The GST Guide - The Belize Department of General Sales Tax

5.6 Adjustments to Output TaxThere are some circumstances in which the registered person mayneed to adjust the amounts arrived at for output tax. Suchcircumstances are as follows:(a)(b)when he has written off or recovered a bad debt; orwhen he has issued or received a credit or debit note.5.7 Bad Debts (Section 34, GST Act)It must be remembered that a registered person accounts for GSTon the basis of time of supply which, for the normal case, is theearliest of:(a) date of issue of invoice;(b) date of payment; or(c)date that goods were made available or services performed.If a person grants supplies on credit the GST is still due on thesesupplies. The GST liability is not affected by non collection of paymentfor the supplies made during the tax period. The Act makes provisionfor relief to be granted where the tax was paid on a supply that hasproven to be uncollectible.A registered person may be allowed to claim for bad debt relief if hesatisfies the following criteria.(a) he must have already accounted for GST on the supply in respectof which the amount is outstanding;(b) all or part of the consideration must be outstanding despitereasonable efforts have been made to collect it;(c)twelve months have elapsed since the time that the amount inquestion became due and payable; and17