$30,000 GST/HST Small Supplier Rule

You do not have to charge GST/HST until your sales go over $30,000. That part everybody knows. The part that catches people is HOW the $30,000 is counted, and what happens when you notice six months late.

The Two Tests

You stay a “small supplier” (no registration needed) until your taxable sales go over $30,000 in either of these ways:

1. In a single calendar quarter. If one quarter (January to March, April to June, July to September, October to December) goes over $30,000 on its own, you stop being a small supplier on the very sale that takes you over. You charge GST/HST on that sale.
2. Over four calendar quarters in a row. If no single quarter does it, but the last four quarters add up to more than $30,000, you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after the quarter in which you went over. You start charging on your first sale after that.

Either way, you then have 29 days to register; the steps are on how to register for GST/HST, and the whole decision on do I need a GST/HST number?

Notice what is NOT in there: your fiscal year, the calendar year, or “$30,000 a year”. It is a rolling test, checked every quarter. A business that does $8,000 a quarter is over after four quarters, even though no single year looked big.

What Counts Toward the $30,000

• Counts: taxable sales, including zero-rated ones (like basic groceries or exports), worldwide, before tax.
• Counts: the sales of businesses associated with you, such as a corporation you control.
• Does not count: exempt sales, like long-term residential rent, most health care, child care, and financial services.
• Does not count: selling your business equipment or other capital property.

Two Exceptions Worth Knowing

Taxi and ride-sharing drivers (Uber, Lyft and the like) must register from the first fare, whatever their sales. The $30,000 test does not apply to them. See Uber and rideshare taxes; delivery drivers follow the normal rule (delivery driver taxes).

You can register voluntarily before you hit $30,000. If your customers are businesses, that is often a good idea: they claim back the GST/HST you charge, so it costs them nothing, and you claim back the GST/HST on everything you buy for the business. If your customers are consumers, they pay the extra 5 to 15 percent, or you absorb it.

What to Charge

For 2026: 13% HST in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and PEI, and 5% GST everywhere else. You generally charge the rate of the province where your customer is (where a service is used, or where goods are delivered), not where you are. BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan also have a separate provincial sales tax, with its own rules.

If You Are Late

This is the expensive one. If you should have registered and did not, CRA can assess the GST/HST you should have charged on every sale since the date you crossed the line, even though you never collected it from anyone. Plus interest.

The good news: you can usually claim back the GST/HST you paid on business costs over the same period, and business customers can often be sent an invoice for the missed tax. Fixing it before CRA finds it costs far less than after. For large amounts, the Voluntary Disclosures Program can reduce penalties and interest; get professional help with that.

The Quick Method: A Small-Business Shortcut

If your sales (including tax) are $400,000 or less, you can use the quick method. You still charge the normal rate, but you send CRA a lower flat percentage of your sales instead of tracking the tax on every expense. In Ontario, most service businesses remit 8.8% of their tax-included sales, and get a 1% credit on the first $30,000. For a business with few expenses, that can leave hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in your pocket. Bookkeepers, accountants, lawyers and tax preparers cannot use it.

Rules of Thumb

1. Track your sales by calendar quarter from day one. A simple spreadsheet is enough.
2. When the last four quarters pass about $25,000, decide what you will do before you are forced to.
3. If your customers are businesses, register early; it usually pays.
4. Late? Register with the correct past date and clean it up now. Waiting only adds interest.

Check your own numbers with the free GST/HST $30,000 test.

General information based on CRA guidance current in October 2026, including guide RC4058; see our sources. Quebec businesses register with Revenu Québec. CanadianTaxes.ai is not the CRA.

Related: the full GST/HST guide (rates, input tax credits, filing), self-employed taxes in Canada, small business taxes in Canada, and the free tax document analyzer if CRA has already written to you.

Last reviewed October 4, 2026 against CRA and Government of Canada sources. How we check our facts.