Dietitian & nutrition practice tax services: the exemption follows the credential

The exemption tracks the credential and the purpose, not the topic

A dietetic service rendered by a Registered Dietitian for an individual's own health is exempt from GST/HST. The same nutrition topic delivered by a non-RD coach is a taxable supply of coaching or consulting, because the exemption is tied to the practitioner's regulated status, not to the subject matter of the session. A third category sits beside both: a corporate wellness contract invoiced to an employer is a supply made to the corporation rather than to an individual, so it is generally taxable even when an RD personally delivers every session. Most of the tax questions we see in this niche trace back to one of these three lines being blurred somewhere in the practice's pricing or invoicing.

Apportioning input tax credits in a mixed practice

Once registered, a practice earning both exempt RD counselling and taxable coaching, program, or supplement revenue can only recover the GST/HST paid on costs to the extent those costs support the taxable side. Shared costs — the office lease, practice-management software, admin wages — need a reasonable allocation method, commonly based on relative revenue between the exempt and taxable streams, applied consistently from year to year rather than picked fresh each period to suit whichever number is more favourable. Costs that clearly belong to one side only, like supplement inventory or content-hosting fees for an online program, are claimed in full against that side rather than apportioned at all. As an illustration, a practice where taxable coaching and supplement revenue make up a third of total billings would generally look to recover about that share of its shared overhead as input tax credits, not the full amount paid on the lease or the software subscription.

Where the $30,000 threshold is actually measured

Only taxable supplies — coaching, programs, supplement sales, corporate contracts — count toward the $30,000 small-supplier threshold. Exempt RD counselling revenue, however large, does not push a practice toward registration on its own, which is why a practice built entirely around 1:1 RD visits can operate for years without ever charging HST, while a much smaller practice that adds a modest coaching program can cross the line within its first year. Once registered, HST applies only to the taxable lines; the exempt counselling stays untaxed regardless of registration status.

Filing the GST34 on a mixed practice

The GST34 return reports net tax on the taxable lines only, but the working papers behind it need to show the exempt revenue too, since that is what the apportionment percentage for shared-cost input tax credits is built on. Some practices with a modest taxable slice find the quick method for GST/HST simpler than tracking input tax credits item by item, though it applies only to the taxable portion of the practice and has to be elected deliberately rather than assumed to be available.

T1 sole proprietor or a Health Profession Corporation's T2

RDs registered with the College of Dietitians of Ontario can incorporate a professional corporation for their own dietetic billings, moving that income from a T1 to a T2 and gaining access to the small business tax rate on income retained inside the corporation. A non-RD coaching business is not eligible for a health profession corporation, since coaching is not a regulated health profession — it incorporates, if at all, as an ordinary business corporation instead. A practice that combines both sometimes runs two entities for exactly this reason, a structuring question covered in full on our dietitian incorporation page. Either way, the GST/HST exemption analysis above does not change with incorporation — it changes which return the resulting numbers land on and at what rate the income is taxed on the way through.

RD registration dues, professional liability insurance, and continuing education that maintains clinical skills are ordinary deductible practice expenses under either structure. See our answer on how input tax credits work for the general mechanics behind the apportionment above. Where US clients or US supplement sourcing are part of the practice, see our cross-border tax page for dietitians and nutritionists.