I was just made aware that for years, many of my business’s invoices were set up to calculate the wrong sales tax. The specific scenarios vary from case to case. The money will be insignificant to our clients, however correcting it will be EXTREMELY onerous. What is my obligation?
Answer:
Is it only your responsibility to ensure that the sales tax is correct, or it is also their responsibility to check it up and make sure?
If the responsibility falls on the client to check and ensure that all is in order, you don’t have to do anything.
However, if it is your responsibility, you would have to inform the clients that there was a mistake and refund the money their lost.
If this is impossible (for whatever reason), perhaps you can simply send them a check for the difference, informing them that there has been some tax oversight (you can also make up a reasonable excuse) and that you are therefore sending them the appropriate payment. You can even arrange a check from some other source if this will help you.
Hope you manage to work it out for the best, and best wishes.
