When Do You Have to Register for GST/HST? The $30,000 Threshold, Precisely

The $30,000 small supplier threshold is a rolling four-quarter test, not an annual one - and there are two separate ways to fail it, with different effective dates. Here is exactly when you must register, what the 30-day deadline actually runs from, and what changes on your invoices the day you do.

The 60-second version

• $30,000 is not an annual figure and it is not a calendar-year figure. The test in subsection 148(1) of the Excise Tax Act runs over the four calendar quarters immediately preceding the current quarter, so it is a rolling window that you have to re-check every three months [1].
• There are two separate ways to blow the threshold, and they have different consequences. Exceed $30,000 in a single calendar quarter and you stop being a small supplier immediately, on the very sale that took you over [1][9]. Exceed it across four quarters without any single quarter doing it, and you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month following that quarter [9].
• Once you are required to register, you have 30 days from your first taxable supply made otherwise than as a small supplier to apply [2].
• The threshold counts your associates' revenue too, and it counts worldwide taxable supplies, not just Canadian ones [1].
• A taxi or commercial ride-sharing business has no threshold at all - subsection 240(1.1) requires registration from the first fare [2].
• If you charge "GST" while you are an unregistered small supplier, no tax was payable under section 166 [3]. You collected money that was never tax, and your customer cannot claim it as an input tax credit.

What is the $30,000 GST/HST threshold?

It is the dividing line between a "small supplier", who is excused from registering, and everyone else, who is not. Subsection 240(1) of the Excise Tax Act states the rule in the negative: every person who makes a taxable supply in Canada in the course of a commercial activity engaged in by that person in Canada is required to be registered, except where the person is a small supplier [2].

So registration is the default. Being under $30,000 is the exemption, and like any exemption it stops applying the moment you no longer qualify.

Subsection 148(1) supplies the definition. A person is a small supplier throughout a particular calendar quarter and the first month immediately following it if the total consideration for taxable supplies made by the person or an associate, inside or outside Canada, that became due in the four calendar quarters immediately preceding the particular quarter, does not exceed $30,000 - or $50,000 for a public service body [1].

Read that clause slowly, because four separate things in it routinely surprise people:

• The window is four calendar quarters immediately preceding the current one. It moves. It is not your fiscal year and it is not January to December.
• It measures supplies made inside or outside Canada. Export sales that carry no GST still count toward the threshold.
• It aggregates you and your associates.
• It runs on when consideration became due (or was paid before becoming due), not on when you got around to invoicing or when the customer eventually paid.

Certain things are carved out of the count: supplies of financial services, and supplies by way of sale of capital property [1]. Selling the delivery van does not push you over.

Two different tests, two different deadlines

This is the part that most small businesses get wrong, and it is worth being precise about because the two failure modes have genuinely different effective dates.

Test one: the single-quarter blowout

Subsection 148(2) is an override. Notwithstanding the rolling four-quarter test, if at any time in a calendar quarter your taxable supplies in that quarter alone exceed $30,000, you cease to be a small supplier [1].

The CRA's guidance puts the consequence in plain terms: you are no longer a small supplier and you charge GST/HST on the supply that made you exceed $30,000, and your effective date of registration is no later than the day of that supply [9].

There is no grace period built into this. The sale that crosses the line is itself taxable. If you invoiced it without tax, you now owe tax you did not collect, because section 221 makes you liable to collect it as an agent of His Majesty whether or not you actually did [4].

Test two: the slow creep

If no single quarter exceeds $30,000 but the rolling four-quarter total does, the timing is gentler. You stop being a small supplier at the end of the month following the quarter in which you crossed the line, and your effective date of registration is no later than the day of the first supply you make after that [9].

That extra month is exactly the "first month immediately following the particular calendar quarter" that appears in subsection 148(1) [1]. It is not a courtesy from the CRA; it is in the statute.

