An input tax credit (ITC) is your refund of the GST/HST you paid on business purchases. It's one of the best features of the system — but it comes with a condition that trips up careful, honest businesses all the time: you must hold specific supporting information before you claim it. If you don't, the credit can be denied, even when the purchase was completely legitimate.

The rules aren't vague. The Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations spell out exactly what your records must show, and the requirements get stricter as the purchase gets bigger. The most common failure isn't fraud — it's claiming a credit off a bank or credit-card statement, or a receipt that's missing the supplier's GST/HST number.

TL;DR — The Short Version
  1. A credit-card or bank statement is not enough. It proves you paid someone; it doesn't show the GST/HST or the supplier's registration number. You need the actual receipt or invoice.
  2. The required information scales in three tiers — under $100, $100 to under $500, and $500 or more. (These thresholds replaced the old $30/$150 ones on April 20, 2021.)
  3. At $100 or more you must have the supplier's GST/HST registration number — and it has to be a real, valid one. You can confirm it in the CRA's GST/HST Registry.
  4. At $500 or more you also need your own (the buyer's) name, a description of the supply, and the terms of payment.
  5. No compliant documentation, no ITC. On a review, unsupported credits are reversed — usually with interest — even if the expense was genuine.

Read on for the three tiers, why a card statement fails, how to verify a GST number, a real example, and a receipt checklist.

Start Here

The credit isn't about paying the tax — it's about proving it

Here's the mental shift. Being charged GST/HST and paying it is necessary but not sufficient. To claim the credit, the law requires you to obtain and keep enough information to support it — and it lists precisely what that information is. The CRA can (and does) ask to see it. If the supporting document is missing the prescribed details, the credit fails on a technicality, regardless of how real the expense was.

This is why "I have it on my Visa statement" is the famous wrong answer. A statement shows a payment to a merchant. It doesn't show how much of that was GST/HST, and it doesn't show the merchant's registration number — two things the rules specifically require.

Source: Excise Tax Act, s. 169(4) (documentation required before claiming an ITC); Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations (SOR/91-45).

The Three Tiers

What each receipt must show

The required information builds up as the total amount of the purchase rises. Each higher tier includes everything from the tiers below it.

Purchase totalYour record must show
Under $100Supplier (or intermediary) name or business name; the date; the total amount paid; and the GST/HST amount, the rate, or a statement that GST/HST is included.
$100 to under $500All of the above plus the supplier's GST/HST registration number.
$500 or moreAll of the above plus the buyer's name (you), a description of the supply, and the terms of payment.

So a $40 hardware-store receipt that shows the store name, date, total, and "GST included" is fine. A $300 invoice with no GST/HST number on it is not — that single missing field is enough to lose the credit. And a $900 invoice needs to name you, describe what was bought, and state the payment terms.

Source: Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations (SOR/91-45); CRA, GST/HST Memorandum 8-4, Documentary Requirements for Claiming Input Tax Credits. Thresholds increased from $30/$150 to $100/$500 effective April 20, 2021.

The documentary requirement builds in three tiers: under $100 needs basic receipt info; $100 to under $500 adds the supplier's GST/HST number; $500 or more adds the buyer's name, a description, and terms of payment. EACH TIER ADDS A REQUIREMENT — AND DROPS NOTHING UNDER $100 Supplier name Date Total amount GST/HST amount, rate, or "included" $100 – $499 Everything at left + supplier's GST/HST number (must be valid) $500 OR MORE Everything at left + buyer's name + description + terms of payment
The $100 line is the one that bites most often: it's where the supplier's GST/HST registration number becomes mandatory.
Verify It

The GST/HST number has to be real

It's not enough that a number is printed on the invoice — it must be a valid, registered GST/HST account number. If a supplier writes down a number that isn't actually registered (or isn't registered for the date of your purchase), your credit can be denied. The CRA provides a free GST/HST Registry where you can confirm a supplier's number, their legal/trading name, and that the registration was effective on the transaction date — useful for new or large suppliers.

Source: CRA, Confirming a GST/HST account number (GST/HST Registry).

A Real-World Example

The designer whose credits didn't survive a look

Meet Farah, who runs Brightline Interiors, a busy interior-design studio in Brampton, Ontario. She's registered, she charges 13% HST on her work, and she diligently claims ITCs on her purchases — fabric, lighting, décor, contractor invoices, software. Over a year she claims about $4,000 in input tax credits.

The trouble is how she records them. For a lot of purchases, Farah's "documentation" is the line on her credit-card statement plus, sometimes, a photo of a receipt. Several of her bigger buys — a $380 lighting order, a $260 décor invoice, a few $150-plus supplier charges — came on slips that never showed a GST/HST number. One contractor's invoice for $1,100 named no payment terms and didn't list her business at all.

When the CRA reviews her GST/HST, the genuine expenses aren't in question — but the documentation is. The credits backed only by card statements, and the $100-plus purchases with no supplier GST number, don't meet the regulations. Roughly $1,500 of her $4,000 in ITCs gets disallowed, and interest is added on top.

Nothing she bought was fake. The credits failed on missing fields — a GST number here, a description there — that no one was watching for at the time.

The maddening part is how avoidable it was. The suppliers were real and registered; the right invoices existed or could have been requested. The credits were lost not to the tax rules but to the paperwork rules — the ones that feel like a formality until they aren't.

What should have happened

Get It Right

A receipt checklist

This is exactly why CDL has clients text a photo of every receipt the moment they get it — a complete, captured receipt is the difference between an ITC that survives a review and one that doesn't. It's built into every CDL plan, and you can estimate the cost in about a minute.

The Bottom Line

Real expense, real tax, still no credit

The GST/HST you paid is only claimable if you can prove it the way the regulations require. The bar rises with the size of the purchase, and the field that catches most people is the supplier's registration number on anything $100 or more. Keep complete receipts, watch the $100 and $500 lines, and the credits you're entitled to will actually stick.

Not sure your receipts would survive a GST/HST review?

Missing supplier numbers and card-statement "receipts" are the quiet reason ITCs get clawed back. A 20-minute call is enough to see where your documentation stands.

Book a Free 20-Minute Call

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. GST/HST documentary requirements contain detail and exceptions and change over time. Consult a qualified professional or the Canada Revenue Agency before relying on specific records to support your input tax credits.

References

Primary sources, linked so you can read and interpret them yourself. Legislative links open on the official Justice Laws website; agency links open on the Government of Canada website.