Invoice template for Canada: GST/HST invoices in English or French

GST or HST: which tax goes on your invoice

The sales tax on Canadian invoices is called GST/HST, or TPS/TVH on an invoice in French, and the slash in that name stands for two forms of what is really one tax. GST, the goods and services tax, is the federal tax, charged at 5%. HST, the harmonized sales tax, applies in provinces that have merged their own sales tax with GST, so the federal and provincial parts are charged together as one tax at a single, higher rate. That's why an invoice shows HST as one amount at one rate, never split into a federal and a provincial part, as the list in the next section points out.

Which of the two belongs on a particular invoice depends on the province where the sale is treated as made, and the place-of-supply rules of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) decide that. It isn't always the province your business is in, so a freelancer with clients across the country can charge GST on one invoice and HST on the next. If you sell outside your own province, read the CRA's guidance on place of supply before you set the rate, because the rate on your invoice is both the tax you collect and report and the tax your client may claim back.

Some sales are taxable at 0%, which is called zero-rating. A zero-rated sale still counts as a taxable sale that simply carries no tax, which is different from a business that charges nothing because it isn't registered (the section on small suppliers covers that case). For freelancers the zero rate matters most when the client is abroad, and the rules are more detailed than "foreign client, no tax". A service supplied to a non-resident is generally zero-rated (GST/HST at 0%), except a service to an individual who is in Canada at any time when dealing with you about it, a service rendered to an individual while in Canada (even when the customer is a business abroad, for example training its employees here), a service in respect of real property in Canada or of goods that are in Canada when the service is performed, and advisory, consulting or professional, agency, transportation, telecommunication and postal services (some of these are zero-rated under other rules). Advisory, consulting and professional services to a non-resident are zero-rated under their own rule, which excludes services in respect of real property or goods in Canada, services to an individual in connection with litigation in Canada (other than before it starts) and agency services. Services performed wholly outside Canada generally carry no GST/HST (subject to the digital economy rules). It is up to you to determine whether a service is zero-rated and to keep evidence supporting it: the CRA can assess GST/HST you did not collect on a supply zero-rated in error (Excise Tax Act, Schedule VI, Part V, ss. 7 and 23).

In practice, writing software for a company in Germany from your office in Ottawa is generally zero-rated, while running a training day in Toronto for that same company's staff is not, because the service is rendered to people while they're in Canada. On the invoice, set the zero-rated lines to 0% and add a short note such as "Zero-rated: service supplied to a non-resident", so the client and your bookkeeper can see why there's no tax. Then keep the evidence that the client is a non-resident, such as the contract and their address abroad, with your copy of the invoice.

What a Canadian invoice must show

Canada has no single list of invoice details that applies to everyone. The GST/HST rules are built around input tax credits instead: the GST/HST a registered business has paid on its own business purchases, which it deducts from the GST/HST it has collected before sending the rest to the CRA. Your client can only claim that credit if your invoice gives it the right details, and the details it needs grow with the size of the invoice. Check your invoice against this list, which covers what registered sellers must show, the three tiers by invoice total, and an extra rule for companies:

• GST/HST-registered sellers, on taxable sales that are not zero-rated: show the GST/HST amount separately from the price, or state that the price includes GST/HST (Excise Tax Act, s. 223(1)); the CRA's guidance also says to show the GST/HST rate that applies
• Where HST applies: show it as one total HST amount or rate (for example 13%), not split into its federal and provincial parts
• For a GST/HST-registered customer, the information it needs to claim input tax credits, which depends on the invoice total (under $100, $100 to $499.99, $500 or more) and is listed in the items below (Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, s. 3); you must give it on request (Excise Tax Act, s. 223(2))
• Any amount: your business or trading name (or that of an intermediary acting for you, such as an agent)
• Any amount: the invoice date (if no invoice is issued, the date the GST/HST was paid or became payable)
• Any amount: the total amount paid or payable
• Total of $100 or more: your GST/HST registration number (or the intermediary's)
• Total of $100 or more: the GST/HST charged (for each item or in total); or, where prices include GST/HST, a statement that each taxable price includes it, the total tax rate, and the amount of each such item (or the total of the items taxed at the same rate)
• Total of $100 or more: where items have a different tax status (taxable, zero-rated or exempt), an indication of which items are taxable at a rate above 0%
• Total of $500 or more: the customer's name or trading name (or that of the customer's authorized agent or representative)
• Total of $500 or more: the terms of payment
• Total of $500 or more: a description of each item sufficient to identify it
• Federally incorporated companies: the corporate name, in legible characters, also when trading under another name (Canada Business Corporations Act, s. 10(5) and (6))

The tiers add up, so an invoice in the top tier needs everything from the lower tiers as well. In practice it's simplest to put all of it on every invoice, because the extra lines cost you nothing, and since you have to give a registered client this information on request anyway, it saves them coming back for it. Your GST/HST registration number is longer than your business number, as the table above shows, so on the invoice it looks like 123456789 RT 0001; print the full number, not just the first nine digits. A description "sufficient to identify" each item means one a reader could match to the work, such as "Logo design: three concepts and two rounds of revisions, October 2026", rather than just "Services".

The terms of payment can be a single line such as "Payment due within 30 days of the invoice date", and our guide to Net 30 and other payment terms explains the usual choices. The last item in the list is easy to miss if you've incorporated: when your company is federally incorporated but trades under a business name, the corporate name has to appear on the invoice too. So invoices from "Northline Studio" would also show "1234567 Canada Inc." in legible characters, usually next to the business name at the top.

