What many Canadian business owners don’t know is that receipts and bills that you collect when you purchase items and sales receipts and invoices that you issue to customers have to contain certain information according to the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency).

These are the guidelines for for receipts to be considered legitimate for the GST/HST Input Tax Credit. You can find the list, as issued by the CRA, here.

  1. Total Sales under $30
    • Business name
    • Date
    • Total amount paid/payable
  2. Total Sale $30 to $149.99 – additional requirments
    • Indication of total GST/HST charged or indication that total amount paid includes GST/HST
    • An indication of which items are taxed at the GST rate and which are taxed at the HST rate
    • Business number
  3. Total Sale $150 or more – additional requirments
    • Name of Buyer
    • Brief description of goods or services
    • Terms of Payment

Receipts for sales under $30
Receipts for Sales Under $30
Receipts for Sales Over $150

Of course, as with taxes here in Canada, there are exceptions. There are quite a few exceptions, so I won’t put them all on this page. Instead, you can get it straight from CRA themselves.

A good list from the CRA on exceptions to invoice requirements http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tpcs/gst-tps/bspsbch/itc-cti/xcptnstnvc-eng.html