This notice has been issued to clarify the situations where a vendor may recover provincial sales tax (PST) they remitted to the British Columbia Ministry of Finance, but later returned to their customer. Social Service Tax vendors are not permitted to make an internal adjustment on a supplemental tax return to recover PST returned to customers for returned goods, cancelled services or price adjustments. Vendors must return PST on credits issued to customers on or after July 1, 2010 but before January 1, 2011 (November 1, 2010 for returned goods). In order to recover the PST returned, vendors should apply to the ministry for a refund by submitting form FIN 408, “Application for Refund (Vendors, Operators, and Lessors)”. Refund applications must be received before March 1, 2011 (January 1, 2011 for returned goods).
Note that the notice has been revised, effective June, 2011. Please see the link below to the Tax Development discussing the revised notice.
BC Notice 2010-012 Revised
BC Notice 2010-012
BC FIN 408