Worked example

A consultant bills, in a calendar year: Q1 $8,000, Q2 $9,000, Q3 $9,000, Q4 $7,000. Total $33,000, no single quarter anywhere near $30,000.

• The four-quarter total is tested as at the start of Q1 of the following year and it exceeds $30,000.
• Small supplier status runs through the end of January of the new year - the month following the quarter in which the total was exceeded.
• The first invoice issued in February must carry GST/HST, and the registration effective date is no later than that day.

Change one number - make Q3 $31,000 instead of $9,000 - and the analysis flips entirely. Subsection 148(2) fires mid-Q3, the specific invoice that crossed $30,000 is taxable, and there is no month of grace.

The 30-day application deadline

Ceasing to be a small supplier and applying for a business number are two different events, and the Act gives you a short window between them.

A person who is required under any of subsections (1) to (1.2) and (1.5) to be registered must apply to the Minister for registration before the day that is 30 days after ... the day the person first makes a taxable supply in Canada, otherwise than as a small supplier, in the course of a commercial activity engaged in by the person in Canada [2].

The 30 days runs from the supply, not from the month-end, not from your year-end, and not from when your bookkeeper noticed. Note also what the deadline does not do: it does not postpone your obligation to charge tax. You are required to be registered from the effective date; the 30 days is only the administrative window to file the application [10].

What actually counts toward the $30,000

The count is of taxable supplies, which is a broader category than "sales with GST on them".

• Zero-rated supplies count. Zero-rated means taxable at 0%, not exempt. Exports, basic groceries and prescription drugs all count toward the threshold even though no tax appears on the invoice.
• Supplies made outside Canada count, because subsection 148(1) says "made inside or outside Canada" [1]. A Canadian consultant billing only US clients can be over the threshold with zero Canadian revenue.
• Exempt supplies do not count. Most residential rent, most health and financial services, and most education services are exempt, not zero-rated. The CRA states that you generally cannot register if you provide only exempt supplies [9].
• Associates count. Splitting one business across two corporations you control does not buy you two $30,000 thresholds.
• Capital property sales and financial services do not count [1].

The practical implication for your invoicing system: the number you need to watch is total taxable revenue by quarter, including zero-rated and foreign billings, not the GST line on your sales report. Those two figures can be very far apart.

Businesses with no threshold at all

Two categories never get the small supplier exemption:

• Taxi and commercial ride-sharing. Subsection 240(1.1) says that notwithstanding subsection (1), every small supplier who carries on a taxi business is required to be registered in respect of that business [2]. Registration is due within 30 days of the first taxable supply in the course of that business [2]. There is no revenue floor.
• Prescribed selected listed financial institutions under subsection 240(1.2) [2].

Separately, paragraph 240(1)(c) carves out non-resident persons who do not carry on any business in Canada - though a long list of later subsections, including the digital-economy rules, pulls many of them back in [2].

What changes on your invoices the day you register

Registration is not just a filing obligation. It changes what your invoice has to say, and it changes what your customer can do with it.

You must disclose the tax. Section 223 requires a registrant making a taxable supply other than a zero-rated supply to indicate to the recipient, either in the invoice or receipt or in a written agreement, either the consideration and the tax in a manner that clearly indicates the amount of tax, or that the amount paid includes tax [5]. If you show a rate, subsection 223(1.1) requires you to also show the total tax or the total of the rates [5].

Your GST/HST number becomes load-bearing. Under the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, your registration number is prescribed information that the buyer needs in order to support an input tax credit at the $30 threshold and above [12]. Leave it off and you have handed your customer a document their auditor can reject. We covered the full field list in what a compliant GST/HST invoice must show.

You must respond to particulars requests. Subsection 223(2) requires a supplier, on request, to forthwith furnish the recipient in writing with the particulars needed to substantiate an input tax credit claim [5]. "I will get to it next month" is not the standard the section sets.