Small suppliers without a GST/HST number

Many freelancers start out as a small supplier (petit fournisseur in French), and the table above sets out who counts as one. If you're a small supplier and haven't registered, your invoice is simpler: you don't charge GST/HST and have no registration number to show, so the tax items in the list above don't come into it. Your registered clients can't claim an input tax credit on your invoice, because there's no tax on it to claim back, and for clients who are consumers nothing changes at all.

The status isn't permanent, and it's measured as you go rather than once a year. A new business uses the same test from its first sale. If its taxable revenues go over $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, it stops being a small supplier on that day, must charge GST/HST on the sale that took it over the threshold and must register within 29 days. If they go over $30,000 across the last four (or fewer) consecutive calendar quarters but not in a single quarter, it stops being a small supplier at the end of the month after that quarter and must charge GST/HST from its first sale after that (registering within 29 days of that sale). It can register voluntarily before then. This means a single large contract can end your small-supplier status in the middle of a quarter, and if one quarter on its own takes you over, the invoice for that very sale already needs GST/HST on it. Keeping a running total of your sales per quarter means it won't take you by surprise.

You can also register before you have to. That lets you claim input tax credits on what you buy for the business, which an unregistered small supplier can't do, but it also means charging GST/HST on your invoices, which consumer clients pay on top of your price. In the maker, mark your lines as not registered: they carry no GST, and the PDF prints "No GST is charged: not registered for GST." That line answers the question a client would otherwise send you by email.

French invoices in Quebec, and PST or QST

Quebec adds a language rule that comes from the Charter of the French language rather than from the tax rules. Quebec only (businesses carrying on activities in Quebec): invoices, receipts, discharges and other documents of the same kind must be drawn up in French, and no one may send such a document in another language unless its French version is available to the recipient on terms at least as favourable (Charter of the French language, s. 57, in this form since 1 June 2022). Where the Charter does not require French only, French and another language may be used together (s. 89); where a document is drawn up in French and another language, French must appear at least as prominently as the other language and the French version must be understandable without the other version (s. 91, second paragraph added on 1 June 2022).

Put simply, the French version is the one that must always exist. You can send an English invoice to a client who prefers it, as long as the French version is available to them on terms at least as favourable, and you can make a single bilingual invoice, as long as the French is at least as prominent as the English and can be understood without it. When it's opened from this page the maker starts in English, so a Quebec business sets the invoice language to French. The maker's own headings, labels and totals then switch to French and the tax is shown as TPS/TVH, but it doesn't translate what you type yourself, so write your item descriptions, notes and payment terms in French as well. Otherwise you'd send French headings above English descriptions. The maker doesn't make a side-by-side bilingual layout either. If a client wants English as well, the simplest way is to write each description in French followed by the English, for example "Conception de logo / Logo design", so the French comes first and can be read on its own.

There's a second point for Quebec and three other provinces. Quebec charges its own Quebec sales tax (QST) next to GST rather than merging it into HST, and British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan do the same with a provincial sales tax (PST). The maker shows one tax rate per line, so it can't put a separate PST or QST line next to the GST, which means that if your sales are subject to PST or QST, it isn't the right tool for those invoices yet. Don't get around this by adding the rates together on one line, because the GST would then no longer be shown on its own.

Making the invoice and keeping your records

Opening the maker from this page sets it up for a Canadian business, in CAD on US Letter paper, and these steps take you from there to a finished PDF. If it's your first invoice, our step-by-step guide to making an invoice explains each field in more detail.

1. Enter your business details once: your name and address, your full GST/HST registration number if you're registered, and your bank's transit and institution numbers with your account number, so a client can pay you by bank transfer.
2. Add the client, or pick one you've saved, and add a line for each piece of work with its quantity, unit (hours, days, pieces) and price.
3. Check the tax on each line: GST at 5% is preset, and you can choose one of the HST rates instead, set a zero-rated line to 0%, or mark the lines as not registered if you're a small supplier.
4. If you do business in Quebec, set the invoice language to French so the maker's labels switch over, and write your item descriptions, notes and payment terms in French yourself, because the maker doesn't translate the text you type.
5. Put your payment terms in the notes and, if the client gave you one, the PO number in a custom field, then download the PDF or, with a free account, send it by email or as a link.

A client abroad may want the invoice in their own currency, and the maker can switch it to US dollars, euros or one of its other currencies, but the tax rules still count in Canadian dollars. Where the price of a supply is expressed in a foreign currency, its value for GST/HST must be converted into Canadian dollars at the exchange rate of the day the GST/HST becomes payable (the earlier of the day you are paid and the day payment is due, which is generally the invoice date) (Excise Tax Act, s. 159). The CRA also accepts the rate of the day you are paid, the day the foreign currency is acquired, or the average rate for the month the tax becomes payable, used consistently for a reasonable period such as one year; rates may come from the Bank of Canada, a Canadian chartered bank, the source used for the actual conversion (or the one you normally use) or the CBSA, and must be documented. So whenever an invoice is in another currency, note the exchange rate, its date and its source on your copy or in your bookkeeping, so the Canadian-dollar amount in your GST/HST return can be traced back. If you also work as a contractor south of the border, our guide to invoices for US contractors explains how invoicing works there.

Keep every invoice you send and every invoice you receive for business purchases for the period shown in the table above, together with the evidence for any zero-rated sale and the exchange rates you used. The invoices you receive matter as much as the ones you send, because they're what supports your own input tax credits. The maker's overview, its CSV export for your accountant and its quarterly tax summary help you keep track, but they aren't a bookkeeping system, and an invoice you download and send yourself stays an editable draft in the maker until you mark it as sent. So save each PDF exactly as you sent it and file it with the rest of your records, where nothing can change it.