375 dogs is the registration clock
The small-supplier threshold is $30,000 of taxable revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters, and it is measured on gross fees charged, not the net amount your booking app deposits after its fees. Divide by an average groom and the math is stark: a groomer doing eight dogs a day crosses the line in a matter of months, not years.
How you cross matters. Blow past $30,000 inside a single calendar quarter and small-supplier status ends immediately: HST applies starting with the sale that tipped you over, and registration is due within 29 days. Creep past it across four rolling quarters instead and you keep small-supplier status for one more month before HST must apply. Get the date wrong and CRA can assess HST you never collected, out of your own pocket. There is also a case for registering before you must: a groomer building out a van or a shop can recover the HST paid on the fit-out as input tax credits from day one, which is a timing decision worth running through Tax Planning & Advisory before the spending starts.
Fully taxable cuts both ways
Charging 13% on every bath, dematting session, nail trim and bag of treats is the burden; the other side is that every input tax credit is available. HST paid on blades and sharpening, shampoo, dryer repairs, the booking platform's subscription and processing fees, salon rent or van fuel, all of it comes back against what you collected. Groomers who file from a shoebox routinely leave ITCs unclaimed because the app fee statements and supplier invoices never made it into the return.
The quick method of accounting can simplify HST for a service business, but counter retail changes its math, so we test it against your actual mix before electing anything. Either way the HST return and the income tax return should be built from the same reconciled numbers; when they disagree, CRA notices.
What the income return looks like, sole prop or corporation
An unincorporated groomer files a T2125 with the personal return: business income, vehicle costs with a logbook for a mobile route, workspace-in-home where the house is genuinely the base of operations, and CCA on equipment. An incorporated shop files a T2, with the corporate year-end and the HST period lined up so one closing process feeds both. And once you owe more than $3,000 at filing time two years running, CRA expects quarterly instalments; we calendar those so April is never a surprise.
Tips and splits belong on the return too. Tips are taxable income whether they arrived in cash or on the card reader, and a groomer paid on a commission split reports either T4 employment income or self-employed income, which changes what they can deduct. The classification question itself is a payroll issue we cover on the accounting side; at filing time, what matters is that the return matches how the shop actually paid.
Where you stand, and what HST requires
| Where the revenue stands | What the rules require |
|---|---|
| Under $30,000 over the last four quarters | No registration required; voluntary registration recovers HST on setup and fit-out costs |
| Over $30,000 within one calendar quarter | Small-supplier status ends at once; HST applies from the sale that crossed the line; register within 29 days |
| Over $30,000 across four rolling quarters | One more month of small-supplier status, then HST applies; registration due within 29 days of that first taxable sale |
| Registered | 13% on every groom and counter sale, filed and remitted for each assigned period, ITCs claimed with support |
When the brown envelope arrives
New HST registrants get reviewed; vehicle and home-office claims on a T2125 get questioned; a shop that suddenly shows payroll draws attention. None of this is a crisis if the file is clean, kilometre log, fee statements, deposit records, tip accounting. We prepare returns through Corporate Tax Filing and Personal Tax Filing so the support exists before anyone asks, and CRA Audit & Review Support handles the letters when they come. We file for groomers across Mississauga and the GTA, quoted in writing after a free 15-minute call.
Source: CRA — When to register for and start charging the GST/HST.
