Peslléwten - April 8, 2022
Pg. 03
Issue. 10 - úpekst
Part II: Words of Advice from an Indigenous Business Owner By Julie John
One area that I struggled with in the REAL world of running my own business was after I was done school and left on my own! I had no clue about the government, applying for and paying GST/PST, applying for and paying source deductions, etc. I do not recall being taught about this stuff when I was in school. Yes, I learned about accounting, reading reports, budgets, stats, and economics but not about the government.
GST/PST got me into a lot of debt. I did not know that once you reach a certain amount in your business ($30,000 a year) then you must apply for GST/PST. I did not know that once you applied for GST/PST you must start remitting and paying the government. To pay these bills, you need to be making a profit/revenue in your business. As a solopreneur drowning in debt, I did not have money to pay. I was choosing which bills to pay each month because I was not creating enough revenue to pay for all the bills. And as I hid away, doing my best to avoid this issue, I did not know it was adding up because I was not doing any remitting. Source Deductions, same thing. I registered for source deduction to pay employees, to have staff. One thing to pay them, another to have to put money away for their source deductions on top of their wages. What do source deductions consist of? Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Contribution, Employment Insurance (EI) Premiums, Federal, Provincial, or territorial income tax. After I closed my giftshop, I failed to close all these accounts with the government and did not know I had to.
What they do not teach you in business school And to close these accounts, they must be paid in full. Because I just left it, these accounts kept piling up debt each month. To the point, my personal bank accounts were frozen because I owed GST. I had to scramble to get this paid because all my payments and deposits were done through my bank account. This was so scary, and again embarrassing. I did manage to beg and borrow to get this paid off so I could access my bank accounts and not incur further debt with NSF. With the PST, my payments kept adding up each month and I had no clue. Plus, I chose to ignore it because I had no money to pay. I had over $30k to pay back and this freaked me out. When I finally mustered up enough courage to deal with this situation, I spoke to the nicest person on the other side who helped me out tremendously. She guided me toward what I needed to do to deal with my account.
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