Amazon or Etsy Collected GST/HST: Do I Still Register or Report?

Does a platform collecting GST/HST on my sales mean I am registered?

No. Whether you must register is a separate test on your own taxable sales. A platform's collection does not register you and does not show that you had to be, and sales it collected tax on still count in that test. Behind this: for a qualifying sale by a seller who is not registered, the Act treats the platform operator (the CRA's "distribution platform operator") as the seller for most GST/HST purposes, but not for the seller's own small-supplier test (Excise Tax Act, section 211.23; CRA).

Your case is not simple if:

• your platform sales plus other taxable sales are near $30,000 in one calendar quarter or across four;
• you are registered and the statement shows tax you did not set;
• you registered late, or never registered after passing the limit;
• an associated business also sells, because associates' sales count in the test (Excise Tax Act, section 148);
• the platform account or payout account is in your name, but the sales belong to a corporation or partnership;
• you also sell tickets, memberships or digital content.

Gather: the platform's tax report, payout statements and refund reports by month; sales by calendar quarter across every channel; each order's delivery province; your registration status and date, and when you gave the platform your number; any agent election (Form GST506) signed with the platform; which person (you, the corporation or the partnership) holds the platform account, GST/HST number and payout account; and invoices for the platform's fees.

When does a marketplace collect GST/HST, and when do I?

A platform operator that is registered, or carries on business in Canada, collects on sales of goods delivered in Canada by sellers who are not registered. A registered seller charges and collects its own tax, including on sales made through a platform, as every registrant making a taxable supply in Canada must (Excise Tax Act, section 211.23; CRA; CRA overview).

A site that only lists or advertises the goods, or only processes payments, is an "excluded operator" and not a platform operator under the Act (Excise Tax Act, section 211.1).

Tell the platform your correct registration status. If a seller's false statement means the platform does not collect tax it should have, the seller is liable for that tax, and the platform shares the liability; a platform that did not know, could not reasonably have known and relied in good faith is not assessed for more than the tax it actually charged (Excise Tax Act, section 211.23).

If I am registered, what do I charge, report and remit on platform sales?

A registered seller charges GST/HST on its taxable sales, including those made through a platform, reports them on its return and remits the net tax (CRA).

On the regular-method return, platform sales go in the same boxes as any other taxable sales: revenue, without GST/HST or provincial sales tax, on line 101; all the GST/HST you were required to collect or did collect on line 103; credits on tax paid on platform fees on line 106 (CRA return instructions). For the lines and filing steps, see filing GST/HST and claiming credits. A Quick Method return follows different line instructions: see the Quick Method guide. A business located in Quebec files its GST/HST returns with Revenu Québec, on its forms (CRA RC4022).

A registered seller's sale is its own supply, so the seller reports and remits the tax even when the platform charged and collected it: the platform rule applies only to sellers who are not registered (Excise Tax Act, section 211.23). The platform accounts for that tax instead only if you and the platform, both registered, jointly elect in the prescribed form, CRA Form GST506. You are then jointly and severally liable for it (Excise Tax Act, section 177; CRA Form GST506). The form is not sent to the CRA: each party keeps a signed copy. Without that election, report the tax on your own return, once. The CRA's platform pages do not say how a platform shows a registered seller's sales: match its tax report to your records before filing.

If the tax is not remitted, others can be liable with the seller: each partner other than a limited partner, jointly with the partnership (Excise Tax Act, section 272.1), and a corporation's directors when the Act's conditions are met and no due-diligence defence applies, with no assessment more than two years after they last ceased to be a director (section 323).

If I am not registered, what do I report?

Generally nothing on a GST/HST return for those sales, while you are not registered and the sale meets the platform rule. The Act treats the platform, not you, as the supplier of a qualifying sale, and the CRA page puts charging and collecting on the platform. Neither describes a GST/HST return for you on that sale (Excise Tax Act, section 211.23; CRA). Check each sale, and check your own registration test.

That does not end your duties:

• The sales are still business income. See platform reporting to the CRA.
• The CRA's platform pages are silent on how an income tax return presents tax a platform collected. For tax inside sales in general, see is the GST/HST I collect income?.
• Your registration test continues on your own sales. The platform's collection does not pause it. Below the limit you may also register voluntarily: see when to register for GST/HST.
• Without a registration, you cannot claim credits on platform fees (CRA). If you register later, you may be able to claim some tax paid before registering: see claiming GST/HST paid before registering.
• GST you paid at the border on goods you then sold through a platform: if you gave the platform evidence of it, the Act can pass the credit to a registered platform and bar you from recovering it (Excise Tax Act, section 211.23). See GST on imports and customs invoices.

How do I read a platform statement that shows GST/HST?

Find who made the sale for GST/HST, then match the tax line to that answer. A tax line does not say on its own whether the platform collected it for itself or whether it belongs on your return.

Check the rate against where the goods were delivered, not where you live (CRA). Delivery to Ontario carries 13% HST, to Nova Scotia 14% HST, and to Alberta 5% GST. See which rate applies by province. This page covers federal GST/HST only; provincial sales tax and QST are separate.

Can I claim input tax credits on a platform's fees?

Only a registered seller can, and only for tax actually charged on the fee and only to the extent the fee is for its commercial activities (CRA). A seller who is not registered has no credits to claim.

Support each claim with a fee invoice or statement carrying the details the CRA requires for its amount; they are in filing GST/HST and claiming credits. For most registrants, claim by the due date of the return for the last reporting period that ends within four years after the period the credit could first be claimed. If a fee statement shows no tax, there is no credit to claim from it. Tax on advertising bought through a platform follows its own rules: see GST/HST on advertising invoices.

