Tax and compliance

How do I get my GST/HST numbers out of a pile of receipts?

The tax is on the receipt. Whether you can claim it depends on what else is on the receipt, and the requirements change with the size of the sale.

Published · MapleWorkSuite

The sixty-second answer

To claim an input tax credit you need prescribed information on the receipt, and how much depends on the sale. Under $30: supplier, date, total and tax. From $30 to just under $150: add the supplier's GST/HST registration number. At $150 or more: add your own name, a description of what was supplied, and the terms of payment. The registration number is the item most often missing.

The tax you paid is not automatically the tax you can claim

Registrants recover GST/HST paid on business purchases through input tax credits. The part that catches people out is that paying the tax is not sufficient. The Excise Tax Act requires that before you file the return claiming the credit, you have already obtained evidence containing the prescribed information [2].

That is a documentation test, not an honesty test. A purchase can be entirely legitimate, clearly for business, and still fail it because the slip in the folder does not carry the required details.

Three tiers, set by the size of the sale

The regulations scale the requirement with the amount [1]. The thresholds are worth committing to memory because they change what you need to chase.

Under $30. You need the supplier's name, the date, and the total amount paid along with the tax. A normal till receipt usually satisfies this.

$30 to just under $150. Everything above, plus the supplier's GST/HST registration number. This is the tier where most receipts quietly fail, because plenty of small vendors do not print their registration number.

$150 or more. Everything above, plus your name as the recipient, a description of what was supplied, and the terms of payment. A generic cash receipt will not carry your name, so larger purchases genuinely need a proper invoice.

Why card slips are not enough

A credit card slip is evidence that money moved. It rarely shows the tax charged separately, and it never shows the supplier's registration number. Above $30 that makes it insufficient on its own.

The same applies to a bank statement line, which is weaker still - it identifies a merchant and an amount, and nothing else that the regulations ask for. If the underlying receipt is gone, the practical move is to ask the supplier to reissue the invoice rather than to claim against the statement and hope.

The registration number problem

In practice the registration number is the single most common gap. Larger suppliers print it as a matter of course. Small ones - trades, market vendors, small shops - frequently do not, and a handwritten receipt almost never does.

There are only two real remedies, and neither is retroactive magic. Ask for a proper invoice at the time, which is easy and slightly awkward, or ask afterwards, which is harder and often successful anyway. Suppliers are generally used to the request.

What does not work is inferring the number from somewhere else. The requirement is that the supporting documentation contains it.

Doing this at filing time is the expensive way

The usual pattern is to discover all of this during the filing period, working through a quarter or a year of receipts at once. That is the worst possible moment, because the gaps you find are months old and the supplier interaction is now a favour rather than a routine request.

Checking as receipts arrive inverts the problem. A missing registration number noticed the same week is a two-minute email. The same gap noticed ten months later may simply be an unclaimable credit.

This is the specific job Penny does inside MapleExpense: reading the supplier, the date, the tax amount and the registration number off each receipt as it is captured, so what reaches the filing period is a review of flagged exceptions rather than a reconstruction of the whole pile.

Keep the receipts, not just the return

The filed return is a summary. The obligation is to keep records in a form that allows your liabilities and obligations to be determined [3], which means the underlying receipts, not the figure you reported.

If a claim is ever reviewed, the question will be about the documentation behind a number. Having the number without the documentation is the position the regulations are specifically designed to exclude.

Frequently asked questions

What information does a receipt need for me to claim an input tax credit?

It depends on the amount. Under $30 you need the supplier name, the date, and the total amount and tax. From $30 to just under $150 you also need the supplier's GST/HST registration number. At $150 or more you additionally need your own name, a description of the supply, and the terms of payment.

Can I claim GST/HST without a receipt?

Not safely. The legislation requires you to have obtained sufficient evidence containing the prescribed information before filing the return that claims the credit. A bank or card statement shows an amount paid but not the tax charged or the supplier's registration number.

Do I need the supplier's GST/HST number on every receipt?

Not for sales under $30, but for anything from $30 upward it is part of the prescribed information. It is the single most commonly missing item on small-business receipts.

What if a receipt is missing required information?

Ask the supplier for a proper invoice. Most will reissue one. Do not substitute a statement line or a credit card slip, because neither carries the supplier registration number or the tax breakdown.

Does a credit card slip count as a receipt for GST/HST?

Usually not on its own. A card slip typically shows the total charged but not the tax amount or the supplier's registration number, both of which are prescribed information above the lowest threshold.

How long do I keep GST/HST records?

Records must be kept in a form that allows your liabilities and obligations to be determined. In practice this means keeping the underlying receipts for the same multi-year period as your other business records, not just the filed return.

Sources and evidence

Every link below was fetched and read on April 21, 2026. Where a source did not support a claim, the claim was cut rather than softened.

  1. Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations (SOR/91-45) Prescribes the supporting information required for an input tax credit, in three tiers based on the total amount paid or payable: under $30, $30 to under $150, and $150 or more. The highest tier additionally requires the recipient's name and the terms of payment.
  2. Excise Tax Act, section 169 Subsection 169(4) provides that a registrant may not claim an input tax credit unless, before filing the return, the registrant has obtained sufficient evidence in such form containing such information as will enable the amount of the credit to be determined, including any prescribed information.
  3. Excise Tax Act, section 286 Requires every person carrying on a business or engaged in a commercial activity in Canada to keep records in such form and containing such information as will enable the determination of their liabilities and obligations.

MapleExpense reads the tax line, the supplier and the registration number off each receipt as it arrives, so a filing period is a review rather than a reconstruction.

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