Sales tax · GST/HST

GST: what you need to know.

Most owners believe GST registration works like this: “stay under $30,000 a year and I’m fine.” The real test is a rolling four-quarter window that can catch you in March as easily as December — and if one strong quarter does it alone, the rules change mid-invoice. Here’s how the threshold actually works, with a checker that shows exactly where you stand.

The short version

The small-supplier test has no calendar year in it. At any moment, the CRA asks two questions: did your taxable revenue pass $30,000 over the last four calendar quarters combined, or did it pass $30,000 within a single quarter?

Either “yes” ends your small-supplier status — but on very different timelines. Cross gradually and you get a one-month runway. Cross in one quarter and the sale that tipped you over is already taxable.

A quick vocabulary note before the mechanics. GST (5%) is the federal sales tax; in BC it stands alone, while provinces like Ontario blend it into an HST. One registration covers both — the rate you charge follows where your customer is, not where you are. A small supplier is a business the law excuses from registering: under $30,000 of taxable revenue on the tests above, you may sell without charging GST at all.

The moment you stop qualifying, you must register, start charging, and start filing — and because the two crossing scenarios have different effective dates, “when did I stop qualifying?” is worth getting precisely right. Start with the checker below, then read the two scenarios underneath it.

Where do you stand? Threshold checker

Enter your taxable revenue for each calendar quarter — gross sales before expenses, including zero-rated sales and any associated businesses, excluding exempt supplies and sales of capital property. Estimates are fine; the point is to see which rule you’re near.

Now

The first four are your last four completed calendar quarters; the last box is the current quarter so far.

I drive taxi or commercial ride-share (Uber, Lyft, etc.) — no threshold applies to that income; registration is required from the first fare.

Checker

Enter your quarters to see where you stand.

Enter your quarterly revenue above to see where you stand.

How this works: the checker applies the two small-supplier tests in subsection 148(1) of the Excise Tax Act as described in CRA’s guidance — a single-quarter test against each box, and a rolling test against the sum of the four completed quarters. Dates shown assume the rolling total first crossed $30,000 in your most recent completed quarter; if it crossed earlier, your obligations started earlier. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. Method notes live on our sources page.

The mechanics

Two ways to cross. Two very different clocks.

Same $30,000, but the timeline depends entirely on how you passed it.

The slow cross

Over four quarters combined

Your rolling four-quarter total passes $30,000, but no single quarter did it alone. You keep small-supplier status through the end of the month following the quarter in which you crossed — a built-in runway of up to a month.

Your registration is effective from your first taxable sale after that grace month, and you have 29 days from that sale to register.

Example. Your total for the four quarters ending June 30 hits $31,000. You stay unregistered through July. Your first sale on or after August 1 must carry GST, and you have until late August to file the registration.

The fast cross

Inside a single quarter

One quarter alone passes $30,000. Small-supplier status ends immediately — and the sale that pushed you over the line is already taxable. Your effective registration date is no later than the day of that sale.

You then have 29 days from that day to register. There is no grace month in this scenario.

Example. You land a $32,000 contract in October. GST applies to that invoice — the same one that crossed the line. If you didn’t price it in, the 5% comes out of your margin.

The practical takeaway: if you’re quoting a job big enough to cross the threshold by itself, decide the GST question before you sign — either register voluntarily first, or price the contract knowing 5% of it belongs to the CRA.

The inputs

What counts toward the $30,000.

It’s gross taxable revenue, worldwide, before expenses — and it reaches wider than most people expect.

Revenue	Counts?	Why
Sales of taxable goods & services	Yes	The core of the test — anything you’d charge GST on once registered.
Zero-rated sales (exports, basic groceries)	Yes	Taxed at 0%, but still taxable supplies — they count in full. An exporter can owe registration without ever charging a cent of GST.
Worldwide revenue	Yes	The test isn’t limited to Canadian sales. US client revenue counts.
Revenue of associated businesses	Yes	Commonly-controlled companies share one threshold — you can’t split a business in two to stay under it.
Exempt supplies (financial services, long-term residential rent, most health care)	No	Exempt is a different category from zero-rated: these never enter the GST system.
Sales of capital property	No	Selling a work truck doesn’t push you over the threshold.
Goodwill on the sale of a business	No	Specifically excluded.
Employment income	No	The test is about your business supplies. A salary alongside a side business is irrelevant to it.

Two groups play by different rules entirely: taxi and ride-share drivers must register from the first fare, with no threshold; charities and public service bodies get a higher $50,000 test (charities also stay small suppliers if prior-year gross revenue is $250,000 or less).

Once you’re registered: the place-of-supply rule

One registration, several rates. GST/HST is charged at the rate of the province where the supply is made — which usually means where your customer is, not where you are. For goods, that’s generally where you deliver them; for most services, the customer’s address. So a BC business charges 5% GST to a BC customer, 13% HST on the same work for an Ontario customer, and 14–15% into most of Atlantic Canada — all under the one account, on the one return.

Sales to customers outside Canada are generally zero-rated exports: no tax charged, but the revenue still counts toward the $30,000 test, and you still recover the GST on your related costs. If you sell across provinces, build the rate lookup into your invoicing template once and stop thinking about it.

The strategy question

Registering early, on purpose.

Staying under $30,000 doesn’t mean you should stay unregistered. For business-to-business companies, voluntary registration is usually a net win.

