When your GST/HST return is actually due
There is no single GST/HST due date. There is a rule that turns your reporting period into a due date, and one situation where the date you have to pay and the date you have to file are three different months apart. That situation catches more sole proprietors than anything else on this page.
Your reporting period sets your due date. Monthly and quarterly filers must file and pay one month after the reporting period ends. Most annual filers have three months after their fiscal year-end.
The exception worth knowing before anything else: an annual filer who is an individual with a December 31 year-end and business income pays by April 30 but does not have to file until June 15. Two dates, nearly seven weeks apart, and paying late is what costs money.
Step one: which reporting period are you on?
CRA assigns a reporting period based on your annual taxable supplies — broadly, your revenue from taxable sales. You can sometimes elect a more frequent period than the one you were assigned, and there are real reasons to: a business in a regular refund position often prefers monthly filing so the input tax credits come back sooner.
| Annual taxable supplies | Assigned reporting period | Periods you may elect instead |
|---|---|---|
| $1,500,000 or less | Annual | Monthly or quarterly |
| Over $1,500,000 up to $6,000,000 | Quarterly | Monthly |
| Over $6,000,000 | Monthly | None |
If you do not know which period you are on, it is on your CRA business account and on the personalised return CRA sends you. Guessing is not an option, because every date below depends on the answer.
Step two: your due date
Monthly and quarterly filers
File and pay one month after the reporting period ends. Both obligations, one date. A quarter ending March 31 is filed and paid by April 30. A month ending September 30 is filed and paid by October 31. There is nothing else to work out.
Annual filers
Most annual filers have three months after the fiscal year-end to file and pay. A June 30 year-end means a September 30 deadline. Listed financial institutions have six months rather than three.
Annual filers may also have to make instalment payments through the year, in which case the annual return reconciles what you have already paid against what you owe. That is a separate obligation from the filing deadline itself.
The split that catches sole proprietors
If you are an annual GST/HST filer, you are an individual, your fiscal year ends December 31, and you have business income, your two deadlines are different dates.
Payment is due April 30. The return is not due until June 15.
The reason is that this aligns your GST/HST with your personal income tax dates — a self-employed individual files by June 15 and pays any balance owing by April 30. The trap is that people hear "June 15" and reasonably assume that is the whole deadline. It is not. If you owe GST/HST and you pay it in June, you were nearly seven weeks late on the payment even though your return arrived exactly on time, and CRA charges prescribed interest on the amount from April 30. That rate is 7% for the third and fourth quarters of 2026 and is reset every quarter.
The practical version: work out what you owe by April, pay it by April 30, and use the extra weeks for the paperwork rather than for the money.
Source: CRA, GST/HST reporting requirements and deadlines — CRA page updated 2026-05-13; CRA, RC4022, General information for GST/HST registrants — updated 2026-01-07.
What filing late costs
The GST/HST late-filing penalty is a formula rather than a flat rate, and it only applies when you have an amount owing. CRA states it as:
A + (B × C), where A is 1% of the amount owing, B is 25% of A, and C is the number of complete months the return is overdue, to a maximum of 12.
Worked through with a number
Take an illustrative return with $10,000 owing, filed four complete months late.
- A = 1% of $10,000 = $100
- B = 25% of $100 = $25
- C = 4 complete months
- Penalty = $100 + ($25 × 4) = $200
Prescribed interest is charged on the overdue amount on top of that penalty, and it runs from the payment due date rather than the filing date. Two things follow from the shape of this formula. The penalty is driven by what you owe, so a nil or refund return filed late does not generate this particular penalty — though you should still file it. And it caps at twelve months, which is not a reason to relax, because the interest keeps running long after the penalty stops growing.
The other two penalties
- $250 for failing to file after CRA has issued a demand to file. This is separate from and additional to the formula above.
- $100 the first time you fail to file electronically when you are required to, and $250 for each return after that.
Source: CRA, GST/HST penalties and interest — CRA page updated 2025-06-16.
These sit alongside separate penalty regimes for income tax, payroll and information returns. Every CRA late penalty in one table puts them together, and every filing deadline a Canadian small business has to hit lays the whole year out in date order.
If you are not registered yet
Everything above assumes you are a registrant. If you are not, the question is whether you have stopped being a small supplier — and there are two separate tests with two different timings. They are routinely merged into one sentence elsewhere, and the merged version is wrong.
The threshold
You are a small supplier if your taxable supplies — including those of your associates — are $30,000 or less in any single calendar quarter and in the last four consecutive calendar quarters. Fail either test and you stop being a small supplier.
