How Canadian wedding coordinators register for GST/HST with the CRA and QST with Revenu Quebec

What to take away

How the small supplier threshold sets your start date

The small supplier test asks one question: what did you earn in taxable supplies over the last four consecutive calendar quarters? At $30,000 or less, you are a small supplier and you do not register or charge GST/HST.

The Canada Revenue Agency publishes the threshold and the timing rules for when a coordinator must register and begin charging. The rules come from Part IX of the Excise Tax Act and are explained in CRA guide RC4022, General Information for GST/HST Registrants. One exception matters: if taxable revenue passes $30,000 within a single calendar quarter, you must start charging on the supply that took you over, and you must register within 29 days.

That $30,000 counts every taxable supply, not just weddings. Rental income, decor sales and referral fees all add to the total. Deposits count when you receive them, not when the wedding happens, so a $4,000 retainer paid in March lands in the March quarter.

Most coordinators price on a flat planning fee or a percentage of the wedding budget. Ten weddings at $3,500 is $35,000, which puts a solo coordinator over the line in one season. Venue sourcing commissions push the total higher.

Why the four-quarter window beats the calendar year

The test looks back four quarters, not at your fiscal year. Four quarters at $8,000 each is $32,000 and you are over. A $25,000 summer followed by a quiet winter can keep you under.

Track the running total monthly. If you wait for your accountant's spring question, you may have been required to charge GST/HST for months without doing it.

A coordinator who wants input tax credits before crossing the threshold can register voluntarily. That is a commitment: you charge GST/HST on every taxable supply and file returns even in a year with no weddings. The wedding planning compliance checklist covers the registrations that sit alongside the tax account.

Registering for GST/HST with the CRA

Registration starts with a business number. A sole proprietor who already holds one from an earlier venture adds a GST/HST program account to it. A corporation gets its BN through incorporation and adds the program account afterward.

You register through CRA Business Registration Online, My Business Account, by phone, by mail or through a representative. The paper form is RC1, Request for a Business Number and Authorization for Program Accounts. Have your legal name, business address, effective registration date and expected revenue ready.

Choose the effective date with care. It is the day you start charging, and it cannot fall before the day you stopped being a small supplier.

You then receive a 15-character business number with a program identifier and a four-digit reference number. That full number goes on every invoice to a couple. Missing digits are the most common reason a client's bookkeeper queries an invoice.

Steps to register a wedding planning business for GST/HST

Registration changes how you quote. A $5,000 planning fee becomes $5,000 plus tax, or a $5,000 all-in price with tax carved out of it. Pick your model before the next contract, because it decides your margin.

The wedding planning pricing question of tax-inclusive versus tax-added quotes is really a profit question.

What voluntary registration commits you to

Voluntary registration is allowed below the threshold. The trade-off is filing: returns for every reporting period, including periods with no revenue. A coordinator who registers in a quiet January still files for that quarter.

The CRA business taxes overview shows how the GST/HST account sits alongside payroll, corporate income tax and other program accounts.

When QST registration with Revenu Quebec becomes mandatory

Quebec runs its own sales tax alongside the federal one. QST registration with Revenu Quebec follows the same logic: taxable revenue over $30,000 across four consecutive calendar quarters triggers mandatory registration. In Quebec, Revenu Quebec administers GST as well, so a Quebec-based coordinator uses its application, Form LM-1-V, to register for both taxes at once, and its online portal for businesses, My Account. The QST rules are in the Act respecting the Quebec sales tax.

A coordinator in Montreal, Quebec City or the Eastern Townships registers with Revenu Quebec for GST and QST together, and files a single combined GST and QST return, Form FPZ-500-V, with Revenu Quebec. Registrants file it online.

Do not confuse it with VD-403, which is a QST rebate application. A Quebec-based registrant deals with one agency. A coordinator based outside Quebec keeps the GST/HST account with the CRA and files QST returns separately with Revenu Quebec.

