When do I have to register for GST

When GST/HST registration becomes mandatory turns on a status the CRA calls "small supplier", and a $30,000 line.

What "small supplier" means. You hold that status as long as your taxable sales, plus those of anyone you are associated with, stay at or under $30,000. The CRA measures it two ways: within a single calendar quarter, or across the last four consecutive calendar quarters. The count is worldwide, not Canada-only, and zero-rated (0%) sales still count toward it, so an exporting seller can be over the line while their Canadian sales look small: see is the $30,000 threshold worldwide. A few things sit outside the count, among them sales of capital property and goodwill.

What crossing the line sets in motion. The mechanics are specific. If you go over $30,000 within a single calendar quarter, you lose small-supplier status on the day you cross, and GST/HST applies from that point, including on the very sale that put you over. If instead you cross on the four-consecutive- quarters test, the effective date is worked out differently. Either way the CRA sets a firm deadline to register once your effective date is fixed (29 days, as of the date below), and you begin charging from your registration date.

Where this becomes your decision, not a rule. Whether you have actually crossed the line, which of the two tests you crossed on, and what your effective date is, all depend on your own numbers and timing. Those are the questions to put to your accountant. TALISK_HQ keeps your total sales across every connected channel in front of you so the figure is visible; reading it against the threshold, and registering when the time comes, is the call you make with them.