Who this is for
Restaurants, cafes, food trucks, tiffin and catering businesses. Anyone who sells through delivery apps, online ordering, or a card terminal that deposits net of fees.
The five numbers to separate
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Gross sales. What customers paid in total, from the app’s and the point-of-sale system’s sales reports. This is the revenue figure the CRA expects, and the base for GST collected.
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Platform commissions and marketing fees. The percentage the app keeps on each order, plus any promotion or advertising charges. An expense. The app’s statement shows it, often with GST on it.
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Card and payment processing fees. A percentage plus a fixed amount per transaction. An expense. The processor’s monthly statement shows it.
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Refunds, chargebacks and adjustments. Orders refunded to customers reduce sales. Chargebacks and disputes need their own line so they can be followed up.
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Tips. Tips collected through the app or terminal belong to staff. They pass through the business and are handled under payroll rules, not as sales. Our guide on restaurant tips explains direct and controlled tips.
How the books should look
Each month: sales by channel from the reports; fees by type from the statements; the net deposit matched to the bank. When those three agree, the GST return is right and the income statement means something. When only the deposit is recorded, sales are too low, expenses are missing, and the GST you remit will not match what you collected.
One thing many people do not realize
GST is charged on what the customer paid, not on what you received. A $30 taxable order through a delivery app is a $30 sale with $1.50 of GST collected on it. That holds even if the app kept $9 and deposited $22.50. The commission the app charged you is a separate expense, and it may carry GST you can claim back. Recording the deposit alone gets both sides wrong.
What to prepare
- Monthly sales reports from each delivery app and your point-of-sale system
- Monthly statements from the apps and the card processor showing fees
- Bank statements for the same months
- Your current method, so we can see where the gap is
When professional help may make sense
If past GST returns were filed from deposits, the collected GST was understated and the fee-related input tax credits were probably never claimed. Both need correcting, and the earlier the better.
How Rex Tax may be able to help
We set up monthly bookkeeping that starts from the platform reports, reconcile to the bank, and prepare GST returns from the right figures.
From the Rex Tax desk
Restaurants that bring us the bank statement as their sales record usually underreport sales by the amount of the fees. Then they cannot explain why the GST return and the income statement disagree. The fix is always the same: start from the platform and point-of-sale reports, not the bank.
Official sources
This guide is general information, not advice about your situation. It reflects the rules for the 2026 tax year. It has not yet been reviewed by a practitioner. The information was checked against the official sources listed above on the date shown. Rules change. Check the official sources above or ask us. How we prepare these guides.