Rule one: you exceed $30,000 in a single calendar quarter
You must charge GST/HST on the very sale that put you over the limit — even though you are not registered yet. Not on the next sale, not from the start of next month. That sale. You then have 29 days from that day to register.
This is the rule that costs real money, because by the time most owners realise it applies, the invoice has gone out without tax on it and the customer has paid. You are still liable for the tax. Going back to a customer weeks later to ask for another several hundred dollars is an unpleasant conversation, and sometimes an impossible one.
Rule two: you exceed $30,000 across four consecutive quarters
If you creep over the threshold across four consecutive calendar quarters without blowing a single quarter, the timing is gentler. You stop being a small supplier at the end of the month following that quarter. You are not retroactively charging tax on the sale that tipped you over.
Same dollar figure, two entirely different consequences. Which one you are in depends on whether the threshold was crossed inside one quarter or accumulated across four, so the practical habit is to watch your rolling quarterly total, not just your annual revenue.
Two exceptions worth knowing
Taxi and commercial ride-share operators must register regardless of the threshold — there is no small supplier exemption for that work. And the thresholds are different for charities and public institutions, which use a $250,000 gross revenue test or a $50,000 taxable supplies test, with other public service bodies at $50,000.
Source: CRA, When to register for and start charging the GST/HST — CRA page updated 2026-06-16; RC4022, updated 2026-01-07.
Two habits that make the deadline a non-event
First, treat GST/HST collected as money you are holding rather than revenue you have earned, because that is what it is. Businesses that move the tax portion into a separate account as it comes in never face the version of this deadline where the return is easy and the payment is impossible.
Second, review the GST/HST payable account every month rather than at filing time. A balance that drifts in a direction you cannot explain is the earliest sign that something is coded to the wrong tax rate, and it is far cheaper to fix in the month it happens. The monthly bookkeeping checklist built around CRA's calendar puts that review in sequence with everything else that has to happen.
Filed on your actual date, not the one you half-remember
We work out your reporting period, file on the date that applies to you, and flag the payment date separately when the two differ — so you stop paying 7% prescribed interest for the privilege of being busy in April.
Questions people actually ask
When is my GST/HST return due?
It depends on your reporting period. Monthly and quarterly filers must file and pay one month after the reporting period ends, so a quarter ending March 31 is filed and paid by April 30. Most annual filers have three months after their fiscal year-end. The exception is an annual filer who is an individual with a December 31 year-end and business income: that person pays by April 30 but does not have to file until June 15.
Why is my GST/HST payment due April 30 but my return due June 15?
Because CRA aligns those dates with personal income tax for self-employed individuals, who file by June 15 and pay any balance owing by April 30. The same split applies to GST/HST if you are an annual filer, you are an individual, your fiscal year ends December 31, and you have business income. The trap is hearing June 15 and assuming it covers both. If you pay in June, you were late on the payment from April 30 and CRA charges prescribed interest from that date.
How is the GST/HST late-filing penalty calculated?
CRA uses the formula A plus B times C, where A is 1% of the amount owing, B is 25% of A, and C is the number of complete months the return is overdue, to a maximum of twelve. On an illustrative $10,000 owing filed four complete months late, A is $100, B is $25, and the penalty is $100 plus $25 times four, which is $200. Prescribed interest is charged on the overdue amount on top of that, running from the payment due date. There is also a separate $250 penalty for failing to file after CRA issues a demand.
Which GST/HST reporting period will CRA assign me?
Annual taxable supplies of $1,500,000 or less are assigned an annual period, with monthly or quarterly available by election. Over $1,500,000 and up to $6,000,000 is assigned quarterly, with monthly available. Over $6,000,000 is monthly with no option. Businesses that regularly sit in a refund position often elect a more frequent period so their input tax credits come back sooner. Your assigned period is shown in your CRA business account.
When do I have to register for GST/HST?
You stop being a small supplier once your taxable supplies, including those of your associates, exceed $30,000. There are two separate tests with different timing. If you exceed $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, you must charge GST/HST on the very sale that put you over — even though you are not registered yet — and register within 29 days of that day. If you exceed it across four consecutive quarters without blowing a single one, you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month following that quarter.
What happens if I go over $30,000 before I register?
You are liable for the GST/HST on the sale that took you past the limit, whether or not you charged it. That is the single-quarter rule, and it applies to that sale rather than to the next one. In practice this means going back to a customer after the fact to collect tax you did not invoice, which is uncomfortable and sometimes not possible — in which case the tax comes out of your margin. Watching your rolling quarterly total, rather than only your annual revenue, is what prevents it.