How to get a GST number.

No, a Canadian business generally does not need a GST/HST number while it makes $30,000 or less, because it qualifies as a small supplier. The CRA measures that as total worldwide revenue from taxable supplies, including the supplies of your associates, staying at or under $30,000 in any single calendar quarter and across the last four consecutive calendar quarters. A small supplier charges no GST/HST but also cannot claim input tax credits on its own purchases, and it may still register voluntarily. Public service bodies use a $50,000 threshold instead.

The $30,000 GST/HST small supplier threshold is measured on a rolling calendar-quarter basis, not on a calendar year and not on your fiscal year. Two tests run at once: whether your worldwide taxable supplies passed $30,000 inside any single calendar quarter, and whether they passed $30,000 across the last four consecutive calendar quarters. The quarters are January to March, April to June, July to September, and October to December, and because the four-quarter window rolls forward you can cross the line partway through a year even if no single quarter came close.

Toward the $30,000 GST/HST small-supplier threshold you count total revenue before expenses from worldwide taxable supplies across all of your businesses, plus the taxable supplies of your associates if you were associated at the beginning of the calendar quarter. Zero-rated supplies are counted even though no tax is charged on them. Exempt supplies are excluded, along with revenue from supplies of financial services, sales of capital property, and goodwill from the sale of a business. Because associates are included, related businesses cannot each stay under $30,000 by splitting sales between them.

After you cross $30,000 you have 29 days to register for GST/HST, counted from your effective date of registration rather than from the day you noticed. If you passed $30,000 inside a single calendar quarter, your effective date is the day of the sale that took you over, and you have to charge GST/HST on that very sale even though you are not registered yet. If you crossed gradually across four or fewer consecutive quarters, you stay a small supplier until the end of the month following that quarter, and your effective date is the day of your first sale after that.

A Canadian GST/HST number is 15 characters: a 9-digit business number, the two letters RT, and a four-digit account suffix, written like 123456789 RT 0001. The nine digits identify the business, RT identifies the GST/HST program, and 0001 is the first GST/HST account, with branch or division accounts numbered 0002 and up. The same nine digits carry other program accounts under different letters, such as RP for payroll deductions, RC for corporation income tax and RR for a registered charity.

Getting a GST number in Canada is effectively instant if you register online, because Business Registration Online issues the business number and the GST/HST account during the session. Save or print both before you close the window, since the CRA does not mail them to you. The session times out after 10 minutes of inactivity and cannot be saved partway through, so gather everything first: your SIN, date of birth, home postal code, business name and type, the names and SINs of all owners, your addresses, a description of your major business activity, your fiscal year end and your total or estimated annual revenue. Registering by mail with Form RC1 takes longer because a CRA tax centre processes it.

Registering for GST voluntarily while under $30,000 is allowed and is often worth it, but it is a commitment rather than a formality. Any business making taxable sales, leases or other supplies in Canada may register voluntarily, and registration is what lets you claim input tax credits to recover the GST/HST you pay on purchases and operating expenses. In exchange you must charge, collect and remit GST/HST on your taxable supplies, file returns on schedule, and stay registered for at least one year before you can cancel, unless you stop your commercial activities. Your effective date is usually the date of your request and can generally be backdated up to 30 days.

If you do not register for GST/HST on time, the CRA still holds you responsible for the tax from your effective date of registration rather than from the day you finally registered. Tax was due on the sale that took you past $30,000 whether or not the account existed yet. Fixing a late registration means a written backdating request with records showing when your taxable supplies first passed $30,000, because online registration will not accept an effective date more than 30 days in the past. Late returns also attract a penalty of A plus (B times C), where A is 1% of the amount owing, B is 25% of A, and C is the number of complete months overdue to a maximum of 12, plus interest at the CRA basic rate plus 4%. Neither the penalty nor the interest is deductible.

Yes, taxi and ride-share drivers in Canada must have a GST/HST number no matter how little they earn. A driver supplying taxable commercial ride-sharing services is treated as a taxi business for GST/HST purposes and has to register and charge tax on fares the same way a taxi operator does, so the $30,000 small supplier threshold does not apply to them. Their effective date of registration is the day they start supplying taxable passenger transportation services.

After registering for GST/HST most new businesses file once a year, because the CRA generally assigns an annual reporting period on registration. The period is then set by annual taxable supplies: $1,500,000 or less is assigned annual with monthly or quarterly optional, more than $1,500,000 up to $6,000,000 is assigned quarterly with monthly optional, and more than $6,000,000 is assigned monthly with no other option. Monthly and quarterly filers file and pay one month after the reporting period ends, while annual filers file and pay three months after their fiscal year end. Sole proprietors with a December 31 year end who had business income pay by April 30 and file by June 15. Nearly all registrants must file electronically for periods ending in 2024 and later, and annual filers whose net tax is $3,000 or more make quarterly instalment payments.