How to apply

For most Canadians, there is no application form for the GST/HST credit at all. You qualify by filing your tax return, and the CRA does the rest. The exception is newcomers in their first year, who have no Canadian return yet and must apply directly. This page covers both routes.

Route 1: automatic, through your tax return

Since the 2014 tax year, the CRA has automatically determined GST/HST credit eligibility when it assesses your personal income tax and benefit return. You do not tick a separate box, and you do not send a separate claim. The steps are:

1. File your T1 return for the previous year, even if you had no income. A return with zero income still produces an entitlement.
2. If you have a spouse or common-law partner, make sure they file too. The CRA needs both returns to calculate adjusted family net income.
3. Keep your address, marital status, and direct deposit details current in CRA My Account, so notices and payments reach you.
4. Wait for the notice of entitlement after assessment. It shows your annual amount and quarterly schedule.

That is the whole route, and it repeats every year: each July, the CRA recalculates from your newest return. The most common failure is simply not filing. Students, seniors with only pension income, and people between jobs sometimes assume a return is pointless when no tax is owed. For this credit, the return is the application, and skipping it costs the full year's payments. Late filing is better than no filing: the CRA can assess the credit retroactively once a late return is processed, although the payments will arrive later than the usual quarterly dates.

Route 2: newcomers in their first year

If you became a resident of Canada during the year and have not yet filed a Canadian return, the CRA cannot assess you automatically, so you apply directly:

• No children: complete Form RC151, the GST/HST credit application for individuals who become residents of Canada. It is available as an online form.
• With children under 19: apply with Form RC66, the Canada Child Benefits Application, together with Form RC66SCH (status in Canada and income information). Form RC66 registers you for the credit as well as for the Canada Child Benefit. If you do not qualify for the Canada Child Benefit, the paper RC151 form can still register your children for the credit.

You will need proof of birth for each child you list, and certified translations if a document is not in English or French. You also report your world income for the part of the year before you arrived in Canada, so the CRA can calculate the correct amount: income earned abroad before arrival still counts toward the income test for that first year. After your first Canadian return is filed, you move onto the automatic route, and no further direct application is needed.

What to have ready

Whether you file a return or a newcomer form, the CRA needs the same core facts: your social insurance number, your date of birth, your current address, your marital status, and the names and dates of birth of any children in your care. For a newcomer application, add your date of arrival, your residency and income details for the previous 36 months where the form asks for them, and proof of birth for each child. Double-check the spelling of every name against the supporting documents: a mismatch between a form and a birth certificate is one of the slowest errors to untangle, because it usually surfaces months later as a request for documents rather than as an immediate rejection.

After you apply

Newcomer applications are mailed to the tax centre for your province of residence, or submitted through the CRA's online route where available, and processing takes weeks rather than days. Your first payment can be backdated to the quarter in which you became eligible, so a slow first application does not necessarily mean lost money. Once you are in the system, keep the automatic route alive by filing every year, and tell the CRA promptly about the changes listed on the changes and overpayments page. A payment that stops is almost always a filing gap or an unreported change, not a closed program.