GST/HST invoice requirements in Canada
What your invoice must carry depends on its total, and your business customers lose their tax credit if a detail is missing.
Canada has no single list of what an invoice must say. What it has is stricter in practice: the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, which list what a business customer must hold before it can claim back the GST or HST you charged. If your invoice lacks one of those details, it is your customer who loses the input tax credit, and it is you who gets the call. The list grows in three steps with the total of the document. Under $100, your name or trade name, the invoice date and the total are enough. From $100 to $499.99, your GST/HST registration number and the tax charged, or a statement that the price includes it, are added. From $500, the invoice must also name the customer, state the terms of payment and describe each supply. In Quebec, Revenu Québec applies the same bands to the QST and asks for your QST number from $100, and for the QST amount and a description at any amount.
Details your customer needs to claim the tax back
Details required
7
| Your GST/HST number | Required |
| Your QST number | Required |
| Customer name and payment terms | Not required |
| Tax amount shown | Required |
Bands: under $100, $100 to $499.99, $500 or more.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Methodology
The three bands, detail by detail
The bands are set by the total shown on the document, tax included, and when one document covers several supplies, by their combined total. The source is section 3 of the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations; the Quebec column comes from Revenu Québec's table for ITCs and ITRs.
| Detail | Under $100 | $100 to $499.99 | $500 or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your name or trade name (or an intermediary's) | Required | Required | Required |
| Invoice date (or date tax became payable) | Required | Required | Required |
| Total amount paid or payable | Required | Required | Required |
| Your GST/HST registration number | No | Required | Required |
| Tax amount, or statement that tax is included with the total rate | No (QST: required) | Required | Required |
| Status of each supply if they differ | No | Required | Required |
| Your QST registration number (Quebec) | No | Required | Required |
| Customer's name or agent's name | No | No | Required |
| Terms of payment | No | No | Required |
| Description of each supply | No (QST: required) | No (QST: required) | Required |
The generator's checklist applies this table to the total you build. Switch the province to Quebec and the QST lines join the list.
Where invoices go wrong at each band
Under $100
Coffee, parking, a small part. The regulations ask little, but a receipt that only shows a card number and a total, with no supplier name, still fails. In Quebec, the QST amount must be visible even here, so a single "taxes included" line without the QST figure does not support an input tax refund.
From $100
The registration number is where most corrected invoices start. It is the business number followed by the program identifier and reference, in the form 123456782 RT0001, and the checklist flags a number that does not have that shape or whose business number fails the CRA check digit. The tax also has to be shown, either as an amount or through the inclusive statement described below. When some lines are taxable and others are not, the invoice must indicate the status of each taxable supply, which is what the per-line tax code in the generator prints.
From $500
Here the customer's name, the terms of payment and a description sufficient to identify each supply become compulsory. Freelancers who send a short "for services, October" invoice to a corporate client are the usual casualties: the accounts payable team cannot support the credit and asks for a new one.
Showing the tax: separately or included
The regulations offer two ways to show the GST/HST on an invoice from $100. The usual one is to show the tax: either per supply or as a total for all of them. Where provincial sales tax also applies to each taxable supply, the GST and PST may be shown as one combined figure, with a statement that the total includes the GST. The other way is to give tax-inclusive prices with a statement that tax is included, the total rate of tax that applies, and the amount paid for those supplies. "All prices include HST at 13%" meets it. In the generator, set "Prices include tax?" to Yes and the PDF prints the statement for you.
Revenu Québec adds its own rule for collecting the taxes: when you make a taxable sale, you must tell the customer it is subject to GST and QST, and the taxes must be either shown separately from the price or included in it.
Three invoices, three bands
The same Toronto consultant invoicing three amounts before tax, with HST at 13% computed by the engine. The band follows the total with tax, which is why a $440 job can already fall in the top band.
| Price before tax | HST | Total | Band | Details required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $80 | $10.40 | $90.40 | under $100 | 3 |
| $350 | $45.50 | $395.50 | $100 to $500 | 5 |
| $1,200 | $156.00 | $1,356.00 | $500 or more | 8 |
Small suppliers and voluntary registration
A business that is not registered for GST/HST must not add the tax, and its invoices cannot support an input tax credit for the customer. Revenu Québec's definition of a small supplier is the one the generator's notes use: total taxable supplies worldwide, with associates, of no more than $30,000 in a calendar quarter or in the four preceding calendar quarters. Above that, you register, and from that date every invoice of $100 or more carries your number. In the generator, set "GST/HST registrant?" to No to remove the tax lines.
Rates belong on the invoice too
The rate you charge depends on the province of the supply, from 5% GST in Alberta to 15% HST in the Atlantic provinces, with PST, RST or QST added in four provinces. The GST, HST and PST by province guide gives every rate and computes them, and the Quebec invoice template starts with both registration numbers in place.