SLP tax services: one clinic, three different HST answers

Exempt, zero-rated, and taxable are not the same thing

Clinical services delivered by a CASLPO-registered speech-language pathologist are exempt basic health care under the Excise Tax Act. That means no HST is charged, and no input tax credits are recovered on related expenses. A communication device specially designed for someone with a speech impairment generally falls under a separate zero-rated category for medical and assistive devices. That applies when it is sold or leased as part of an augmentative and alternative communication program. It means no HST is charged, but input tax credits on the costs behind it are recoverable. Everything else — a general-use tablet loaded with an app, a paid parent workshop, a retail resource kit — is an ordinary taxable supply. See the difference between zero-rated and exempt supplies if that distinction is new; getting it backwards either overcharges a family or under-claims a legitimate credit.

A named student keeps a board contract exempt

A school board might pay you to work directly with a named student. That could mean assessment, direct therapy, or a program built around that child. In that case, the CRA treats the student as the recipient of the service. The same exemption that applies to an insurer-paid or privately paid session applies here too. The line moves once the contract is for something without an individual client attached: professional development for board staff, program design work, or general consultation. Boards sometimes bundle both kinds of work into one purchase order. That is exactly the invoice that needs splitting before it is issued, not after the return is filed. The same distinction carries over to a private insurer or an early-intervention program that funds services for a defined caseload of children. As long as the payment traces to identified individuals receiving care, the exemption follows the service, not the payer.

The $30,000 threshold only counts your taxable slice

Exempt clinical income, however large your caseload, never counts toward the $30,000 small-supplier threshold for HST registration. Only genuinely taxable revenue — device sales beyond the zero-rated category, paid workshops, retail resources — counts. A busy clinical practice with a modest device or retail line can go years without ever needing to register. The moment that taxable slice crosses the threshold, registration applies only to it; your clinical sessions stay exempt regardless of how the rest of the practice grows. We still track the taxable slice from the first dollar, rather than waiting for it to approach the threshold. A practice that only starts counting once it suspects it is close tends to discover it crossed the line months earlier than expected.

T2125 or T2 depends on how you bill, not on what you do

Most solo SLPs and associates file a T2125 as self-employed professionals. They report session and package revenue against practice-specific deductions. Those deductions include CASLPO and OSLA dues, professional liability insurance, continuing education, and mileage across home, school, and daycare visits. An SLP who has incorporated through a CASLPO Health Profession Corporation instead reports that income on a T2, and manages salary or dividends personally. That changes the form and the planning, but not the underlying exempt-versus-taxable analysis above. The corporation inherits the same three-category split, just on a different return. We cover the incorporation decision itself on our SLP incorporation page.

Deductions follow the shape of a mobile, credentialed practice

Beyond dues and insurance, several deductions actually move the needle for most SLPs. Mileage across home, school, and daycare visits is one. A proportionate home-office claim for report writing and telepractice sessions is another. So are assessment materials and standardized test kits that need periodic replacement, and continuing education required to maintain CASLPO registration. None of these are exotic, but they are specific enough that a generic small-business checklist misses several of them. That is usually where a return prepared without practice-specific knowledge leaves money on the table.