Why register before you must

You recover GST on your own costs. Registration unlocks input tax credits — the 5% you pay on software, equipment, subcontractors and professional fees comes back to you. Unregistered, it’s just a cost.
Business customers don’t care. A registered client recovers the GST you charge through their own credits. Your price, to them, is unchanged.
It stops broadcasting your size. An invoice with no GST tells every client your revenue is under $30,000. A GST number reads as established.
Startup costs are recoverable. Registering before a heavy build-out phase means the GST on those early costs comes back while revenue is still thin.

Why you might wait

Consumers can’t recover it. If your customers are the public, GST is a genuine 5% price increase or a 5% margin cut — whichever you choose.
Filing becomes a real obligation. Returns are due annually at minimum (with instalments once net tax passes $3,000), and late filings compound quickly.
You’re now holding trust money. GST collected is the Crown’s, not yours — it needs its own bookkeeping discipline, ideally a separate savings account.
Once in, you’re in for a year. A voluntary registrant generally can’t deregister for at least twelve months.

Our rule of thumb: if your clients are businesses, register at incorporation or launch and never think about the threshold again. If you sell to consumers, ride the exemption while it genuinely helps your pricing — but watch the rolling total quarterly, because the fast-cross scenario gives no warning.

The paperwork

Registering takes an afternoon, not a project.

Registration means getting a business number (BN) from the CRA — if you don’t already have one — and opening a GST/HST program account (the “RT0001” suffix) under it. Three routes:

Online through the CRA’s Business Registration Online portal — fastest, and you leave with your number.
By phone at 1-800-959-5525.
By mail or fax with Form RC1.

Or hand it to us. Once you’ve authorized us through the CRA’s Represent a Client, we can apply for the GST account number on your behalf — right effective date, right filing frequency, done in one sitting.

Incorporated in BC? You likely already have a business number from incorporation — you’re just adding the RT account to it. When registering you’ll choose a filing frequency (annual, quarterly or monthly — annual is the default under $1.5M of taxable supplies) and a fiscal year-end for GST purposes.

Two housekeeping notes that save headaches later:

Your GST number must appear on invoices once you’re registered and charging.
The effective date you give the CRA should follow the rules above, not the day you filled in the form. If you register late, the date is backdated to when registration was required, and GST on sales since then is owed whether or not you charged it.

Quick answers

Common questions.

Is the $30,000 GST threshold per calendar year?

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding. The small-supplier test looks at your total taxable revenue over any four consecutive calendar quarters — a rolling window — and separately at each single calendar quarter on its own. You can cross in March just as easily as in December, and hitting January 1 does not reset anything.

What revenue counts toward the $30,000 threshold?

Total revenue from taxable supplies, worldwide, before expenses — including zero-rated sales such as exports and basic groceries, and including the taxable revenue of any associated businesses. You exclude revenue from exempt supplies (such as financial services, long-term residential rent, and most health care), sales of capital property, and goodwill from selling a business. It is gross revenue, not profit.

What happens the day I cross $30,000 in a single quarter?

You stop being a small supplier immediately. The very sale that pushes you over the line is taxable — you must charge GST on that supply, and your registration is effective no later than that day. You then have 29 days from that day to actually register.

There is no grace period in this scenario, which is why businesses growing quickly should watch the number in-quarter, not annually.

What if I cross $30,000 gradually over four quarters instead?

You get a short runway. If your rolling four-quarter total passes $30,000 without any single quarter doing it alone, you remain a small supplier through the end of the month following the quarter in which you crossed. Your registration is effective from your first taxable sale after that grace month ends, and you have 29 days from that sale to register.

Should I register for GST before I have to?

Often, yes. If your customers are businesses, they recover the GST you charge through input tax credits, so registering costs them nothing while letting you recover the GST on your own expenses — software, equipment, professional fees. Registering early also hides your revenue level: an unregistered invoice tells every client you earn under $30,000.

The main case against is a consumer-facing business, where 5% becomes a real price increase, and the added filing obligation.

Do ride-share and taxi drivers get the $30,000 threshold?

No. Self-employed taxi and commercial ride-share drivers must register from their first dollar of fare revenue — the small-supplier threshold does not apply to that income. The registration is effective the day you start providing taxable passenger transportation services.

Do I charge GST or HST, and at what rate?

It depends on where your customer takes delivery, not where you are. For supplies made in BC, you charge 5% GST — BC is not an HST province. Sell to a customer in Ontario and the same registration obliges you to charge 13% HST; ship to Nova Scotia and it is 14%. One GST/HST account covers all of it; the rate follows the place-of-supply rules.

Does registering for GST also register me for BC PST?

No. GST is federal and PST is provincial, and the two systems share nothing — not the account, not the threshold, not the rules about what is taxable. BC PST has no general $30,000 threshold: most businesses selling taxable goods, software or services in BC must register before their first taxable sale. Our BC PST registration guide covers it.

The other sales tax

BC PST runs on entirely different rules.

No $30,000 threshold, its own list of taxable goods and services, and a separate registration — with a taxable list that reaches accounting, engineering and other professional services. If you sell anything taxable in BC, check both.

Read the BC PST guide

Where this comes from

Primary sources.

Everything technical on this page traces back to one of these. Figures change — check the source before relying on a number.

When the threshold stops being theoretical

Crossing $30,000 is a milestone. Let’s treat it like one.

We’ll register you with the right effective date, set the filing frequency that fits, and build the habit that keeps GST money out of your spending account — so the first remittance is a non-event.

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