Most side hustles in Canada do not have to register for GST/HST while worldwide taxable supplies, including associates, stay at or under $30,000 in a calendar quarter and over the last four consecutive calendar quarters. Self-employed taxi and commercial ride-sharing drivers are the exception the CRA names: they register and charge GST/HST on fares even when they are small suppliers. Quebec has a parallel QST registration with Revenu Québec, including a first-passenger rule for a taxi business.
This is general information, not tax advice. Talk to an accountant before you register, charge, or decide you are exempt. The $30,000 figure is the threshold on the CRA’s current when to register page. Confirm it there before you use it, and confirm the rate for the province where the supply is made on the charge and collect table. The table changes. Nova Scotia’s HST is 14% as of April 1, 2025, on that table.
How you report the income itself is how to report side hustle income. Money you collect and must remit is not spending money. The set-aside habit is how much tax to set aside.
When does a side hustle in Canada have to register for GST/HST?
A side hustle in Canada has to register for GST/HST when you are not a small supplier and you make taxable supplies in Canada, unless your only taxable supplies are real property sold outside a business. The CRA’s when-to-register page says you are a small supplier if you do not exceed the $30,000 threshold over four consecutive calendar quarters. You may register voluntarily if you make taxable supplies in Canada. You generally cannot register if you provide only exempt supplies.
The threshold is revenue before expenses, from worldwide taxable supplies, including zero-rated supplies such as many basic groceries. It includes your other businesses and associates who were associated at the beginning of the calendar quarter. RC4022 says the calculation excludes financial services, sales of capital property, and goodwill. A lawn route and a writing practice can share one $30,000 pot. Exempt supplies are not part of the test. Zero-rated supplies still count.
| Situation | Registration | What the CRA page says to do |
|---|---|---|
| At or under $30,000 on the four-quarter test, and not a taxi or ride-sharing business | Optional | You may register voluntarily. Effective date is usually the day you request it, or up to 30 days earlier |
| Over $30,000 in one calendar quarter | Required | Stop being a small supplier on the supply that put you over. Charge GST/HST on that supply. Register within 29 days of the effective date |
| Over $30,000 across four consecutive quarters, but not in one quarter | Required | You stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after that quarter. Charge tax from the first supply after that |
| Self-employed taxi or commercial ride-sharing | Required from the start | Effective date is the day you start supplying taxable passenger transportation |
Voluntary registration means you charge GST/HST, file returns, and, on the CRA register page, you may need to stay registered for at least one year. The reason people volunteer is input tax credits on business purchases. It is not required while you are a small supplier, except for the taxi rule.
How do the four-quarter and one-quarter tests work in Canada?
The four-quarter test in Canada asks whether taxable supplies went over $30,000 across four consecutive calendar quarters. The one-quarter test asks whether they went over $30,000 inside a single quarter. A calendar quarter, on the CRA page, is a three-month period beginning January 1, April 1, July 1, or October 1. Your own “busy season” does not redefine the quarter.
The CRA’s examples on that page are the ones to copy in structure. Four quarters totalling $29,000 leave the person a small supplier. One quarter of $38,000 means they charge tax on the supply that crossed $30,000 and register within 29 days. Two quarters of $25,000 mean they stop being a small supplier at the end of the following month, and the effective date is no later than the first supply after that.
Use amounts before expenses. Do not subtract ads, gas, or fees, and do not add GST/HST you did not charge. Add every business. A hustle under $30,000 can still cross the line when you add another one. Memorandum 2-2 explains associates. Four consecutive quarters can straddle January 1. The one-quarter rule is faster: the supply that puts that quarter over $30,000 is already taxable.
Food delivery, house cleaning, and freelance writing use this test. They do not use the taxi rule unless you also carry passengers for a fare.
Do rideshare and taxi drivers in Canada register from the first fare?
Self-employed taxi operators and commercial ride-sharing drivers in Canada must register for GST/HST even if they are small suppliers, and they charge GST/HST on those fares. The CRA’s taxi and ride-sharing page says the effective date is the day you start supplying taxable passenger transportation services. The register page repeats that it is mandatory even if you are a small supplier.