The rate depends on the customer, not on you. The place of supply rules decide whether you charge 5% GST or 13%/15% HST, and they turn on where the supply is made - which for many services is the customer's address, not yours. That is a separate analysis, walked through in the GST/HST place of supply rules.

If you bill Quebec customers, QST is a parallel registration. Registering federally does nothing for you provincially in Quebec. See Quebec QST invoice requirements.

Charging "GST" before you are registered

This one is more dangerous than it looks. Section 166 provides that where a person makes a taxable supply and the consideration becomes due at a time when the person is a small supplier who is not a registrant, that consideration is not included in calculating the tax payable in respect of the supply [3] (with narrow exceptions for real property and certain municipal property).

In other words: no tax was payable. So if you added a "GST" line to an invoice while unregistered:

• The amount you collected was not tax. It is not something you can simply remit and forget.
• Your customer cannot claim an input tax credit for it, because section 169 gives an ITC only for tax that became payable [7], and by section 166 none did.
• When their auditor finds it, the credit is denied and they come back to you for a refund - often years later.

Note the two conditions in section 166: small supplier and not a registrant. A voluntarily registered small supplier is a registrant, so section 166 does not apply to them and their tax is real.

Voluntary registration: when it actually pays

Subsection 240(3) permits any person engaged in a commercial activity in Canada to apply for registration even though they are not required to [2]. The CRA confirms that the effective date is usually the day you request the account, or up to 30 days before [9][11].

The case for registering early is input tax credits. Section 169 allows an ITC only for tax that becomes payable during a reporting period during which the person is a registrant [7]. Every dollar of GST/HST you pay on equipment, software and subcontractors before your effective date is, with limited exceptions, simply a cost.

One of those exceptions is worth knowing. Section 171(1) provides that when a person becomes a registrant, having been a small supplier immediately before, they are deemed to have received a supply of each property held at that time for use in commercial activities and to have paid tax equal to the basic tax content of that property [6]. So inventory and equipment on hand at registration are not a total loss. Subsection 171(2) does something similar for prepaid services and rent attributable to the period after registration [6].

Registering voluntarily makes sense when you are buying more taxable inputs than you are selling - a business in a build-out year, or one whose output is largely zero-rated exports. It makes less sense when you sell to consumers who cannot recover the tax, because you are adding 5% to 15% to your price for nothing.

Getting out again

Registration is not permanent, but exit is slower than entry. Subsection 242(2) requires the Minister to cancel the registration of a person who is not carrying on a taxi business, effective after the last day of a fiscal year, where the person is a small supplier and has filed a request in prescribed form - and has been registered for a period of not less than one year ending on that day [8].

So a voluntary registration commits you for at least a year, and deregistration lands on a fiscal year end rather than whenever you ask. The Minister may also cancel a registration on their own initiative, after reasonable written notice, if satisfied the registration is not required [8].

A practical checklist

1. Run the number quarterly, not annually. Total taxable supplies for the last four calendar quarters, including zero-rated and foreign billings, plus associates.
2. Set an in-quarter alarm too. The single-quarter test in subsection 148(2) is the one with no grace period, so you want a warning well before a quarter approaches $30,000.
3. When you cross, fix the invoice that crossed. Under the single-quarter test, that specific supply is taxable.
4. Apply within 30 days of the first supply made otherwise than as a small supplier [2].
5. Put the registration number on every invoice from the effective date, and disclose the tax as section 223 requires.
6. Take stock at the effective date. Section 171(1) lets you recover basic tax content on property on hand, but only if you can show what you held and what tax it carried - which means keeping the purchase invoices. See how long to keep invoices in Canada.
7. Never show a tax line before your effective date. Section 166 means it is not tax [3].

The threshold is a rolling measurement, and the penalty for missing it is that you owe tax you never charged. Treat it as a number your invoicing system watches for you, not one you reconstruct at year end.

Frequently asked questions

Is the GST/HST $30,000 threshold based on a calendar year?

