If your business is registered for GST/HST, CRA expects a return for every reporting period, even when there’s nothing to report. Missed returns build up penalties and interest, can lead CRA to assess you on its own estimate, and can make directors personally liable. Catching up means reconstructing each period and filing them in order.
Who has to file GST/HST returns?
Every GST/HST registrant has to file for every reporting period, including nil returns for periods with no sales. You generally have to register once your taxable sales pass $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters. That’s the small-supplier threshold.
Your filing frequency is usually based on annual taxable sales. It’s annual at $1.5 million or less, quarterly above $1.5 million up to $6 million, and monthly above $6 million. You can choose to file more often.
What happens if you don’t file?
- Late-filing penalty: 1% of the amount owing, plus a quarter of a percent of it for each full month late, up to twelve months.
- Interest: on unpaid amounts at CRA’s prescribed rate (7% throughout 2026), compounded daily.
- Assessments: CRA can assess GST/HST it believes you owe, and hold back refunds until returns are filed.
- Directors’ liability: directors of a corporation can be held personally liable for GST/HST the corporation collected but didn’t remit.
Can you still claim input tax credits on old periods?
Often, yes. Most businesses have four years from the due date of the return for the period in which an input tax credit (ITC) could first have been claimed. The longer you wait, the more of those credits fall outside the window, so a GST/HST catch-up is worth starting early.
How do you catch up on missed GST/HST returns?
- Pull your filing history from CRA to see every period that’s missing, filed or assessed.
- Reconstruct each period’s sales and the GST/HST collected, from invoices and bank deposits.
- Document the input tax credits you can support with records.
- Decide on voluntary disclosure before filing, if you’re eligible. See how the VDP works.
- File every period in order, including nil returns.
- Pay, or arrange a payment plan for the balance.
What about provincial sales tax?
GST/HST is federal. Some provinces run separate sales taxes with their own filings: Manitoba’s retail sales tax, British Columbia’s and Saskatchewan’s PST, and Quebec’s QST through Revenu Québec. If you’re registered for one of these, it needs catching up too. Alberta has no provincial sales tax.
Sources: CRA, GST/HST filing penalties; Prescribed interest rates. General information, not advice for your specific situation.
