GST/HST, QST and invoicing in Canada (2026)

Canada has a federal sales tax, the GST, and each province decides whether to harmonise with it, run its own sales tax, or have none. As a result, the tax on your invoice depends on where your customer is. This guide explains, for a small business owner, which rate to charge, when you must register, how to file, what your invoices and receipts must show, how Quebec's QST and mandatory billing work, and what you can do when customers pay late. Rates and dates are as of October 2026.

Sales taxes in Canada at a glance

• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5% applies across Canada. It is administered by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
• Five provinces have merged their provincial tax with the GST into a single Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), also administered by the CRA.
• Quebec charges the Quebec Sales Tax (QST) of 9.975% on the price excluding GST. Under an agreement with the federal government, Revenu Québec administers both the QST and the GST/HST for businesses in Quebec.
• British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan charge a separate provincial sales tax (PST; called retail sales tax, RST, in Manitoba), administered by each province and separate from the CRA.
• Alberta and the three territories charge only the GST.

Some supplies are zero-rated (taxable at 0%, so you can still claim input tax credits on related costs) and some are exempt (no tax charged and no credits). Check the status of what you sell before you set up your prices.

When you must register

You are a small supplier, and do not have to register, while your worldwide taxable supplies, together with those of your associates, are $30,000 or less in a single calendar quarter and over the last four consecutive calendar quarters.

• Over $30,000 in a single quarter: you stop being a small supplier with the sale that took you over. You must charge GST/HST on that sale and register within 29 days.
• Over $30,000 across four quarters (but not in one quarter): you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after the quarter in which you went over, and must register and charge tax from then.
• Taxi and ride-sharing drivers must register from their first fare, whatever their revenue.
• Voluntary registration is possible below $30,000, and lets you claim input tax credits.
• Non-resident and digital businesses: since 1 July 2021, non-residents selling digital products or services, platform operators and short-term accommodation platforms may have to register under a simplified GST/HST regime.

In Quebec, the same $30,000 rule applies to the GST and the QST, and Revenu Québec handles registration for both. You must register for the QST even as a small supplier if you sell tobacco or fuel at retail, sell alcoholic beverages, sell or lease new tires, or sell road vehicles (other than your own capital property) or lease them for 12 months or more.

Your numbers: the CRA gives you a 15-character GST/HST account number, made of your 9-digit business number, the letters RT and a 4-digit account number, for example 123456789 RT 0001. A QST registration number contains the letters TQ (certain suppliers outside Quebec and digital platform operators registered for the QST have NR instead).

PST provinces have their own registration. In British Columbia, for example, you must register to collect PST if you are located in B.C. and sell or lease taxable goods, provide software or provide taxable services, and sellers outside B.C. that sell to B.C. customers may also have to register.

Which rate to charge: the place of supply

The rate depends on the province where the supply is made, not where you are:

• Goods: the rate of the province where the goods are delivered or made available to the customer. An Ontario business shipping a desk to a customer in Newfoundland and Labrador charges 15% HST.
• Services: generally the rate of the province of the customer's home or business address that you obtain in the ordinary course of business. A Calgary accountant whose client's only address is in London, Ontario, charges 13% HST.
• Services with no Canadian address on file: the rate of the province where most of the service is performed.

You can show the tax on the invoice, or state that the price includes it. For HST, show the total rate (for example 13%), not the federal and provincial parts.

Returns and payment

The CRA assigns your reporting period based on your annual taxable supplies:

• Monthly and quarterly returns are due, with payment, one month after the end of the period.
• Annual returns are generally due three months after the end of your fiscal year. If both your previous year's and this year's net tax are $3,000 or more, you also pay quarterly instalments, due one month after the end of each fiscal quarter.
• Sole proprietors with business income and a 31 December year end file by 15 June but must pay by 30 April.
• Electronic filing is mandatory for almost all registrants (charities and some listed financial institutions excepted) for periods ending in 2024 and later.
• Quebec: you file a combined GST/HST and QST return with Revenu Québec, on the same filing frequency for both taxes.

Your net tax is the tax you charged minus the input tax credits (ITCs) for the GST/HST you paid on business purchases; in Quebec you also claim input tax refunds (ITRs) for the QST. You generally have four years to claim ITCs and ITRs, counted from the filing deadline of the return in which you could first have claimed them. PST paid in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba is not recoverable in the same way.