Out-of-province coordinators need to watch this. If you are based in Ontario but plan weddings in Quebec, you generally register for QST once your Quebec taxable supplies pass the threshold. A Toronto coordinator running six Montreal weddings a year can cross it without ever living in the province.

The Quebec government's finance and tax pages set out the QST obligations that sit alongside income tax and other levies.

QST and GST/HST on one Quebec invoice

A Quebec couple's invoice can show both taxes. GST is 5 per cent and QST is 9.975 per cent, and both apply to the same planning fee. Show them on separate lines with separate registration numbers so the couple's bookkeeper can reconcile each.

Quebec's consumer protection rules also shape your contract terms, cancellation policy and deposit handling. Those sit outside the tax code but land on the same invoice.

Invoicing couples across provincial borders

Place of supply decides which tax you charge. For wedding coordination, the general rule ties the supply to the province where the couple resides, not where the venue sits. That distinction catches coordinators who plan destination weddings.

A Halifax coordinator planning a Nova Scotia wedding for a Nova Scotia couple charges HST at the Nova Scotia rate. The same coordinator planning a Nova Scotia wedding for an Alberta couple charges GST only, because Alberta has no provincial sales tax and the couple's province of residence governs.

The rate depends on the combination of your province of registration and the couple's province of residence.

Cross-provincial border invoicing example

A coordinator registered in Ontario plans a Muskoka wedding for a couple who live in Calgary. Alberta is their province of residence, so the coordinator charges 5 per cent GST and no Ontario HST. On a $6,000 planning fee, tax is $300 and the invoice total is $6,300.

The same coordinator plans an identical wedding for a couple who live in Ottawa. Ontario HST applies at 13 per cent, so tax on $6,000 is $780 and the invoice total is $6,780.

Same venue, same coordinator, same fee, two tax lines. The invoice must show the couple's address and the tax charged, so the reasoning is visible if the CRA or Revenu Quebec asks.

Read the table below as a guide, not a substitute for the place-of-supply rule: the tax follows the couple's province of residence. A Quebec-registered coordinator therefore charges an Ontario-resident couple 13% HST, not GST plus QST, because QST applies when the supply is made in Quebec. Nova Scotia's HST rate has been 14% since 1 April 2025, when it fell from 15%.

British Columbia's 7% PST applies to taxable goods such as decor and rentals, not to planning services, so the table shows GST only for a BC couple on a planning fee. Manitoba charges a 7% retail sales tax and Saskatchewan a 6% PST on taxable goods, which pure coordination services generally avoid.

British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba levy a separate provincial sales tax rather than an HST. A coordinator registered in BC may need a separate PST registration if they sell taxable goods such as decor or rentals. BC's PST bulletin for event planners treats planning and coordinating services as outside PST, but a bundled price that includes decor can attract PST on the goods portion.

What goes on the invoice itself

Every invoice needs your legal or trading name.
It also needs your GST/HST number and the date.
Include a description of the service, the amount, the tax and the total. For QST, add the QST number. For zero-rated or exempt supplies, state the reason.

Keep invoices in sequence. A missing number in a series is the kind of thing an auditor notices first.

Filing deadlines and reporting periods

Your reporting period depends on annual taxable revenue. Most coordinators start as annual filers, with $1.5 million or less in annual taxable supplies. Between $1.5 million and $6 million the period is quarterly, and above $6 million it is monthly. Quarterly and monthly returns are due one month after the period ends. An annual filer with business income as an individual files the return by June 15, though any balance owing is due by April 30. The return is Form GST34, GST/HST Return for Registrants. The CRA sets out the filing obligations and deadlines that apply to a wedding planning business.

A coordinator whose revenue crosses the $1.5 million quarterly filer threshold partway through a year can be moved to quarterly filing partway through that year. Watch for the CRA notice rather than assuming the old schedule holds.

How to file a GST/HST return

Filing happens through CRA My Business Account, through NETFILE-certified software, by phone for simple returns, or by mail. The CRA's guide to filing a GST/HST return walks through each channel and what each one needs.

