Do I need a GST/HST number?

How it works

1. 1 Pick your province and say when you started selling. Then type in your sales month by month, or one total for each calendar quarter, from your till reports, bank deposits or books.
2. 2 It runs both of CRA's tests for the $30,000 small-supplier line: one calendar quarter on its own, and four quarters in a row. If you're over, it finds the day GST/HST starts and counts down the 29 days you have to register.
3. 3 Under the line, it shows how much room is left, when you'd reach it at your recent pace, and what one big order would do. Save the dates to your calendar, copy a note for your bookkeeper, or print a worksheet.

Free, with no account. Everything happens in your browser: your sales figures are never sent to us, put in a link or logged. Remember is off unless you turn it on, and then keeps your setup and figures on this device only. The calendar reminders hold dates, never amounts.

Guidance, not tax advice. Check with CRA or your accountant.

Good to know

What a small supplier is

You're a small supplier while your taxable sales, before expenses, stay at $30,000 or less in any one calendar quarter and over the last four quarters in a row. Small suppliers don't have to register. The total takes in all your businesses and your associates', and zero-rated sales like basic groceries count too. See When to register for and start charging the GST/HST.

Calendar quarters, not your fiscal year

The quarters are January to March, April to June, July to September and October to December, whatever your year-end is. The four-quarter test looks at any four in a row, so check again at the start of every quarter. The tool saves those reminders for you.

The 29 days

Over $30,000 in one quarter, GST/HST applies to the sale that takes you over. Over four quarters, you stay a small supplier until the end of the month after that quarter, then charge it from your first sale. Either way, you register within 29 days of that day. Missed it? CRA can backdate a registration; see Request to backdate your GST/HST registration.

Registering before you have to

You can register any time you make taxable sales, and claim back the GST/HST you pay on business costs. In return you charge it on your sales, file returns, and stay registered for at least a year. See Register voluntarily for a GST/HST account.

Taxi and ride-share drivers

Self-employed taxi drivers and commercial ride-sharing drivers have to register even as small suppliers. See GST/HST for taxi operators and commercial ride-sharing drivers.

What it doesn't cover

Charities, public service bodies and non-residents have their own rules, and provincial sales taxes like British Columbia's PST have their own registration. In Quebec, Revenu Québec looks after the GST (verify). Anything the tool couldn't settle from official sources is marked "verify".