What your invoices and receipts must show

The GST/HST and QST rules do not impose a special invoice format (except for Quebec restaurants and taxis, below). What they do set is the information your business customers need to claim input tax credits, under the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations. The required details depend on the total of the sale:

In Quebec, if the tax shown includes both the GST and the QST, state the amount for each taxable sale and that it includes both taxes.

Good practice adds a unique sequential invoice number, the customer's address and the GST/HST rate per line, even where the law does not require them.

Correcting an invoice: under section 232 of the Excise Tax Act, if you charged too much tax you may refund or credit it within two years; if the price is later reduced, you may adjust the tax within four years after the end of the reporting period in which the reduction was made. In both cases you issue a credit note to the customer, with the prescribed information and the amount of the tax adjustment (unless the customer issues you a debit note), and both of you adjust your returns.

Foreign currency: you may invoice in another currency, but your GST/HST and QST returns are filed in Canadian dollars, so record the Canadian-dollar value of the tax.

Records: keep your sales and purchase invoices and related records for six years from the end of the year to which they relate.

E-invoicing and Quebec's mandatory billing

Canada has no general e-invoicing or real-time reporting mandate: under the GST/HST and QST systems, a PDF or paper invoice with the details above is fine.

The exception is Quebec's mandatory billing for two sectors:

• Restaurants, including bars and caterers, and businesses that supply goods or services in establishments with a bar permit, and
• Remunerated passenger transportation, such as taxi services.

Businesses in these sectors must have the required equipment, send Revenu Québec the prescribed information and give customers a bill or credit note within the prescribed time. A restaurant, for example, must record its sales in a certified sales recording system (SRS) that sends the transaction data to Revenu Québec's WEB-SRM module, and give every customer a bill produced by that system. If you are in one of these sectors, you need a certified SRS for that part; a general invoicing tool cannot replace it.

A worked example in Canadian dollars

A business sells $2,000 of office furniture, delivered to customers in three provinces:

For an Ontario business in one quarter:

To find the tax in a price that includes 13% HST, multiply by 13 and divide by 113: $1,130 × 13 ÷ 113 = $130 HST and $1,000 before tax.

When customers pay late

There is no general federal statute that adds interest to late payments between businesses. Interest is what your contract says, and the federal Interest Act sets two rules worth knowing:

• If interest is payable under an agreement or by law but no rate is fixed, the rate is 5% a year (section 3).
• If a written contract states interest per day, week or month (for example 2% a month), you cannot recover more than 5% a year unless the contract also states the equivalent yearly rate (section 4).

So if you charge interest on overdue invoices, put the yearly rate (for example 24% a year) in your terms and on your invoices. Our guide on getting paid faster covers the practical side.

Common mistakes

1. 1Charging your own province's rate on goods shipped to, or services for, customers in another province.
2. 2Missing the moment you stop being a small supplier, especially when one large sale pushes a single quarter over $30,000.
3. 3Showing the HST as separate federal and provincial parts instead of the total rate.
4. 4Leaving your GST/HST or QST number off invoices of $100 or more, so your customers cannot claim their credits.
5. 5Treating B.C., Saskatchewan or Manitoba PST like GST and expecting to recover it as an input tax credit.
6. 6Charging interest “per month” without the annual rate, which limits what you can recover to 5% a year.
7. 7Filing late: deadlines apply to the payment too, and annual filers may owe instalments during the year.

How Clientlly helps

Clientlly keeps your invoicing and your books in one place:

• sequential invoice numbering per series, with Canada's GST, HST and combined provincial rates on every invoice
• credit notes linked to the original invoice
• invoice PDFs in your client's language (English or French, for example), multiple currencies and a card payment link on the invoice
• you can see when an invoice was opened, and automatic reminders go out 3, 14 and 30 days after the due date
• recurring invoices for retainers and subscriptions
• receipts you scan have their tax read automatically
• sales and purchase tax books per rate and tax reports for you and your accountant, with Excel and PDF exports
• importing clients, suppliers, products and opening balances from Excel or CSV, and a mobile app

See the invoicing module, the accounting module and pricing. If you run a restaurant or a passenger transportation business in Quebec, you still need a certified sales recording system for mandatory billing.