No. Subsection 148(1) of the Excise Tax Act measures taxable supplies over the four calendar quarters immediately preceding the current quarter, so it is a rolling twelve-month window that has to be re-checked every quarter. It is not your fiscal year and it is not January to December. Separately, subsection 148(2) applies a single-quarter test: exceed $30,000 within one calendar quarter and you cease to be a small supplier immediately.

When exactly do I stop being a small supplier?

It depends which test you fail. If you exceed $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, you stop being a small supplier on the supply that took you over, and that supply is itself taxable. If you exceed $30,000 across four consecutive quarters without any single quarter doing it, you remain a small supplier until the end of the month following that quarter, and your registration takes effect no later than the day of the first supply you make after that.

How long do I have to register once I go over?

Subsection 240(2.1) of the Excise Tax Act requires you to apply for registration before the day that is 30 days after the day you first make a taxable supply in Canada otherwise than as a small supplier. The 30 days is only the window to file the application - your obligation to charge and collect tax starts on the effective date, not when the application is processed.

Do zero-rated and export sales count toward the $30,000?

Yes. Subsection 148(1) counts taxable supplies made inside or outside Canada, and zero-rated supplies are taxable supplies taxed at 0%. A Canadian consultant billing only foreign clients can be well over the threshold with no GST on a single invoice. Exempt supplies, such as most residential rent and most health services, do not count. Supplies of financial services and sales of capital property are also excluded.

What happens if I charged GST before I was registered?

Section 166 of the Excise Tax Act provides that no tax is payable on a supply where the consideration becomes due while the supplier is a small supplier who is not a registrant. So the amount you collected was not tax, and your customer cannot claim it as an input tax credit under section 169. The usual outcome is that the credit is denied on audit and the customer asks you for a refund. Note that a small supplier who registered voluntarily is a registrant, so section 166 does not apply to them.

Is there any business that has to register from the first dollar?

Yes. Subsection 240(1.1) requires every small supplier carrying on a taxi business - which includes commercial ride-sharing - to be registered in respect of that business, with no revenue threshold at all. Registration is due within 30 days of the first taxable supply made in the course of that business. Prescribed selected listed financial institutions are likewise required to register under subsection 240(1.2).

Should I register voluntarily before I hit $30,000?

Register early if you are buying more taxable inputs than you are selling, because section 169 allows input tax credits only for tax that becomes payable while you are a registrant. That favours a business in a build-out year or one selling mainly zero-rated exports. It is usually a worse deal if you sell to consumers who cannot recover the tax. Bear in mind subsection 242(2): a voluntary registrant generally must stay registered for at least one year, and deregistration takes effect after a fiscal year end.

Sources cited in this article

1. Excise Tax Act, s. 148 - Small suppliers (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-148.html
2. Excise Tax Act, s. 240 - Registration required (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-240.html
3. Excise Tax Act, s. 166 - Small supplier who is not a registrant (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-166.html
4. Excise Tax Act, s. 221 - Collection of tax as agent (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-221.html
5. Excise Tax Act, s. 223 - Disclosure of tax on the invoice (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-223.html
6. Excise Tax Act, s. 171 - Person becoming a registrant (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-171.html
7. Excise Tax Act, s. 169 - Input tax credits, general rule (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-169.html
8. Excise Tax Act, s. 242 - Cancellation of registration (Justice Laws)
   https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/section-242.html
9. CRA - When to register for and start charging the GST/HST
   https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/when-register-charge.html
10. CRA - Register for a GST/HST account
    https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/account-register.html
11. CRA - Register voluntarily for a GST/HST account
    https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/account-register-voluntarily.html
12. Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, SOR/91-45 (Justice Laws)
    https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-91-45/page-1.html
13. CRA - RC4022 General Information for GST/HST Registrants
    https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/rc4022.html

All sources verified August 26, 2026. Spotted a link that has moved? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.