$30,000 is the line most people have heard of and few can explain.
Slide your revenue across the small-supplier threshold and read what actually changes.
Below the threshold you are generally a small supplier and registration is generally not required. Tracking revenue as you go is how you know before the threshold arrives, not after.
General CRA rules, not advice for your situation. Confirm with the CRA before registering or charging tax.
Records are built as you go or not at all
Rebuilding a year of income from memory in April is where most side-hustle problems start. A record takes fifteen seconds at the time and is worth hours later.
- For income: date, customer or platform, description, amount, payment method, reference number.
- For expenses: the receipt plus a one-line note on the business purpose.
- A business expense generally must be reasonable and connected with earning income — not every phone, meal or clothing purchase qualifies.
Would this generally be a business expense?
General CRA principles — your own situation can differ.
- Shipping supplies for items you sell
- Your entire phone bill
- Design software used only for client work
- Lunch you ate while working alone
- Stock you bought specifically to resell
Quick check
Answering every check in this lesson completes it automatically.
What the threshold actually means
Tap each one. These are general CRA rules — confirm your own situation with the CRA.
Noor's tutoring is close to the line
Noor's tutoring and design work brought in about $27,000 over the last four quarters and is still growing. She has never registered for GST/HST.
Check your understanding
Answering every check in this lesson completes it automatically.
Keep the records the easy way
Log each sale and expense as it happens, then export a CSV before filing time.
One more
Answering every check in this lesson completes it automatically.
Record it when it happens, and know your running revenue before the threshold knows it.
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Sources
Last reviewed July 23, 2026