CRA Form GST284: GST/HST Public Service Bodies’ Rebate Filing Guide

CRA Form GST284 is the personalized version of the Application for GST/HST Public Service Bodies’ Rebate and GST Self-Government Refund. Charities, qualifying non-profit organizations, municipalities, and other public service bodies use it to recover a percentage of the GST or the federal part of the HST they paid on eligible purchases. The CRA no longer mails personalized copies, so most organizations now file the generic Form GST66 on paper or submit the claim online, though an existing GST284 is still accepted.¹ Depending on the type of organization, the rebate returns between 50 percent and 100 percent of the federal tax paid.

Who Can File and How Much Comes Back

Eligibility and rebate rate go together. The percentage you claim on the GST or federal part of the HST depends entirely on which category your organization falls into, and the categories are defined narrowly.¹ The rates are set by section 259 of the Excise Tax Act and apply to the non-creditable tax charged on eligible property and services during a claim period.²

Municipality: 100%
Hospital authority: 83%
School authority: 68%
University or public college: 67%
Charity (registered charity, registered Canadian amateur athletic association, or a non-profit operating a health-care facility on a not-for-profit basis): 50%
Qualifying non-profit organization, meaning an NPO or prescribed government organization that receives at least 40 percent of its total revenue from government funding in the fiscal year: 50%

A charity that paid $1,000 of GST on eligible purchases during a claim period would receive $500 back on the federal portion. If your organization carries out activities that fall under more than one category, you report each activity type on its own line of the form.¹

Organizations in participating provinces can also claim a rebate on the provincial part of the HST by completing Form RC7066-SCH, Provincial Schedule — GST/HST Public Service Bodies’ Rebate, and attaching it to the application. Provincial percentages differ by province and by organization type. Non-participating provinces have no HST, so there is no provincial rebate to claim there.³

Claim Periods and the Four-Year Deadline

How often you file depends on whether your organization is a GST/HST registrant. Registrants file rebate applications on the same schedule as their GST/HST returns: monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on the assigned reporting frequency. Non-registrants file on a semi-annual basis, with claim periods covering the first six months or the last six months of the fiscal year. A non-registrant with a December 31 year-end would file one claim for January through June and another for July through December.³

You have four years to file. For registrants, the clock starts on the due date of the GST/HST return for the claim period in which the expense was incurred. For non-registrants, it starts on the last day of the claim period.¹ That window is generous, but organizations that let claims pile up risk losing the invoices and receipts they will need if the CRA reviews the claim.

Filling Out the Form

Enter the organization’s legal name and its 15-digit Business Number at the top. The BN is nine digits, a two-letter program identifier, and a four-digit reference number, for example 123456789 RT 0001. A wrong or mistyped BN can delay processing or post the rebate to the wrong account.⁴

Identify your organization type by entering the rebate amount on the matching line: line 305 for charities, line 300 for municipalities, line 304 for hospital authorities, and so on. Each line corresponds to a specific rebate percentage. Apply that percentage to the total non-creditable GST or federal HST you paid during the claim period to arrive at the amount claimed. Registrants who have already claimed input tax credits on a purchase cannot also claim the PSB rebate on that same amount; the rebate applies only to the non-creditable portion of the tax.

An authorized representative must sign and date the form. Keep every receipt and invoice that supports the numbers, because the CRA can request documentation during a review. The CRA recommends keeping records for at least six years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

Indigenous governments that have entered a self-government agreement with the Government of Canada use a separate line, line 309, to claim a 100 percent refund of the GST and federal HST on property and services acquired for self-government activities.¹

How to Submit It

Filing online through My Business Account is the fastest option. The CRA’s Submit Documents Online service lets you upload the completed form directly to your organization’s tax file, and registrants who file GST/HST returns electronically can often include the rebate claim with the return.⁵

On paper, mail the signed Form GST66 (or an existing personalized GST284) to the CRA Tax Centre assigned to your organization’s province. The correct address is on your most recent notice of assessment or on the CRA website. If you are claiming the provincial part of the HST, put Form RC7066-SCH in the same envelope. Keep a signed copy of everything you send.

After You File

Online submissions generally process faster than paper. Once the CRA finishes processing, the rebate is either applied against an outstanding balance on your GST/HST account or issued as a payment, and you can track the status through My Business Account.

If the file raises questions, the CRA will ask for supporting documentation before releasing the money. The common causes of delay are a mismatched Business Number, expenses claimed under the wrong category, the wrong rebate percentage for the organization type, and double-dipping between input tax credits and the rebate on the same purchases.

What GST284 Does Not Cover

Sales of real property and capital property are handled under separate rules and do not run through the standard PSB rebate calculation. If a charity sells a building or a major piece of equipment, the tax collected on that sale and any input tax credits are accounted for separately for the reporting period rather than folded into the rebate percentage.⁶

The simplified net tax calculation method that many registered charities use is also a separate matter. Electing into or out of that method is done on Form GST488, not GST284. The two forms interact because the net tax method changes how input tax credits are calculated, which in turn affects the non-creditable tax that flows into the PSB rebate, but the rebate application itself remains GST284 or GST66.⁶

1
Canada Revenue Agency. GST/HST Public Service Bodies’ Rebate
2
Justice Laws Website. Excise Tax Act RSC 1985 c E-15 – Section 259
3
Canada Revenue Agency. GST/HST Public Service Bodies’ Rebate
4
Canada Revenue Agency. Program Accounts You May Need
5
Canada Revenue Agency. Submit Documents Online
6
Canada Revenue Agency. GST/HST Information for Charities