accounting question?

Get a gst#. You need it to claim back the gst on everything. I think for small businesses the number is $30,000 a year in sales where they do not have to charge their customer for gst.

Charging a customer gst or not:
If you are hauling direct for a customer, and pickup and delivery is within Canada, then you have to charge them gst. If you haul to or from the USA you do not charge gst. If you haul for a broker or on behalf of another trucking company, you do not charge gst.

 

You get it back on:
-truck purchase
-fuel
-parts you buy
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The only time trucking companies are in a remittance situation is operations say, local wood hauling, or dump truck work, grain hauling, where ALL of your invoices you charge it, so long as your expenses are less than your invoived amounts, you will have to remit. Because so much of it is "zero rated", you typically won't charge/collect very much if any at all. It depends on your source of work as I said above whether or not you are required to charge it to a customer or not. I was almost always in the situation where I was getting gst back every quarter.

 

The driver responding to your questions has been an owner operator with his own numbers for many years. It would serve you well to pay close attention to his advices, they are facts not opinions.