How do I book sales, fees, tax and payouts so the return and the books agree?

Book every order from the platform's own reports, then tie each payout back to the orders behind it. A payout is what the platform paid after keeping its fees, any tax it kept, refunds and reserves, so a payout alone cannot support a return.

1. Download the tax report and payout report for the same dates.
2. For each order, record the sale price, any tax shown, who collected it, the fee, and any refund.
3. Book sales before tax and fees. Book fees as an expense, with the tax on the fee kept apart if you are registered.
4. If you are registered, keep tax on your sales in a GST/HST payable account until remitted, net of credits.
5. If you are not registered, show tax the platform collected on its own line, outside your sales and expenses, so each payout still reconciles to what buyers paid. How that tax is presented in income is open (see above): settle it before the return is prepared.
6. If you are registered, tie the total of each reporting period's orders to lines 101, 103 and 106 before filing.

For accounts and entries, see recording GST/HST in your books. For US-dollar payouts and exchange rates, see US-dollar sales and marketplace payouts.

What about ticket resale, memberships, creator subscriptions and digital content sold through a platform?

The CRA's platform rule for goods covers sales of tangible goods delivered in Canada, and its pages do not address ticket resale, memberships or supporter plans, or digital content sold by a Canadian seller. Do not assume a platform's tax line, or its absence, is correct for them.

The separate platform rule for digital products and services applies only to a seller that is a non-resident, does not make supplies in a business carried on in Canada, and is not registered (Excise Tax Act, sections 211.1 and 211.13). A Canadian business is not that kind of seller, so that rule does not take over its tax. The seller's own registration status and charging rules apply.

Reselling goods you bought elsewhere is a sale of goods like any other, so the goods rules above apply by registration status and delivery. Reselling tickets, or selling memberships and subscriptions, is a different question: whether and how much GST/HST applies depends on the supply, the buyer's location and your status. That is a judgment point to settle before filing.

My platform sales are near the small-supplier limit or past it: what do I check first?

Add platform sales, even where the platform collected the tax, to your other taxable sales, inside and outside Canada, and compare the total with the $30,000 limit in one calendar quarter and across four consecutive quarters. Count sales at the price buyers paid, before platform fees and other expenses, not the payout (CRA for the test; Excise Tax Act, section 211.23 and section 148 for platform sales staying in it). The method and the registration date are in when to register for GST/HST; apply within 29 days of your effective date. Once you are registered, the platform rule no longer applies to your sales, so give the platform your number.

• If you passed the limit and never registered, see unfiled GST/HST returns and estimated assessments.
• If you charged tax before you had a number, see charged GST/HST before registering.

The platform rule applies to a seller who is "not registered" and leaves the seller's own registration duty and small-supplier test in place (sections 148, 240 and 249, per section 211.23). The CRA pages do not say whether registering back to the date it was required changes who owes the tax on earlier platform sales: settle that before filing earlier periods.

Example

These examples are illustrative and use Canadian dollars.

Unregistered Ontario seller with goods in the platform's warehouse

A seller who is not registered keeps goods in the platform's Canadian warehouse and sells C$25,000 in a year, at the prices buyers paid, to buyers in Ontario. The platform is registered for GST/HST, so the platform, not the seller, accounts for the HST on those sales. The seller's own test continues: add C$8,000 of direct website orders and the four-quarter total of C$33,000 passes the C$30,000 limit.

Registered seller with C$120,000 of platform sales

A registered Ontario seller using the regular method sells C$120,000 of goods delivered to Ontario buyers. At 13% HST, tax on those sales is C$15,600. The platform's fees are C$18,000 with C$2,340 of HST shown on a fee invoice that has the required details. The return shows C$120,000 on line 101, C$15,600 on line 103 and C$2,340 on line 106, so net tax is C$13,260 before other credits. This assumes the platform charged HST on its fees and no joint agent election (Form GST506) is in place, so the seller remits the tax on the sales. Confirm both from the statements.

Side business that never registered

A side business sells about C$40,000 of taxable goods on a platform in its first year and C$60,000 in its second, counted at the prices buyers paid, and never registers. Because platform sales count in its own test, the first year's C$40,000 over four quarters already passes the C$30,000 limit, and one quarter above C$30,000 would have passed it sooner. The second year's C$60,000 then falls in periods when it may have had to be registered. The statements show the platform's tax, not the quarter the seller crossed or its effective date. That has to be worked out quarter by quarter, across every channel. Whether registering back to the date it was required changes who owes the tax on those sales is not answered by the CRA pages.

Different for you?

• Your platform sales are near or past the limit, or you registered late: see when to register and unfiled returns and estimated assessments, and get bookkeeping help to rebuild sales by quarter from the platform's reports.
• A statement shows tax you did not charge, or you cannot tell whether you or the platform remits it: use recording GST/HST in your books and get bookkeeping help to reconcile payouts, fees and tax.
• You sell tickets, memberships or digital content: the CRA pages do not settle these, so confirm the tax treatment with a tax professional before relying on the platform's tax line, and get bookkeeping help to rebuild those sales by type and buyer location.
• Platform payouts go to a personal account but the sales belong to a corporation: see corporate income in a personal account and get bookkeeping help to separate each entity's sales and tax.
• Your corporation or partnership has associated businesses: their sales count in the test, so review them together using when to register.
• Your payouts are in US dollars: see US-dollar sales and marketplace payouts.
• You rent out a short-term stay through a booking platform: see GST/HST on short-term rentals.
• You are a US or foreign seller: see non-resident and digital sellers.
• You are worried about the platform reporting your sales: see platform reporting to the CRA.