Since July 1, 2017, commercial ride-sharing facilitated by a web application is included in the taxi-business definition. Memorandum 2-2 says mandatory registration can apply only to the taxi business unless you ask to extend it, or unless combined taxable supplies go over $30,000 and you stop being a small supplier for the rest.
Rideshare driving is the work guide. Delivery of food or parcels is not passenger transportation. Do not charge GST/HST on delivery from the first order solely because a friend who drives people had to register. If you do both on one platform, keep the two activities separate in your notes until a tax professional tells you the registration covers both.
The CRA describes you as usually self-employed if you own the vehicle or lease it for a flat fee or a percentage of fares. If you might be an employee, request a ruling.
How is Quebec QST different for a side hustle?
In Quebec, GST and QST are both in play. Revenu Québec’s registering for the GST and QST page says you must register if your total worldwide taxable supplies and those of your associates exceed $30,000 in a calendar quarter or in the four preceding calendar quarters. Its small suppliers page uses the same $30,000 shape and says a small supplier is not required to register, with exceptions.
A taxi business is an exception. Revenu Québec says you must register for GST and QST regardless of annual taxable sales, before the first passenger for remuneration. The same page says taxi operators use the accrual method and that GST, QST, and the $0.90 trip dues are not part of gross income. Confirm the dues on the live page.
The QST rate on Revenu Québec’s rate table is 9.975% from January 1, 2013 to present. GST in that table is 5% from January 1, 2008 to present. The CRA’s provincial table shows Quebec as 5% GST plus 9.975% PST, which is the QST. You charge both when you are registered for both. Do not invent a blended HST rate for Quebec. Quebec is not an HST province.
Revenu Québec also lists retail sales of tobacco, fuel, alcoholic beverages in the cases on the page, new tires, and certain road vehicles as QST registrations that can apply even to a small supplier. A writing side hustle is not on that list.
Which GST/HST rate do you charge once you are registered in Canada?
Once you are registered, you charge the GST/HST rate for the place of supply, which is the province or territory where the supply is considered to be made. The CRA calculator page publishes this table. Confirm it on the live page before you invoice. The rates below are the ones on that page for on or after April 1, 2025.
| Place | GST or HST on the CRA table | Separate PST on that table |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon | 5% | 0% |
| British Columbia | 5% | 7% |
| Saskatchewan | 5% | 6% |
| Manitoba | 5% | 7% |
| Ontario | 13% | Not applicable (HST) |
| Nova Scotia | 14% | Not applicable (HST) |
| New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island | 15% | Not applicable (HST) |
| Quebec | 5% GST | 9.975% QST, charged through Revenu Québec |
PST in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba has its own rules. GST registration is not a PST registration. If you are not registered, do not add GST/HST to your price. If you are registered, file a GST/HST return for your period. That period is not automatically the T1’s June 15 date.
Input tax credits let a registrant recover GST/HST paid on eligible business purchases. If you are not a registrant, that tax stays in the expense or the capital cost. The expense guide is the income-tax side of the same receipt.
FreshBooks TODO-AFFILIATE can hold invoices so four quarters of taxable supplies are a total, not a reconstruction. It does not register you. KOHO TODO-AFFILIATE can keep GST/HST you charged out of the grocery account until you remit it. The account does not calculate the rate.
What does an illustrative small-supplier test look like in Canada?
An illustrative small-supplier test is arithmetic on assumed sales. It is not a ruling, and it is not the CRA’s candle or consulting examples. Those official examples are on the when-to-register page. Use them when you want the CRA’s dates. Use this sketch only to see the shape.
Illustrative example. Suppose your taxable supplies, with no associates and no ride-sharing, are $6,000, $7,000, $8,000, and $7,000 in four consecutive calendar quarters. The total is $28,000. You are still at or under $30,000 on that four-quarter view, so the sketch says registration is optional. Suppose the next quarter is $9,000. The newest four quarters are $7,000 + $8,000 + $7,000 + $9,000 = $31,000. You did not exceed $30,000 inside one quarter. The CRA’s rule for that pattern is that you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after the quarter that took you over, and you start charging on the first supply after that. Suppose instead one quarter jumps to $32,000 by itself. You charge GST/HST on the supply that made the quarter exceed $30,000, and you register within 29 days of that effective date.
| Sketch | Quarters | Result under the CRA rules |
|---|---|---|
| Steady | $6k, $7k, $8k, $7k | $28,000. Still a small supplier in the sketch |
| Crosses over four quarters | newest four total $31,000, none over $30,000 alone | Small supplier until the end of the next month, then charge from the next supply |
| One fat quarter | $32,000 in a single quarter | Charge on the supply that crossed $30,000 |
A ride-sharing fare of $40 in Alberta is not in this table. That fare is in the mandatory-registration rule from day one. If the $40 is GST-included at 5%, the tax portion is $40 × 5/105, which is about $1.90. That slice is not income. The rideshare guide uses the same included-tax idea. Replace 5% with the rate for the province of the trip.
