topic Re: Double tax in My account

Smart Pay double taxed?

Lindsay1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 11:28:10 GMT

I have recently upgraded my phone with their smart pay financing. On my contract summary it is showing all of my taxes as included and shows applicable taxes. Then on my first bill I’m also getting charged the device taxes upfront. When I have called no one seems to able to find that page on their end. I filed a complaint with the crtc and it declined because taxes are out of their jurisdiction. Has anyone else noticed this? Any other suggestions on how to dispute it? Thanks!

Re: Double tax

dks — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 11:18:52 GMT

That is correct. When you finance a device through Smart Pay you are always charged HST on the device purchase. It is due on the first invoice. That is the way HST works and has always worked. The same is true when you finance any purchase.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

WelshTerrier — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 11:27:07 GMT

Good Day & Welcone to the Bell Comunity Forum.

Bell is required to remit the HST on the full price of the phone when it is sold. Your monthly payment includes the amount you financed and your plan cost plus the HST on your plan. HST is calculated & charged on the full retail price of the mobile phone at the time of purchase. If you chose to pay down a portion & finance the remainder, taxes on the financed device amount are payable with your monthly device payments.13.0% HST is charged on the full price of the device. Your deposit is subtracted from the purchase price + the taxes leaving you with the outstanding balance owing. Your monthly finance payments & mobility plan are also taxable.

For further assistance, please call 1 800 667-0123 or dial *611 from any Bell mobile device.

Take care.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

Lindsay1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 13:12:29 GMT

I bought the phone in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan does not pay hst. Saskatchewan taxes are gst of 5% and pst of 6%. So why I am charged another tax which does not apply in Saskatchewan?

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

Lindsay1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 13:14:49 GMT

Also the amount charged in my financing is not 13%. It is approximately 9% of the purchase price which doesn’t equal any amount of tax that should be charged in Saskatchewan.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

Lindsay1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 13:34:11 GMT

If I add up all the taxes being charged. (The ones included in financing and the ones being charged upfront) it ends up working out to 19.89% of the total purchase price. With sales taxes being 11% in Saskatchewan how can you explain that?

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

dks — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 14:26:56 GMT

Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, as your concern is specific to one province and because we gave no access to account and billing matters in this user to user help forum, you will have to raise your question with Bell Mobility Accounts and Billing directly for a satisfactory answer. Please call 310-2355 or *611 from any Bell Mobility phone. Thank you for your question.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

Lindsay1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 14:41:22 GMT

I have called about this several times and have yet to receive an explanation. I have also filed a complaint with the crtc. But because it is about taxes it was declined. This is the only way I have been able to get somewhat of an answer. Who can I go to to dispute this?

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

WelshTerrier — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 20:19:34 GMT

Good Day

@Lindsay1 The Bell Community is a place for you to ask questions, find answers and share your thoughts. It is a peer-to-peer site. As indicated by @dks we do not have access to your account & billing records. We do our best to assist in answering your questions with the best available information that we have at our disposal.

We also depend on you providing us with the necessary details in order to answer your question. By no means do we claim to know or have all of the answers. We do not work for Bell. We are all members trying to help other members in solving their issues.

In my original post, I must apologize for being so presumptive in assuming your province of purchase. The taxes percentages that I made reference to are for HST only.

I also suggested in my earlier reply that: "For further assistance, please call 1 800 667-0123 or dial *611 from any Bell mobile device."

When it comes to billing issues, Bell Customer Service is your best contact for these details We will always try to help you, but the final decision rests with your Bell service representative.

Once again, my apologies & thank you for your feedback.

Take are.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

Lindsay1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 20:23:40 GMT

Ok I have called several times. Is there anyone else I can contact about this? Or how can I dispute it? I understand to call billing, but billing has gotten me where except on hold and talking to six different people none of which can ‘see which charge im talking about’. Is there any other way you can suggest disputing this matter?

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

Lindsay1 — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 20:25:31 GMT

When I add up the taxes charged within the financing plus the taxes charged up front I’m being charged a total of 20% taxes

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

WelshTerrier — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:33:00 GMT

@Lindsay1 Now that is a very good question. If you are not satisfied with the service representatives explanation, have you asked to speak to a manager? If you have not done so, please do so. If you have already spoken to a manager, I will assume that you have the full details of who you call, when, date / time, & the details. Have you read the terms or your Mobility agreement? If not, then, please have a look at it. It is available on MyBell. Login to to your MyBell account. Select > My Profile > MyBell > Scroll down & Select > Services profile. On the right side of the page highlighted in blue,: Select > View Bell Mobility agreements.

Take care.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

dks — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 21:06:50 GMT

I think it is reasonable to say we have gone as far as we can on this matter in this forum. I suggest you check your calculations with a bookkeeper or an accountant or someone in your province who is familiar in how your provincial sales tax is calculated.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

Peterg2000 — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 01:06:11 GMT

I spent 3 full hours one day trying to get an explanation regarding the taxes on my bill that don't add up. I spoke to a regular employee for 2 hours and to her supervisor for another hour and they still couldn't explain it to me. My beef was the fact my bill shows a subtotal for all Bell services included. For example say that was $150 , but then they charge me GST $42 and PST $85 Which is $127(amounts are rounded for the example) . If the extra taxes are for the device then that should be stated on the bill. As it is now it looks like Bell is overcharging taxes by a huge margin!

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

dks — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 01:21:56 GMT

Thank you for your question. As this is a user to user forum, we have no access to your account details and billing matters. For that reason, we can’t comment on the issue you raise. I suggest you have your bill reviewed by a person who is knowledgeable of tax legislation your province in order to determine if your conclusion has any basis in fact. That’s likely not the answer you are looking for but it is the best we can do given the forum’s limited scope.

Re: Smart Pay double taxed?

swise — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:31:18 GMT

I am in the same boat. The explanations above are incorrect regarding taxing the full retail amount. At least according to what's shown on the mybell site. Bear with me...

If you click the "?" on the device purchase item on the webpage for your bill, you'll see a breakdown of the device agreement. It shows the taxed amount is on the reduced price after your agreement credit, not the full retail price. Then the financed amount plus the device return option adds up to the total reduced price (which includes tax). So the tax is included in the financed amount. So you will be paying the taxes off as you pay your monthly bills.

If you break down your bill further, you'll see that in "other charges & credits", it'll show the full retail (untaxed) price due then the financed amount, price reduction, etc as credits. Because the tax is baked in to the financed amount, you end up getting credited more than the full price of the device. If you look closely, you'll notice that you have a credit equal to the amount of tax on the reduced price of the device.

Than, further down in your bill, with zero explanation, that amount you were credited gets added back in as HST/GST/whatever. So it technically evens out. Bell is essentially crediting you tax in one part of the bill, and charging it again at the end of the bill. However, it makes the bill look absolutely incorrect since your subtotal was decreased by the taxed amount and your tax was increased by that amount. So you could easily end up with something like 150$ subtotal + 120$ tax.

tldr; Bell seems to bake the tax into the "financed amount", then for "reasons", they essentially credit you the tax in "One-time charges & credits", then charge it back in the GST/HST/whatever part of the bill. The subtotal and tax part of your bill then looks wildly incorrect.

I have no idea why it's so unintuitive and was able to get 0 explanation from Bell as of yet. I can't even confirm if this is right, but the math works on my bill.