GST34: GST/HST Return for Registrants
Reviewed by EverStone CPA · August 2026
Quick answer: The GST34 is the GST/HST return every registrant files for each reporting period. Monthly and quarterly filers file and pay within one month of the period’s end; annual filers generally within three months of year-end — and since 2024 periods, filing must be electronic.
What the form is
Each reporting period, a registrant reports the GST/HST it charged, claims its input tax credits, and remits or claims the difference. The personalized GST34-2 package the CRA mails shows your periods, due dates and electronic access code.
Filing frequency — monthly, quarterly or annual — is assigned from revenue and can be changed by election. The deadline follows the frequency, not the calendar year.
Electronic filing is mandatory for all registrants except charities and selected listed financial institutions, for periods ending in 2024 and later. The CRA charges a penalty for continuing to file on paper, and exemptions are case-by-case on written request.
Who files it
Every GST/HST registrant, for every reporting period — including nil periods. Registration, not revenue, creates the filing obligation, and dormant registrants who stop filing accumulate demands rather than silence.
Annual filers whose net tax passes the CRA’s threshold also pay quarterly instalments through the year, with the return reconciling at year-end.
The form at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who files | Every GST/HST registrant, each reporting period, nil or not |
| Monthly / quarterly | File and pay within 1 month of the period’s end |
| Annual | File and pay within 3 months of the fiscal year-end |
| Sole-proprietor exception | December 31 year-end with business income: pay by April 30, file by June 15 |
| Method | Electronic filing mandatory for periods ending 2024 onward (charities and SLFIs excepted) |
What to have ready before you file
Most of the delay on these is not the form, it is assembling what the form asks for. Have sales for the period, GST/HST collected, input tax credits with the receipts behind them, and any instalments already paid — plus the reporting-period dates themselves, because filing to the wrong period is a surprisingly common way returns go astray to hand before starting.
Gathering it first also surfaces the problems early — a missing account number, a balance nobody has actually calculated, a date that does not line up — while there is still time to fix them rather than after a filing has been rejected.
What catches people out
The June 15 exception splits filing from payment. An eligible sole proprietor files by June 15 but the money was due April 30 — interest runs on any balance from May, which surprises people who treat June 15 as the deadline.
Nil returns are still returns. A registrant with no sales files anyway, and the fastest route to CRA demands, arbitrary assessments and holds on other accounts is leaving nil periods unfiled.
Instalment obligations attach to annual filers automatically once net tax crosses the threshold — the CRA does not invoice instalments the way it does for corporate tax, and the interest arrives at year-end with the reconciliation.
Since periods ending in 2024, every GST/HST registrant except charities and selected listed financial institutions must file electronically — filing on paper now attracts a penalty of its own, before any question of lateness.
How it is filed
Electronically — NETFILE, My Business Account, or through accounting software — using the access code from your personalized GST34-2 package. Monthly and quarterly filers file and pay within one month of period end; annual filers within three months of year-end, with the June 15 / April 30 split for eligible sole proprietors.
Whichever route applies, keep the filed return and the working papers behind it together. A return is only as defensible as the file that shows how the figures in it were arrived at, and that file is what a review asks for rather than the return itself.
Common questions
When is my GST/HST return due?+
Can I still file a paper GST34?+
Do I file if I had no sales?+
How do I file electronically?+
Where this comes from
- CRA — GST/HST reporting requirements and deadlines
- CRA — Remit (pay) the GST/HST you collected
- CRA — Penalty for accepting a late, amended or revoked election
General information current as of August 2026, not advice for your situation. Filing deadlines are unforgiving — confirm yours before you file. Please speak with a CPA about your circumstances.
Related reading
- GST/HST registration for small business
- The GST/HST quick method
- GST/HST instalments for annual filers
- All CRA forms we cover
Other CRA forms
Who does this work
Most GST problems are bookkeeping problems wearing a tax costume — ITCs missed because receipts were not kept, periods misaligned because the books lag. Filing from reconciled books each period is the whole trick.
If that is where you are, the service page for GST/HST registration and filing sets out what the engagement covers and how it is quoted.
These deadlines are date-driven and unforgiving. Email us before the deadline rather than after — we quote the work in writing first.
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