What GST/HST mistakes do side hustlers make in Canada?
Side hustlers in Canada add GST/HST while unregistered, or they stay unregistered after the supply that crossed $30,000 in one quarter. They also forget associates and second hustles, so the pot looks smaller than the test. They treat food delivery like ride-sharing, or ride-sharing like food delivery.
Spending the tax is the other common mistake. A 13% Ontario add-on is a remittance, not a raise. Quebec is 5% GST plus 9.975% QST, not a blended HST rate you invent. A voluntary registration may have to last at least a year before you can cancel.
Platform marketplaces sometimes collect GST/HST on certain sales under the digital-economy rules. That collection is not a personal ruling that you are under $30,000. The CRA’s digital-economy pages are linked from the reselling guide. Your registration test is still yours.
Which guides use these GST/HST rules in Canada?
Rideshare driving is the first-fare case. Food delivery, grocery shopping apps, and package courier are small-supplier cases unless you also carry passengers. Reselling and a Shopify store add their revenue to the same threshold. Reporting the income is Form T2125. Keeping the four quarters on paper is record keeping.
What are the common questions?
Is the GST/HST small-supplier threshold still $30,000 in Canada?
The CRA when-to-register page still uses a $30,000 threshold for most businesses, measured in a calendar quarter and over four consecutive calendar quarters, including associates and worldwide taxable supplies. Public service bodies use different tests. Confirm the live page before you rely on the number. This is not tax advice.
Do Uber or Lyft drivers in Canada register only after $30,000?
No. The CRA says a self-employed commercial ride-sharing driver must register for GST/HST even as a small supplier. The effective date is the day you start supplying taxable passenger transportation. Food delivery does not use that rule by itself.
Do I charge QST in Quebec if I am a small supplier?
Revenu Québec says a small supplier is not required to register for GST and QST, with listed exceptions. A taxi business must register before the first remunerated passenger regardless of sales. The QST rate on Revenu Québec's table is 9.975% from 2013 to present, on top of 5% GST. Confirm both pages.
If I register voluntarily, can I cancel the next month?
The CRA register page says that when you register voluntarily you may need to remain registered for at least one year before you can cancel. Register because you want the obligations, not as a test.
Does Nova Scotia still charge 15% HST?
The CRA charge-and-collect table says Nova Scotia's HST decreased to 14% as of April 1, 2025. Other Atlantic provinces on that table are 15%. Confirm the table for the date of the supply. This is not tax advice.
Do I include GST/HST I collected as income on my T2125?
Form T2125 tells registrants not to include GST/HST in income and expenses when it was remitted or when an input tax credit was claimed. The tax you collect is remitted on the GST/HST return. It is not a tip. Confirm the form instructions for your method, including the quick method if you use it.
Which sources support this guide?
The rules, rates, and platform requirements in this guide are checked against these primary sources. Retail price ranges are labelled as ranges to verify locally, and they are not quotes.
- When to register for and start charging the GST/HST — Canada Revenue Agency
- GST/HST information for taxi operators and commercial ride-sharing drivers — Canada Revenue Agency
- Charge and collect the GST/HST — Canada Revenue Agency
- GST/HST calculator (and rates) — Canada Revenue Agency
- Register for a GST/HST account — Canada Revenue Agency
- General Information for GST/HST Registrants (RC4022) — Canada Revenue Agency
- Small suppliers (GST/HST Memorandum 2-2) — Canada Revenue Agency
- Registering for the GST and QST — Revenu Québec
- Tables of GST and QST Rates — Revenu Québec
- Taxi Business Operators — Revenu Québec
- Small Suppliers — Revenu Québec