ITC documentation: $100 and $500 set what each receipt must show

What must each receipt show under $100, from $100 and from $500?

The required information is set by section 3 of the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, and the band is picked by the total amount paid or payable shown on the document laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The CRA lays the three bands out like this canada.ca:

The legal hook is ETA 169(4)(a): your client can't claim the credit unless, before filing the return that claims it, it holds evidence that lets the ITC be determined, including the prescribed information above laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

The band applies to the whole document, not to each line. When one receipt covers several supplies, the total for all of them decides the band, so six $30 items on one invoice need the $100 band details.

Why do some sources still say $30 and $150?

The bands used to be $30 and $150. Budget 2021, tabled April 19, 2021, proposed raising them and letting billing agents count as intermediaries canada.ca. The CRA's current ITC page prints only the $100 and $500 bands canada.ca. Parliament enacted both changes in S.C. 2024, c. 15, sections 141 and 142, each deemed to have come into force on April 20, 2021 laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

The CRA's GST/HST Memorandum 8.4 is dated August 2012 and still prints the $30 and $150 bands canada.ca. Its guidance on what counts as a document, credit cards and reimbursements still matches the law, but read its dollar figures as $100 and $500.

The intermediary change matters for platform and agency billing. A registrant that causes or facilitates the supply as the supplier's agent, or under an agreement with it, is an intermediary, so its name and GST/HST number on the invoice satisfy the supplier fields.

Which of three Ontario receipts support the $304.20 claim?

Your client is an Ontario consultant registered for GST/HST, using the regular method and spending all three amounts on commercial activities. HST is 13%. At the quarter end you review three documents:

The paper receipt doesn't need to show the tax. The ITC is the tax fraction of the total: $45.20 × 13/113 = $5.20.

The supplies receipt and the laptop invoice can't support a claim yet. The supplier has to give your client the missing particulars in writing forthwith on request laws-lois.justice.gc.ca, and a supplier that fails to provide required information faces a $100 penalty for every failure laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. Once both documents are fixed, the quarter's ITCs on these three items come to $5.20 + $39 + $260 = $304.20.

If the corrected documents arrive after the return is filed, claim the $299 in a later return. That works as long as it is inside the claim window in the last section. The laptop credit is claimable even under the quick method, because capital property sits outside it (see the Quick Method page).

Which documents count, and which don't?

Supporting documentation includes invoices, receipts, credit card receipts, debit notes, books or ledgers, written contracts and records kept in electronic form laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. The information doesn't have to sit on one document: a written contract can supply the parties and payment terms while periodic invoices show the amounts and the tax, and then both are needed canada.ca.

A monthly credit card statement is not enough on its own. It has to be backed by the receipt or invoice. A credit card receipt alone can do the job where the supplier issues no other document, as at gas stations and in hospitality canada.ca.

The CRA lists reduced documentation rules for allowances and reimbursements paid to employees or partners, computerized books and records, contractual agreements, cash paid into coin and bill operated machines, procurement cards, and taxi, limousine and commercial ride sharing fares canada.ca. These rest on the minister's power in ETA 169(5) to exempt a registrant, a class of registrants or all registrants when sufficient records exist laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

What happens when a supplier's GST/HST number is wrong or missing?

Check it on the CRA's GST/HST Registry before claiming. You enter the first nine digits of the number without letters, the supplier's legal, operating or trading name, and the transaction date from the invoice, then print the search details screen for the file canada.ca. A Quebec QST number is checked on Revenu Québec's site instead.

If a supplier charges tax using a false or incorrect registration number, the CRA's position is that your client can't claim the ITC. Where the error is clerical, the CRA may still allow it under its 169(5) discretion canada.ca. Ask the supplier for a corrected invoice before the return goes in.

Your client also has to be a registrant for the period, so purchases made before registration generally earn no ITC. A small supplier weighing voluntary registration for startup costs can check the GST registration threshold first.

How long does your client have to claim and to keep the paper?

Most registrants have until the due date of the return for the last reporting period ending within four years after the period in which the ITC first became available canada.ca. Listed financial institutions get two years, and so do businesses whose threshold amount exceeds $6 million in both the current and the prior fiscal year, unless they are charities or made at least 90% taxable supplies in either of the two preceding fiscal years.

The documents then have to be kept for six years after the end of the year they relate to, and electronic records have to stay in an electronically readable format for that whole period laws-lois.justice.gc.ca. Returns are due on the usual schedule; see the GST/HST filing deadline.