Invoicing in Canada is mostly straightforward, with a handful of details that catch people out — usually the tax ones, and usually only after an accountant points it out.
This guide covers the whole thing end to end. Where a topic deserves more room, there is a link to a fuller piece.
The first question, and the one people get wrong most often.
You must register for GST/HST once your taxable revenue passes $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, or across four consecutive quarters. Below that you are a small supplier, and registration is optional.
If you are not registered, your invoice shows no GST or HST and no registration number. Charging tax you are not registered to collect creates a problem that only gets bigger.
Plenty of people register voluntarily before they hit the threshold, because registration lets you claim input tax credits on your own purchases — software, equipment, professional fees. If you are spending meaningfully on those, the credits can outweigh the paperwork.
Generally the rate depends on where your customer is, not where you are. An Alberta consultant billing an Ontario client typically charges 13% HST, not 5% GST.
The current rates:
| Province / territory | Rate |
|---|---|
| Alberta, BC, Manitoba, NWT, Nunavut, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon | 5% GST |
| Ontario | 13% HST |
| New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, PEI | 15% HST |
British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec also levy separate provincial taxes — PST, RST and QST — which are administered independently of the GST/HST system and are not part of the rates above.
The place-of-supply rules have real exceptions, particularly for goods, digital services and work performed on location. If most of your billing is out of province and you have never checked, that is a twenty-minute conversation with your accountant worth having once.
This is regulated, and the thresholds changed in April 2021 — from $30 and $150 to $100 and $500. A surprising number of templates and blog posts still use the old numbers.
123456789RT0001The simplest approach is to include everything on every invoice. There is no penalty for exceeding the requirement, and it removes a decision you would otherwise make each time.
Read next: GST/HST Invoice Requirements · What to Include on an Invoice in Canada
They protect your client, not you.
When your client pays your invoice, they want to claim the tax you charged as an input tax credit. If a required field is missing, the CRA can deny that claim — most often because the registration number was absent. Incomplete documentation is one of the most common reasons credits get disallowed on audit.
A complete invoice is a small professional courtesy that nobody notices unless you get it wrong. Your registration number is publicly checkable through the CRA's registry, and larger accounts-payable departments do check — so make sure the number on your template is correct.
The document is the easy part. The harder part is the gap between sending it and the money arriving, and most of that gap is process rather than reluctance.
The changes that move the date most:
Read next: How to Get Clients to Pay Invoices Faster
Business records supporting your return generally need to be kept six years from the end of the tax year they relate to.
Electronic invoices are fine. The CRA accepts them provided the required information is present and the records stay readable and retrievable.
Retention is where people come unstuck. A PDF in a folder counts. An invoice that exists only inside a tool you stopped paying for does not. It is worth asking of whatever you use today: if the subscription lapsed tomorrow, could you still produce six years of invoices?
For ongoing work, recurring invoices remove the monthly decision of whether to bill. That decision is where revenue quietly leaks — a busy month goes unbilled and never gets caught up.
For long projects, progress billing at agreed milestones beats one large invoice at the end. Smaller amounts get approved faster, and you are not carrying months of unpaid work.
For either, a deposit on acceptance is normal in professional services. Thirty to fifty percent is common and rarely resisted.
If an invoice is wrong, do not delete it and reissue with the same number. Issue a credit note against the original and raise a new invoice with a new number.
Your numbering has to be sequential and gap-free to survive an audit cleanly, and your client's system will likely reject a duplicate number anyway.
Register when you cross $30,000. Charge the rate that applies to your customer's province. Put every required field on every invoice regardless of size. Bill the day the work ends, with a due date rather than a duration. Keep everything for six years somewhere you will still have access to it.
Free tool: our Canadian invoice template includes every field above and calculates the tax for you. No signup.
Rates and thresholds current as at August 2026. Which rate applies generally depends on where your customer is located, not where you are. General information, not tax advice — verify current CRA requirements, which do change.