Rideshare & delivery
If you carry passengers for Uber, Lyft or any other rideshare platform, you have to register for GST/HST from your very first fare. The $30,000 small-supplier threshold that applies to most small businesses does not apply to you — it is a specific exception for passenger transport. Delivery-only work, where you carry food or parcels and never passengers, generally does follow the normal $30,000 threshold. If you do both, the split matters. Registering is free, usually takes under half an hour, and being registered is often better for you than not, because it lets you claim back the GST/HST on what you spend.
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The rule is about what is in the car, not which app sent you. Carrying people makes you a taxi business in the CRA's eyes, and taxi businesses register from day one. Carrying food or parcels is an ordinary small business, and ordinary small businesses register once they pass $30,000 in revenue over four consecutive quarters.
Plenty of drivers run both on the same shift. If any part of your work carries passengers, the first-fare rule applies to that work — so in practice most mixed drivers end up registered. We work out which of your income falls where and file it correctly.
It is less than people fear. You need a business number from the CRA, which you can usually get online in the same sitting, and a GST/HST account attached to it. There is no fee. Once registered you are expected to file a GST/HST return on a schedule the CRA sets for you, most commonly annually for a driver.
If you are not registered yet, we can register you. If you have been driving for a while without registering, say so — it is a common situation, it is fixable, and it gets more expensive the longer it waits.
Registration is not purely a cost. Once registered you can claim input tax credits — the GST/HST you paid on the things you buy to do the job. Over a year of fuel, repairs, insurance, phone bills and car washes, that adds up:
Most drivers use the regular method: the GST/HST you collected, minus the input tax credits you are claiming. There is also a Quick Method, which applies a flat rate to your gross revenue and skips most of the credit tracking. Which one leaves you better off depends on how much you spend relative to what you earn, and it is worth checking rather than guessing.
We run both and file whichever is better for you.
This is more common than you would think, and it is not a disaster. The CRA can assess the GST/HST you should have collected, with interest, and the amount grows the longer it is left. The important thing is that you can still claim your input tax credits for the same period, which usually takes a meaningful bite out of the total.
Come and talk to us before the CRA writes to you. It is a much easier conversation in that order.
What it costs. GST/HST returns are $50. A rideshare or delivery return, which covers your personal return with the business schedule included, starts at $80. Registration itself is free and we do not charge to set it up alongside your return.
See the full price listIf you carried passengers, yes. The $30,000 threshold does not apply to passenger transport — the requirement starts at your first fare regardless of how little you earned.
Generally not until you pass $30,000 over four consecutive quarters, because delivery-only work is treated as an ordinary small business. You are still self-employed and still file a business schedule with your return.
The platform collects GST/HST on the fare, but the registration and the return are yours. Your annual tax summary shows the amounts; filing them is your responsibility, not the platform's.
The CRA assigns a filing frequency, and for most drivers it is annual. You are told when you register, and we track the deadline alongside your return.
Usually not. You collect GST/HST on fares the platform already adds, and you get to claim back the tax on your fuel, repairs, insurance and phone. For a driver with real vehicle costs, registration is often close to neutral or better.
Talk to us. You can still claim input tax credits for that period, which reduces what is owed, and voluntarily sorting it out is a far better position than waiting for the CRA to raise it.
A free, no-obligation consultation — in person in Kitchener-Waterloo, or entirely online from anywhere in Canada. Complete information means we can start the same day.
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