Filing your GST Return in Xero
Here at Prosper, we are all about empowerment of business owners and if filing your own GST Return is something you want to do, we are happy with that but want you to do the best job you can! Here’s some of the things to look out for before you hit the file button
Bank reconciliation
If you click on the three dots next to your bank account, one option for viewing is your bank reconciliation report.
This report tells you if there are any differences between your actual bank statement balance, and the transactions recorded in Xero.
If any items are showing up in this report (run at the period end date of your GST return), then it needs to be determined if they need to be rectified prior to completing your GST return, as a lot of the time, they will impact the GST return and if not fixed, mean you over or under pay GST for that period.
Transactions Review
Within your GST return, is an transactions tab - even if you think you are a super star at reconciling Xero, it doesn’t hurt to review your own work as sometimes it’s easy to click the blue ok button when reconciling and mistakes end up recurring as Xero remembers what you did last time!
When reviewing the transactions report, things to look out for are if coding is correct, and ensuring that GST is claimed, or not claimed in the right places!
The most common mistakes we find in the audit reports are claiming GST on overseas subscriptions when we shouldn’t be - for example in some cases, the likes of Adobe, whilst having GST on the invoice, actually can’t be claimed in NZ as they are from an overseas company.
Filing your GST return
Xero make filing your own GST return oh so easy! Once you are happy with the two above steps, there is a blue Finalise button.
This finalises the GST return in Xero; filing it with the IRD is not automatic. From here, the button changes to File with IR - click this, then log in to your IRD account, and this will lodge the return with the IRD.
If you’re GST return is for an amount to pay (as opposed to being refunded), don’t forget to pay your GST by the due date too!
Filing and payment of your GST is due by the 28th of the month following; there are two exceptions to this.
GST period ending 31 March is due 7 May.
GST period ending 30 November is due 15 January.
Don’t want to deal with all of the above steps?
We are more than happy to review and file your GST return for you. This ensures accuracy of your Xero file throughout and minimises the chances of over or under paying GST due to Xero being incorrect, and also saves you time to focus your energy on other things your business needs, or your family :)