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GST/HST Threshold Calculator

Four consecutive quarters, not a calendar year, and the two clocks that decide your registration date.

Revenue before expenses, for the earliest of your last four calendar quarters.

Taxable supplies of any business you are associated with, over the same four quarters. Leave at zero if none.

Sales of capital property, financial services, and goodwill from selling a business. These come out of the figure.

You are a
Taxi or ride-share?

You are still a small supplier

$4,500 to go

You are at 85% of $30,000. This window moves every quarter, so a strong quarter replacing a weak one can cross the line without your annual revenue changing much.

Four-quarter total

$25,500

Revenue, not profit

Threshold

$30,000

Businesses and individuals

Headroom

$4,500

Before you must register

Your four quarters

  • Oldest quarter$4,000
  • Three quarters ago$5,500
  • Two quarters ago$7,000
  • Most recent$9,000
Four CONSECUTIVE calendar quarters, not a calendar year. The window moves with you, so this is the last four whichever four those are today.

How the figure was reached

  1. 1Your four quarters$25,500
  2. +Associates' taxable supplies$0
  3. -Capital property, financial services, goodwill$0
  4. =Counted toward the threshold$25,500

Two tests, two clocks

Exceed in a single quarter and you stop being a small supplier immediately. Your effective date is no later than the day of the supply that took you past the threshold, and you must charge tax on that very supply.

Exceed over four quarters without any one of them crossing it, and you stop at the end of the month following that quarter. Your effective date is the first supply you make after that.

Either way you have 29 days from the effective date to register. The expensive version of this mistake is invoicing a client without tax, finding out later that the effective date was before that invoice, and owing the CRA tax you never collected. You can ask the client for it. They do not have to say yes.

What this does not know

Whether a particular sale of yours is taxable, zero-rated or exempt. Zero-rated supplies count toward the threshold and exempt ones do not, so a business with exempt revenue will see a figure here that is too high.

Whether you are associated with another business, which is a defined term and not a matter of how closely you work with someone.

It also assumes the $30,000 and $50,000 thresholds are current. They have not changed in years, and the CRA page linked below is the place to confirm before you act on a borderline figure.

What this does

Enter your last four calendar quarters of revenue and this tells you whether you are still a small supplier, how much headroom is left, and if you have crossed it, which of the two tests fired and what your registration deadline is.

Why this one

Almost everything written about this number gets two things wrong. It is not measured over a calendar year, it is four CONSECUTIVE calendar quarters, so the window moves and a business can cross in August with no year having ended. And it is revenue before expenses, so a loss-making year can still put you over. This calculator runs both tests separately, because exceeding in a single quarter and exceeding across four have different effective dates and different consequences, and that distinction is the one that costs people money.

The formula

counted  =  four quarters  +  associates' supplies  -  exclusions
exclusions  =  capital property  +  financial services  +  goodwill
single quarter test  =  one quarter alone above the threshold
   effective  =  the day of the supply that crossed it
four quarter test  =  the four together above the threshold
   effective  =  end of the month after that quarter
either way, 29 days from the effective date to register

Published so you can check it. A calculator about money that will not show its working is asking to be trusted on the one thing you cannot verify.

Questions

Is the CA$30,000 a calendar year?
No, and this is the most common error. It is four consecutive calendar quarters, whichever four those are today, so the window moves with you. A business earning nothing from January to June and CA$31,000 from July to December has crossed, even though no calendar year has ended.
Is it my profit or my revenue?
Revenue, before expenses. Spending most of it changes nothing, and a year that made a loss can still put you over the threshold.
What counts toward it?
Your worldwide taxable supplies, with zero-rated supplies included rather than excluded, plus the taxable supplies of any business you are associated with. Sales of capital property, supplies of financial services, and goodwill from the sale of a business all come out.
I drive for a ride-share platform. Does the threshold apply to me?
No. A taxi business must register regardless of revenue, and the definition was amended to cover commercial ride-sharing, so the CA$30,000 figure is not yours to reach. Registration is due before the thirtieth day after your first taxable supply, and it is effective from the day you started driving rather than the day you registered.
What is the CA$50,000 figure I keep seeing?
It is real and it is probably not yours. CA$50,000 applies to charities, public institutions and public service bodies. A freelancer, a consultant or a shop is on CA$30,000.
What happens if I invoiced without tax and later find I had crossed?
Your effective date can land before the invoice, which means tax was owed on it. You can go back to the client and ask for the tax. They do not have to say yes, and if they say no it comes out of what you were paid.

This tool is for education and planning only and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice. EmpireSheets is not a regulated adviser. Rates, rules and thresholds change, so check anything time sensitive against a current official source before acting on it.