Canadian Invoice Template

What Canada Revenue Agency requires on the document

9 things have to appear before this counts as a valid invoice in Canada. The one people miss most often is the gst/hst registration number, which belongs near your business details where an accounts team looks for it.

• Your business or trading name
• The invoice date
• The total amount payable
• Your GST/HST registration number, on any invoice of $100 or more
• The amount of GST/HST charged, or a statement that the total includes it
• The rate applied to each item where different rates apply
• The buyer's name or trading name, on any invoice of $500 or more
• A description sufficient to identify each item supplied
• The terms of payment

Verified against Canada Revenue Agency on 2026-09-11.

Place of supply decides the rate, not where you are

The single most common Canadian invoicing error is charging your own province's rate. For most supplies the rate follows the customer, which means a business in Alberta invoicing a client in Ontario charges 13% HST despite Alberta having no provincial tax at all.

• Goods: the rate of the province where they are delivered.
• Services: generally the rate of the province of the customer's business address.
• A supply to a customer outside Canada is usually zero-rated, but it must still appear on the invoice as a zero-rated line.
• Quebec administers its own QST, so a Quebec supply may need registration with Revenu Québec as well as the CRA.

Getting this wrong in either direction has a cost: undercharge and the difference comes out of your margin, overcharge and your client cannot reclaim the excess.

Why the total is not simply GST plus PST

In the provinces charging two taxes, both are calculated on the pre-tax amount rather than one stacking on the other. On $1,000 in British Columbia that is $50 GST and $70 PST - $1,120, not the $1,123.50 you would get by compounding.

• GST 5% and PST 7% each apply to the subtotal in British Columbia.
• Quebec's QST was compounded on the GST-inclusive amount until 2013; it is calculated on the GST-exclusive amount now.
• HST provinces charge one combined rate on one line, do not split it into notional federal and provincial parts.
• Show each tax on its own line with its rate named. A single merged figure is not enough for a client claiming input tax credits.

Input tax credits: your invoice is the client's proof, not just your record

A GST/HST-registered client recovers the tax you charge them as an input tax credit, but only if your invoice carries enough detail, and the bar rises in two steps as the sale total grows.

• Under $100 total: the client's own record of the purchase (your name, the date, the amount) is enough.
• $100 to $499.99: your GST/HST registration number must appear, plus either the tax amount or a statement that the total includes it.
• $500 and over: add the client's name or trading name, the payment terms, and a description specific enough to identify what was supplied.

A credit card statement or bank record showing a payment to you is not a valid ITC document on its own, the client needs your invoice, which is why an incomplete one is a common reason ITC claims fail on audit.

Invoicing into Quebec: French isn't a nicety, it's the Charter

Quebec's Charter of the French Language, strengthened by Bill 96, requires invoices, receipts and similar commercial documents to be drawn up in French for Quebec customers, including for businesses based outside Quebec.

• An invoice can carry another language alongside French, but the French terms must be at least as prominent, not a smaller or secondary version.
• The Charter applies to enterprises doing business in Quebec, so a business based elsewhere that invoices Quebec customers should check its position rather than assume it is out of scope.
• Penalties for non-compliant commercial documents run from $3,000 to $30,000 per offence, with higher amounts for repeat violations.

This is a language-of-commerce rule, separate from QST and GST, a Quebec invoice can be fully correct on tax and still breach the Charter on language.

GST/HST registration and the value thresholds

The rules below only bite past a certain amount, which is what makes them easy to miss: an invoice that was fine last month becomes non-compliant the first time it crosses the line. Canada adds a second variable: which province the supply is made in.

• Under $100: name, date and total are enough.
• $100 to $499.99: add your GST/HST registration number and the tax charged or a statement that it is included.
• $500 and over: add the buyer's name, the terms of payment, and a description of each item.
• Registration becomes compulsory once worldwide taxable revenue passes $30,000 in a single quarter or over four consecutive quarters.