Canada GST/HST Invoice Requirements: What to Include

Quick answer: Canada GST/HST invoice requirements depend on the invoice total. Under $100, show your name, the date and the total. From $100, add your GST/HST registration number and the tax charged. At $500 or more, add the buyer's name, payment terms and a description of each supply. The provincial rate depends on where the supply is made.

Canada does not publish a single prescribed invoice template. Instead, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sets out the information a registered buyer needs to claim input tax credits (ITCs) for the GST or HST they paid. If your invoice is missing those details, your customer may lose the credit, and that is usually when an accounts payable team sends your invoice back. This guide walks through the GST/HST invoice requirements tier by tier, explains which rate to charge in each province, and shows a worked example you can copy into our free online invoice generator.

For a side-by-side view of Canada and other countries, see our invoice requirements by country guide. This article is general information, not tax advice. Rules and rates change, so confirm the details with the CRA or a Canadian accountant before relying on them.

How GST and HST work in Canada

Canada has a federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 5%. Five provinces have combined their provincial sales tax with the GST into a single Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which the CRA administers. The other provinces either charge a separate provincial sales tax (PST) alongside the GST, or have no provincial sales tax at all. Quebec runs its own Quebec sales tax (QST), administered by Revenu Québec.

Like VAT in other countries, GST/HST is a value-added tax: registered businesses charge it on their sales and claim back the tax they pay on business purchases. That is why invoice details matter so much. Your invoice is the evidence your customer uses to claim its credit. If you are new to the terminology, our explainer on sales tax vs VAT vs GST covers how the three systems differ.

Current GST/HST rates by province

These are the rates that apply in 2026. Always check the CRA's rate table, because provinces can change their portion.

Province or territory	Tax on the invoice	Combined rate
Ontario	HST	13%
Nova Scotia	HST	14% (reduced from 15% on April 1, 2025)
New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island	HST	15%
Quebec	GST plus QST	5% + 9.975%
British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba	GST plus separate PST or RST	5% GST, plus provincial tax where it applies
Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut	GST only	5%

The provincial sales taxes in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are separate systems with their own registration rules and their own tax numbers. They are not part of GST/HST, so treat them as additional lines on the invoice if you are registered to collect them.

GST/HST invoice requirements by amount

The details you must show are set by the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations and scale with the total amount paid or payable. The thresholds were raised in 2021, so older guides that mention $30 and $150 tiers are out of date.

Invoice total	Information required
Under $100	Your business name or trading name (or an intermediary's); the invoice date, or the date the tax was paid or payable if there is no invoice; the total amount paid or payable
$100 to $499.99	Everything above, plus your GST/HST registration number; the GST/HST charged, either as a separate amount or a statement that the total includes tax and the rate; where some items are taxable at different rates or exempt, which items are taxable
$500 or more	Everything above, plus the buyer's name or trading name (or their agent's); the terms of payment; a description of each supply sufficient to identify it

The tiers describe the minimum. In practice, almost every business invoice should include all the $500 details anyway, because they cost nothing to add and they stop your customer from having to chase you. A clear description, a payment term and both parties' names are also basic good practice; our GST invoice guide covers the fields that most GST systems share.

Your GST/HST registration number

Your registration number is your nine-digit business number (BN) followed by the program identifier RT and a four-digit reference number, for example 123456789 RT0001. Show the full 15-character number from the $100 tier upward. Buyers can check a number in the CRA's GST/HST registry, and an invalid number is one of the most common reasons an ITC claim is denied. Our guide to the tax ID on an invoice covers where to place it and how other countries format theirs.

Showing the tax: separate amount or tax-included statement

The regulations let you either show GST/HST as a separate amount or state that the total includes GST/HST and show the rate. Most business-to-business invoices show it separately because buyers prefer to see the exact number they will claim. If you sell to consumers at tax-included prices, a statement such as "Total includes HST at 13%" works, but keep the line clear and unambiguous.

Sample Canada GST/HST invoice with the tax math

Here is a sample invoice from a Toronto web designer to a business customer in Ottawa. Both are in Ontario, so 13% HST applies. The total is over $500, so every tier's details are included.

Field	Example
Seller	Maple Pixel Studio, 100 King St W, Toronto, ON
GST/HST registration number	123456789 RT0001
Buyer	Rideau Outfitters Inc., Ottawa, ON
Invoice number and date	MPS-2026-0142, October 28, 2026
Payment terms	Net 30, due November 27, 2026
Line 1	Website redesign, 24 hours at $100.00 = $2,400.00
Line 2	Hosting setup and configuration, flat fee = $600.00
Subtotal	$3,000.00
HST at 13%	$3,000.00 x 0.13 = $390.00
Total due	$3,390.00 CAD

If the same studio sold to a customer in Halifax, the place of supply would usually be Nova Scotia, so the tax would be $3,000.00 x 0.14 = $420.00 and the total $3,420.00. For a customer in Calgary, only 5% GST would apply: $150.00 tax and a $3,150.00 total. You can check figures like these with our sales tax calculator before you send the invoice.

