he can get the information he needs to close the file.
—>Gave simple examples to his objections.
—>Explained away the mistake he found.
—>Made sure when I hung up we were both clear on next steps.
—>Finally asked for his supervisor approval.

That call was on March 8th.

Client had their money in the bank on March 24th

It took over 3 months of losing sleep before he finally decided to ask for help and making the problem worse.
If we were doing is monthly bookkeeping, we would have been on it months before.
If we were doing the GST/HST returns, we would have been on it months before.

Having the experience of going through lots of audits means I know what they need and work with the CRA to get it fixed.

What is the value of knowing that you can trust that your accounting is handled correctly so they can focus on other aspects of their business?

I bet that price is less than you might think!

Check out our bookkeeping price calculator here!

So if you’re a Canadian business owner worried about when the CRA audit is coming,  and ready to get some peace of mind: message us and see if we can help.