Canadian GST / HST tax form

This article was posted in 2012. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has since made changes to the GST/HST filing process. Back in 2012, taxable and non-taxable (zero rated) sales were included together. Starting in 2016, taxable and non-taxable sales have been separated. This means that the GST/HST form mentioned below is out of date. The CRA has not published an updated form because it wants you to file GST/HST only online.

Back in 2010, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) made it mandatory for businesses to file quarterly GST/HST tax returns electronically. As much as electronic filing is fast and easy, the instructions were, and still are, poorly explained. Fortunately the CRA continued to mail a paper copy of the tax form so you could follow the instructions on the paper copy when filing your GST/HST electronically.

About a year ago, the CRA stopped sending the paper copy of the GST/HST tax form. So now, when filing a tax return electronically, you have to remember (or guess) each step of the tax return. For example, you’re asked to enter a dollar amount for “Line 108” – Uh, what the heck was Line 108 again?

I guess many folks complained about this because a couple of months ago, the CRA put a printable version of the GST/HST return online along with instructions. [Added March 2016: link has gone dead.]

The full, two-page version of the GST/HST form appears to have been removed from the CRA site and paper copies are available only upon request. [Added March 2016: link has gone dead.]

For some reason, the Canadian government seems unwilling to supply forms as fillable PDFs. Fillable forms would make everything fast, easy and more accurate. But who wants that?

[Added August 2013: The Canadian government is finally making some fillable PDFs available on their site but no fillable GST/HST form.]

I’ve taken the liberty of converting the GST/HST working copy into a fillable PDF:

1) This version requires Adobe Reader because the form contains javascript to auto-calculate the various subtotals and total. I’m not aware of any other PDF viewer that can recognize javascript.

2) If you don’t want to install Adobe Reader, this other version should work with almost any PDF viewer, such as Apple Preview, but it won’t auto-calculate. You’ll have to do the simple arithmetic yourself.

Very important notes:

1) Do not send this form to the CRA. They don’t want it. It’s only for your records.

2) Use the form at your own risk. I’m pretty sure it works correctly but…

Added September 2016:

The CRA has made some changes to the GST/HST Netfile process. When you start the online process, you will be asked if you want to report any tax-exempt sales, zero-rated exports or taxable sales by an associate. In my case, this would apply to sales made to customers outside Canada (i.e. zero-rated exports).

If you choose this option, your online form will have three new lines that must be filled out:

Line 90: Sales made in Canada.

Line 91: Exempt supplies, zero-rated exports and other sales and revenue.

Line 102: Associates’ taxable sales made in Canada.

In the past, you lumped all your sales together into one sum. Now you have to split your sales into the appropriate categories, if applicable.

There’s no new GST/HST tax form that includes these changes so I can’t update the PDFs that can be downloaded from this blog post.

Please check the date of this article because it contains information that may become out of date. Tax regulations, sales tax rules, copyright laws and privacy laws can change from time to time. Always check with proper government sources for up-to-date information.