When a price already includes HST, work backward with the tax fraction. At 13%, the tax is 13/113 of the total, so a $1,130.00 tax-included price contains $130.00 of HST.

Place-of-supply rules: which rate to charge

The province you are in does not decide the rate on its own. Canada's place-of-supply rules decide where a supply is made, and you charge the rate for that province. A simplified view:

• Tangible goods: generally the province where the goods are delivered or made available to the buyer.
• Services: generally the province of the buyer's address that you obtain in the ordinary course of business, with special rules for services tied to real property, events and some other categories.
• Intangible property, such as software licenses: generally based on where the property can be used, often linked to the buyer's address.

That means a business in Alberta selling services to an Ontario customer may need to charge 13% HST, not 5% GST. Keep the customer's address on the invoice so the rate you charged is easy to support later.

Quebec: GST plus QST

Quebec is not an HST province. If you make taxable supplies in Quebec and are registered for the QST, you charge 5% GST and 9.975% QST. Revenu Québec administers both taxes for most businesses in the province, and Quebec has its own registration number for QST, typically a ten-digit number followed by TQ and a four-digit reference. Show both registration numbers and both tax amounts as separate lines so your customer can claim input tax credits for the GST and input tax refunds for the QST. The QST has its own information requirements, which broadly mirror the GST/HST tiers; check Revenu Québec's guidance for the exact rules.

Small suppliers and registration

You generally have to register for GST/HST once your worldwide taxable supplies, together with those of associated businesses, go over $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive calendar quarters. Below that, you are a small supplier and registration is optional. Public service bodies, such as charities, have a $50,000 threshold, and taxi and commercial ride-sharing drivers must register regardless of revenue.

If you are not registered, you cannot charge GST/HST and you should not show a registration number. Your invoices are still useful commercial documents, but they will not support an ITC claim. Some small suppliers register voluntarily because business customers prefer it and because it lets them claim back the tax on their own purchases. Non-resident sellers of digital services to Canadian consumers have a separate simplified registration system.

Zero-rated, exempt and exported supplies

Not every sale is taxed at the standard rate. Zero-rated supplies, such as basic groceries and most exports of goods and services, are taxable at 0%, so you charge no tax but can still claim ITCs on related costs. Exempt supplies, such as many residential rents and certain health and financial services, carry no GST/HST and do not allow ITCs. On an invoice with mixed items, make clear which lines are taxable, zero-rated or exempt. Our article on zero-rated vs exempt supplies explains the difference using VAT terminology that maps closely onto the Canadian system.

If you invoice clients outside Canada, our guide to invoicing international clients covers currency, payment and wording for exported services.

Credit notes and corrections

If you refund or reduce the price after issuing an invoice, issue a credit note that references the original invoice number, shows the reduction and the GST/HST adjustment, and includes the details the CRA expects for a credit note. Do not edit and resend the original invoice with the same number. Our credit note guide explains the format step by step.

Checklist: Canada GST/HST invoice

1. Unique, sequential invoice number and the invoice date.
2. Your legal or trading name and business address.
3. Your full GST/HST registration number, such as 123456789 RT0001, if you are registered.
4. The buyer's name and address.
5. A clear description of each item or service, with quantity and price.
6. The province-correct rate, with GST/HST shown as a separate amount or a clear tax-included statement.
7. Separate lines for QST or PST where you are registered for them, with their registration numbers.
8. Notes for zero-rated or exempt items.
9. Subtotal, tax and total, with the currency stated.
10. Payment terms, due date and how to pay.

A clean layout makes these fields easier to spot. The minimal invoice template gives each tax line its own row, which suits HST and GST-plus-QST invoices.

Common mistakes on Canadian invoices

• Charging your own province's rate by default. The place-of-supply rules often point to the customer's province instead.
• Showing only the nine-digit business number. Buyers need the full RT program account number.
• Charging GST/HST before you are registered. If you are not registered, you cannot collect the tax.
• Combining GST and QST into one line. Quebec customers need to see each tax separately.
• Using outdated thresholds. The $30 and $150 tiers were replaced by $100 and $500.
• Reusing invoice numbers after a correction. Use a credit note and a new number; a consistent invoice numbering system makes audits easier.
• Discarding records too early. Keep invoices for at least six years; our guide on how long to keep invoices covers the rules by country.

E-invoicing in Canada

As of October 2026, Canada has no general business-to-business e-invoicing mandate, and a PDF invoice that contains the required information remains acceptable. Some government departments and large companies require suppliers to submit invoices through their own portals or electronic systems, and Canada has explored Peppol for government procurement, so watch for official announcements if you sell to the public sector.

Official sources

For rates, registration and filing, start with the CRA's GST/HST for businesses pages. The exact invoice information rules are in the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations on the Justice Laws website. When you are ready, open the invoice generator, add your registration number and the correct provincial rate, and download a PDF in a few minutes.