GST/HST -> Who must register to collect GST or HST?

Who has to register to collect GST/HST?

All businesses which provide taxable goods and services (including zero-rated supplies) in Canada must register to collect GST or HST, unless they are a small supplier.  This includes non-residents who are carrying on business in Canada.  However, there are situations where even a small supplier must register to collect GST or HST - see below.  A small supplier is a supplier whose worldwide annual GST/HST taxable supplies (including zero-rated supplies), including the supplies (sales) of all associates (see below), are less than $30,000, or less than $50,000 for public service bodies (colleges, non-profit organizations, charities, hospitals).  However, the calculation of annual revenue is not just done on a calendar year basis.  At the end of each calendar quarter, total gross revenues for the past 4 consecutive quarters (i.e., for the past 12 months) should be totalled.  If this total exceeds $30,000, the business must register to start collecting GST.

A small supplier must register to collect GST or HST if they carry on a taxi business, according to s. 240(1.1) of the Excise Tax Act of Canada.  Also, according to s. 240 (2), any person "who enters Canada for the purpose of making taxable supplies of admissions in respect of a place of amusement, a seminar, an activity or an event is required to be registered" to collect GST.  

Businesses which sell GST taxable goods and services, and are "small suppliers" may voluntarily register to collect GST/HST.  In so doing, they will then be able to recover GST/HST that they have paid on their purchases.  New registrants may be also able to recover the GST/HST already paid on capital property and inventory that is on hand at the time of registration.  Search for new registrants the pdf version of CRA guide RC4022 General Information for GST/HST Registrants.

Business which sell only exempt goods and services may not register to collect GST, and thus may not claim any input tax credits for GST that they have paid.

Many businesses are eligible to recover their input tax credits by using the Simplified Method, which does not require separate record-keeping for GST/HST paid.  See the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) information on the Simplified Method.

When both GST and provincial sales tax are applicable to a sale, the amounts of each should be shown separately on the cash register tape or invoice.  For information on whether provincial sales taxes of another province must be charged by a vendor, see the article on the PST page re charging another province's PST.  For more detailed invoicing requirements for GST/HST registrants, see the CRA information on Collecting GST/HST in their guide RC4022 General Information for GST/HST Registrants.

All vendors who are registered to collect GST are automatically registered to collect HST.  A GST registrant in a non-HST province who sells goods which are delivered to an HST province must collect the HST.  A registrant in an HST province who sells goods which are delivered to a non-HST province would collect GST, not HST.  For more information, see CRA publications:

For non-resident businesses, further information can be found on the CRA web page How to register a non-resident business, and in their guide RC4027 - Doing Business in Canada - GST/HST Information for Non-Residents.

If you are not sure if you have to register to collect GST/HST, see the CRA web page Registering (opening) your GST/HST account.

CRA has a very useful guide, RC4022, General Information for GST/HST Registrants.  This guide also has a section on cancelling your GST registration.

Note:  Associate, for GST/HST purposes, is used to describe a relationship where one person controls another.  A corporation is considered a person, as is a partnership or trust.  For example, an association may exist between two or more corporations, between an individual and one or more corporations, between an individual and a partnership or trust, or between a partnership and a corporation.  A person is associated with another person if each of them is associated with the same third person.

Revised: January 04, 2010