The CA$30,000 threshold, and what it counts

Almost everything written about this number gets one of two things wrong. It is not measured over a calendar year, and it is not measured on what you keep. It is CA$30,000 of revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters.

Consecutive is the word doing the work. The four quarters that matter are the last four, whichever four those are today. A business that earns nothing from January to June and CA$31,000 from July to December has crossed, even though no calendar year has ended.

Read this first if you drive

There is a group for whom none of the above matters, and it is named in this course's own audience. A taxi business must register for GST/HST regardless of revenue, and since the definition was amended to cover commercial ride-sharing, that includes drivers on the ride-share platforms.

The timing is tighter too. You apply before the thirtieth day after you begin making taxable supplies, and the registration is effective from the day you started driving, not from the day you got round to the form. Somebody who drove for a year first is registered retroactively for that year.

Revenue, not profit

• It is what you invoiced and were paid, before expenses.
• Spending most of it changes nothing about whether you crossed.
• A loss-making year can still put you over the threshold.

Counted wider than most people count it

Two things get left out of the arithmetic by people doing it honestly. The figure is your WORLDWIDE taxable supplies, so work billed abroad counts even though you charged no tax on it; zero-rated supplies are inside the number, not outside it. And it includes the taxable supplies of your ASSOCIATES, where you were associated at the beginning of the quarter, so a second business in the family can carry you over a line you thought you were under.

That capital property exclusion is the useful one. Selling the van, or the camera, does not push you toward registration, even though the money is real and it arrived this quarter.

What the CA$50,000 figure is

You will see CA$50,000 quoted. It is real and it is not yours: it applies to charities, public institutions and public service bodies. A freelancer or a shop is on the CA$30,000 figure, and a driver is on no figure at all.

1. If you drive for a ride-share platform, stop reading and register. The threshold is not part of your decision.
2. Otherwise, add the last four quarters of revenue, worldwide, including anything zero-rated, and including any associated business.
3. Take out any sale of capital property before you compare the total to CA$30,000.