One contract, one supply, 13% on all of it
A supply-and-install contract is a single supply for GST/HST purposes, so 13% applies to the entire price: product, installation labour, capping, caulking and hauling the old units away. Splitting the invoice into a product line and a labour line does not change that, and neither does a promotion. A spring sale that advertises free installation is still one price for one supply, taxed in full.
The promo that trips retailers is we-pay-the-tax. Advertise that and the amount the customer hands you is deemed to include HST, so you remit 13/113 of what you collected; the discount is real, but the tax never disappears. Financed jobs follow the same logic from the other side: HST is calculated on the full contract price even though the finance company deposits that price minus its dealer fee. The fee is your cost of offering the program, not a reduction of the sale.
Deposits on the corporate return
On the books, money taken at signing sits in a liability account until the install; the T2 needs its own mechanics to get to the same answer. Amounts received for work not yet done are pulled into income under paragraph 12(1)(a), and a paragraph 20(1)(m) reserve pushes them back out until the goods are delivered and installed. The reserve is not automatic: it is claimed each year, it reverses into income the next, and it should tie to the open-order list on the year-end date, order by order.
A true refundable deposit can sit outside income altogether until it is applied or forfeited, which is the same wording question that drives the HST timing our accounting page walks through. We read the contract once and keep both returns consistent with it.
When the customer walks away
Custom-made units cannot go back on a shelf, so most contracts let you keep the deposit on cancellation. Keeping it has two tax consequences in the year of forfeiture: the amount is income, and the GST/HST rules deem it to include tax, so 13/113 of the forfeited deposit is remitted on that period's return. Nothing about a cancelled order is neutral; here is the full map.
| How the deposit ends | HST return | Corporate return |
|---|---|---|
| Applied at install | Part of the price of the taxable supply | Contract revenue; any 20(1)(m) reserve reverses |
| Forfeited on cancellation | Deemed tax-included; remit 13/113 | Income in the year of forfeiture |
| Refunded in full | No tax was ever collectible on it | The liability unwinds; no income |
The warranty reserve the T2 refuses
Booking a provision for future service calls is good accounting; deducting it is not allowed. A reserve for visits that have not happened yet is a contingent amount, and paragraph 18(1)(e) blocks contingent reserves, so the provision is added back on Schedule 1 and the deduction waits until a real crew fixes a real sash. Parts the manufacturer replaces under its own warranty never belonged in your cost of sales at all. We keep the book reserve and the tax add-back moving in step so the estimate stays useful without becoming an audit exposure.
Slips, classification and the letters that follow
Installation makes construction your primary activity, so payments to subcontracted install crews are reported on T5018 slips due six months after your fiscal year-end, and the amounts reported include the HST you paid those subs. The slip is the easy part. The harder question is whether a crew paid per opening is genuinely a contractor; a CRA CPP/EI ruling that says otherwise reaches back with employer contributions and penalties, and WSIB coverage in construction is mandatory either way. We review the facts before the CRA does.
Two more habits round out the file. Product often lands months before install revenue does, so heavy purchase periods can push an HST return into a refund, and refund returns attract pre-assessment review; we file them with the input tax credit trail attached, and CRA Audit & Review Support answers any letter from our own working papers. The owners' personal returns are prepared alongside the T2 so salary, dividends and instalments reconcile across both files. All of it sits inside our Corporate Tax Filing service, quoted in writing after a free discovery call.
