When I registered my first business, GST/HST confused me more than anything else. Do I charge it? When? On what? Here is the plain-English version I wish someone had handed me — no jargon, just what actually applies when you are starting out in Canada.

What GST/HST actually is

GST (Goods and Services Tax) is a 5% federal tax on most goods and services in Canada. In some provinces it is combined with the provincial portion into a single HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) — so in Ontario you charge 13%, in Nova Scotia 14%, and in the Atlantic provinces 15%. In Alberta, where I am, there is no provincial sales tax, so it is just the 5% GST.

You are not paying this tax yourself — you are collecting it from your customers on behalf of the government, then sending it to the CRA. You are basically an unpaid tax collector, which is exactly as fun as it sounds.

Do you even have to register?

Here is the number that matters: $30,000. Until your business earns $30,000 in revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters, you are considered a "small supplier" and you do not have to register for or charge GST/HST. The moment you cross that threshold, you must register and start charging.

You can register voluntarily before you hit $30,000, and sometimes it is worth it — because once you are registered, you can claim back the GST/HST you pay on your own business expenses (called Input Tax Credits). If you are spending a lot to get started — inventory, equipment, software — those credits add up.

How much will you actually owe?

This is the part that trips people up. What you send the CRA is not everything you collected — it is what you collected on sales minus the GST/HST you paid on business expenses. I built a free GST/HST & remittance calculator that does this math for you, including the net amount you actually owe. Plug in your numbers before you file so there are no surprises.

What to do next

When you are ready, you register for a GST/HST account through the CRA — it is tied to your Business Number. I have linked the official CRA pages (registration, charging, and remitting) in my Resources hub so you are always working from the source, not a random blog.

A few things I learned the slightly-harder way: keep every receipt (those Input Tax Credits are real money), set aside the tax you collect in a separate account so you are not scrambling at filing time, and file on time even if the amount is zero. The CRA is far friendlier to people who file than to people who go quiet.

This is what worked for me — not tax advice. Rules and rates change and vary by situation, so confirm the current details on the CRA pages or with an accountant before you rely on any of it.