When do I have to register for GST/HST?

The $30,000 threshold that ends small supplier status

Every business starts out as a small supplier under the Excise Tax Act, meaning it is not required to register for GST/HST. That status lasts only until your worldwide taxable supplies, the total revenue from taxable and zero-rated sales, pass $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over the trailing four consecutive calendar quarters. The test looks at gross sales, not profit, and it adds together every taxable revenue stream your business has rather than isolating one product line.

Sales that are zero-rated, most exports and a short list of specific goods and services, still count toward the $30,000 even though no tax is actually charged on them. This catches exporters off guard, since they often assume a threshold about charging tax has nothing to do with sales where no tax was ever collected. Revenue from supplies that are fully exempt, such as most residential rent or many financial services, is left out of the count entirely; our explainer on the difference between zero-rated and exempt supplies covers that distinction if it is not familiar.

Two ways to cross the line, and two different effective dates

You can lose small supplier status in one of two ways, and each sets a different date for when registration becomes mandatory. If a single calendar quarter's sales alone exceed $30,000, you generally stop being a small supplier on the day of the sale that pushed you over, and you are expected to start charging GST/HST from that sale onward rather than from the start of the quarter.

If no single quarter crosses $30,000 but your sales over four consecutive quarters add up past it, you stop being a small supplier at the start of the month following the quarter in which the cumulative total was exceeded. Either way, the general rule is that you must register within 29 days of the day you stop qualifying as a small supplier. Tracking a rolling four-quarter total matters more here than checking your sales once a year at tax time, since a strong season can push you over well before your usual annual review.

A few businesses register from the first dollar of revenue

Taxi operators and drivers providing commercial ride-sharing services, the kind of work done through apps like Uber and Lyft, do not get the small supplier exemption at all. The Excise Tax Act specifically excludes these activities from the $30,000 test, so a driver must register for GST/HST and charge it from the very first fare, regardless of how little the business earns in a year. This is one of the more commonly missed rules among new rideshare and delivery drivers who assume the usual threshold applies to them.

• Taxi drivers and other licensed commercial passenger transportation register regardless of annual revenue.
• Drivers earning fares through a ride-sharing app fall under this same rule, not the ordinary small supplier test.
• Food and parcel delivery drivers who are not also providing passenger transportation generally still follow the standard $30,000 threshold.

Non-resident businesses selling digital products and services to Canadian consumers face a related but separate simplified registration regime introduced for the digital economy. If that describes your business, the mechanics differ enough from the domestic small supplier rules that it is worth a specific conversation rather than assuming the $30,000 test applies to you the same way it applies to a Canadian resident business.

When the CRA adds two of your businesses together

If you operate more than one business and they are associated under the rules, generally corporations under common control, or a corporation and the individual who controls it, the CRA combines their taxable sales when testing the $30,000 threshold. Opening a second corporation does not reset the clock or give each entity its own separate $30,000 allowance to work with.

This surprises owners who incorporate a second venture assuming it starts fresh as its own small supplier with a clean slate. Anyone structuring a group of related businesses should factor GST/HST registration timing into that plan alongside the corporate structure itself, since untangling it after the fact is more work than planning for it up front; our incorporation and compliance page covers how we set structures up with this in mind.

A common example is a sole proprietor who incorporates a second, related line of business while keeping the original proprietorship active. If the CRA considers the two associated, their combined sales are what gets tested against $30,000, not each one measured on its own. The same logic applies to a franchise owner who opens a second location under a separate numbered company; the two locations are generally tested together rather than each starting over as its own small supplier.

How we track this for clients

We keep a rolling four-quarter total for each client's taxable sales, including any associated business, so registration happens exactly when the rule requires it rather than after a CRA letter arrives asking why it did not. Where a client is approaching the threshold, we flag it before the quarter closes so there is time to register, update invoicing, and adjust pricing without scrambling partway through a busy season. Our tax services cover GST/HST registration, filing frequency, and return preparation as one ongoing process rather than a once-a-year task handled after the fact. Once registered, we also help clients set the right filing frequency and get comfortable with the mechanics of actually remitting; see our answer on filing and paying your GST/HST return for what happens after registration is done.

Source: CRA — GST/HST for businesses.