Canada GST/HST Invoice Requirements for Businesses and Freelancers

Canada has no single fixed GST/HST invoice format. What the invoice must show depends on its total: the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations (SOR/91-45) set three tiers of information (under $100, $100 to $499.99, and $500 or more) that a GST/HST-registered customer needs before it can claim input tax credits. CRA adds that customers must be told whether GST/HST applies and whether it is included in the price or added separately, and must be shown the GST/HST rate plus either the GST/HST amount or a clear statement that the total includes GST/HST. In short: Your business or trading name (every invoice); The invoice date (every invoice); The total amount paid or payable (every invoice); From $100: your GST/HST registration number, e.g. 123456789 RT 0001; From $100: the GST/HST charged, or a statement that the price includes it together with the total tax rate; From $100: which items are taxable at a non-zero rate, when the invoice mixes supplies of different status; From $500: the customer's name, trading name or authorized agent; From $500: the terms of payment; From $500: a description of each supply sufficient to identify it; For HST: the total HST rate, not the federal and provincial parts separately.

There is no separate simplified-invoice form; the tiers do that job. Under $100, a GST/HST-registered customer needs only your name or trading name, the invoice date and the total amount paid or payable (SOR/91-45 s. 3(a)). Your registration number becomes required from $100.

SOR/91-45 prescribes what the document must contain, not a number of days within which you must issue it. What the Excise Tax Act does require: when a customer asks, you must forthwith give them, in writing, the particulars of the supply they need to support an input tax credit or rebate claim (s. 223(2)). On the customer's side, a registrant may not claim an input tax credit unless, before filing the return that claims it, it holds evidence containing the prescribed information (s. 169(4)).

When you refund or credit GST/HST you charged in excess, or reduce the price after charging tax on it, issue the customer a credit note containing the prescribed information within a reasonable time, unless the customer issues you a debit note (Excise Tax Act s. 232(3)(a)). Excess tax can be refunded or credited within two years after it was charged or collected (s. 232(1)); a later price reduction can be adjusted within four years after the end of the reporting period in which the price was reduced (s. 232(2)).

Keep your records for six years after the end of the year they relate to (Excise Tax Act s. 286(3)). Records kept electronically must stay in an electronically readable format for that period (s. 286(3.1)).

You are a small supplier, and do not have to register, while your taxable revenues (with your associates') do not exceed $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters ($50,000 for public service bodies). Revenues here are worldwide taxable supplies, including zero-rated ones, but not financial services, sales of capital property or goodwill. If you exceed $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, you must charge GST/HST on the supply that took you over and register; if you exceed it over four consecutive quarters but not in one, you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after that quarter. If you stay unregistered, you do not charge GST/HST and cannot claim input tax credits.

Only if you are registered. A registered freelancer puts the GST/HST registration number on every invoice of $100 or more (SOR/91-45 s. 3(b)); from $500 the invoice also needs the client's name, the payment terms and a description of each service (s. 3(c)). A small supplier who has not registered does not charge GST/HST, so there is no registration number to show. Clients outside Canada: Part V of Schedule VI to the Excise Tax Act zero-rates many services supplied to non-residents. Section 23 covers "A supply of an advisory, professional or consulting service made to a non-resident person", except services connected with litigation in Canada, real property or tangible personal property situated in Canada, or acting as the non-resident's agent. Section 7 covers most other services supplied to a non-resident person, with its own exclusions (for example, a service rendered to an individual while that individual is in Canada). Zero-rated means GST/HST applies at 0%: you do not charge it, but you may still be able to claim input tax credits.

CRA says the rate you charge depends on the type of supply, where the supply is made (the place-of-supply rules) and who it is made to. If HST applies, show the total HST rate on the invoice; do not show the federal and provincial parts separately. Provincial sales tax (PST) in the non-HST provinces is a separate provincial tax; CRA refers you to each province's website for it.