Most coordinators with bookkeeping software file directly from it, which keeps the working papers and the return in one place.

Set a calendar reminder for the filing date and a second one a week earlier for the payment. Interest on late GST/HST runs from the due date, and the CRA charges it even when the return is filed on time but the payment is not.

The habit of reconciling the tax account monthly turns filing into a formality rather than a scramble.

Reporting periods and seasonal revenue

Wedding revenue is seasonal across most of Canada. A Manitoba or Saskatchewan coordinator may earn most of the year's revenue between May and September. Quarterly filing spreads the pain: one large second-quarter payment followed by three quieter ones.

Annual filing concentrates the year's tax into one spring payment. That suits a coordinator whose revenue sits well under the quarterly threshold, but it demands discipline in setting money aside through the season.

Keeping venue and vendor invoices clean for input tax credits

Input tax credits recover the GST/HST you pay on business expenses. Pay a florist, photographer, calligrapher or venue deposit and you pay tax on those invoices, which you can generally claim back against the tax collected from couples.

The claim depends on the invoice. A supplier invoice without a GST/HST number is not enough. The CRA expects the supplier's name, registration number, date, amount and the tax shown separately.

Venue invoices are the biggest line for most coordinators. A venue that charges a facility fee, a catering minimum and a service charge often issues one invoice with tax on some lines and not others. Read the breakdown rather than claiming the total.

Common input tax credit mistakes in wedding planning

A coordinator who passes a vendor cost straight through to a couple acts as an agent in some arrangements and a principal in others. The tax treatment differs. Get the contract wording right before assuming the credit is yours.

The wedding planning licensing side of the business, from municipal business licences to venue alcohol rules, produces its own invoices and its own credits.

Records to keep and for how long

The CRA expects records kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. That covers invoices, contracts, bank statements and the working papers behind each return.

Digital records are fine if they are readable and backed up. A coordinator who scans every supplier invoice into a folder by month has an audit file ready without extra work in April.

What changes when you cross the threshold mid-season

The timing rule is the part coordinators get wrong. When you stop being a small supplier, you do not start charging the next day. You start on the first day of the second month after the quarter in which you crossed.

The CRA's rules on when to register and start charging spell out that timing.

Cross the threshold in the quarter ending June 30 and registration takes effect August 1. That gives you a month to update contracts, invoices and your booking system.

Weddings already contracted before that date are the awkward ones. A couple who signed in May for a September wedding may hold a contract quoting a tax-free fee. The registration date governs whether you charge, so the September invoice carries the tax even though the contract predates registration.

Practical steps for the season you cross

A coordinator who builds tax into the quoted fee from the start avoids the conversation entirely. One who quotes net and adds tax later has to explain a higher invoice to a couple who budgeted on the first number.

The wedding planning business plan should carry the registration threshold as a line in the financial section, with the month you expect to cross it marked. Lenders and partners read that as evidence the owner understands the cash cycle.

Once registered, filing obligations run for every period even when the season is quiet, and the CRA's GST/HST for businesses page is the reference to keep bookmarked.

Common questions

Do I charge GST/HST on a wedding I plan outside Canada?

Supplies made outside Canada are generally zero-rated or outside the scope of GST/HST. Keep records showing where the service was performed and where the couple resides, because that is what an auditor will ask for.

Can I register before I reach $30,000?

Yes. Voluntary registration lets you claim input tax credits sooner, and it commits you to filing returns for every reporting period, including quiet ones. Weigh that filing load against the credits you expect to claim in your first year.

Do I need a QST number if I plan one wedding in Quebec?

One wedding is unlikely to push you past the Quebec threshold on its own. If Quebec becomes a regular part of your season, track Quebec revenue separately and register when the rolling total requires it.

Are deposits taxable when I receive them?

GST/HST applies when consideration is paid, so a deposit is generally taxable when you receive it. Reconcile deposits to the correct reporting period rather than to the wedding date, or your quarterly totals will drift from your bank statements.