Self-employed Business, Professional, Commission, Farming, and Fishing Income: GST/HST for farmers and fishers

 Supplies of farm goods and services subject to GST (5%) or HST (13% or 15%) include:

• crop dusting
• contract work, including field clearing, tilling and harvesting done by one farmer on behalf of another
• road-clearing services
• stud or artificial insemination services
• storing goods (for example, storing grain in a grain elevator)
• beeswax
• maple sugar candy
• canary seed, lawn seed, and flower seed
• bedding plants, sod, cut flowers, living trees and firewood
• furs, animal hides and dead animals not suitable for human consumption
• fertilizer sold in containers of any size or in bulk when the total quantity is less than 500 kilograms, or any quantities of soil or soil mixture whether or not they contain fertilizer
• gravel, stones, rock, soil and soil additives
• livestock or poultry not normally raised as food or to produce food for human consumption (for example, horses, mules and mink)
• feathers, down and processed wool

 Supplies of fishing goods and services subject to GST (5%) or HST (13% or 15%) include:

• fish or other marine or freshwater animals sold as bait for recreational fishing
• fish or other marine or freshwater animals not ordinarily used as food for human consumption
• traps, pots and cages
• fish boxes
• navigation equipment
• repair and maintenance materials
• stationary engines and outboard motors

Other supplies are taxable at 0%. We refer to these as zero-rated supplies. You do not pay GST/HST when you make these purchases and you do not charge GST/HST when you supply them to your customers. For zero-rated farm supplies, see this page. For zero-rated fishing supplies, see Zero-rated fishing supplies.

 Common zero-rated supplies of farm products are:

• fruits and vegetables
• grains or seeds in their natural state, treated for seeding purposes or irradiated for storage purposes, and hay or silage, or other fodder crops, when they are sold in quantities larger than ordinarily offered for sale to consumers, except grains and seeds packaged, prepared and sold to use as feed for wild birds or pet food
• feed sold by a feedlot operator, as long as the price is separately identified on the invoice or written agreement
• hops, barley, flaxseed, straw, sugar cane or sugar beets
• livestock such as cattle, hogs, poultry, bees or sheep that are raised or kept to produce food, or to be used as food, for human consumption, or to produce wool
• poultry or fish eggs that are produced for hatching
• rabbits, except those supplied by a person in the course of a business in the course of which the person regularly supplies animals as pets to consumers
• fertilizer sold in bulk or in a container of at least 25 kg where the total quantity of fertilizer supplied at the time is at least 500 kg
• wool that is not further processed than washed
• tobacco leaves that are not further processed than dried and sorted

 Examples of zero-rated farm purchases are:

• tractors designed for farm use that have a rating of at least 44.74 kW at power takeoff (60 PTO horsepower)
• pull and self-propelled combines, swathers and wind-rowers
• headers for combines, forage harvesters, swathers or wind-rowers
• combine or forage harvester pickups
• forage harvesters, and self-propelled, tractor-mounted or pull-type mechanical fruit or vegetable pickers or harvesters
• mouldboard and disc plows (3 or more furrows), and chisel plows and subsoil chisels (at least 8 feet or 2.44 metres wide)
• discers, rod weeders or bean rods (at least 8 feet or 2.44 metres wide)
• field and row crop cultivators (at least 8 feet or 2.44 metres wide)
• combination discer-cultivators (at least 8 feet or 2.44 metres wide)
• rototillers and rotovators (at least 6 feet or 1.83 metres wide)
• harrows sold in complete units and pulverizers (at least 8 feet or 2.44 metres wide)
• land packers, mulchers and rotary hoes (at least 8 feet or 2.44 metres wide)
• airflow seeders, grain and seed drills (at least 8 feet or 2.44 metres wide), and farm-type row-crop or toolbar seeders or planters designed to seed two or more rows at a time
• mower-conditioners, hay balers, hay cubers, hay rakes, hay conditioners, hay crushers, hay crimpers, hay tedders, swath turners, and wind-row turners
• bale throwers, elevators, or conveyors, silage baggers, and round bale wrapping machines
• grain bins or tanks with a capacity of 181 cubic metres or less (5,000 bushels)
• transportable conveyors with belts less than 76.2 cm (30 inches) wide and 0.48 cm (3/16 inch) thick, transportable farm grain augers, transportable utility augers and transportable elevators
• bin sweep or cleaner attachments for portable grain augers
• tractor-powered pneumatic grain conveyors
• feed mills, including roller mills and hammer mills
• feed mixers, feed grinder mixers, tub grinders and other farm-type feed grinders
• ensilage mixers and self-propelled feed or ensilage carts
• grain toasters to use in livestock feed production
• grain dryers
• farm-type refrigerated bulk milk coolers
• assembled and fully operational milking systems or individual components of milking systems that are supplied together, unassembled and then assembled into a fully operational milking system
• automated and computerized farm livestock or poultry feeding systems, or individual components of these systems when they are supplied together, unassembled and then assembled into a fully operational feeding system
• self-propelled, tractor-mounted, or pull-type agricultural wagons or trailers designed for off-road handling and transporting of grain, forage, livestock feed or fertilizer, and for use at speeds not exceeding 40 km per hour
• mechanical rock or stone pickers, rock or root rakes, and rock or root wind-rowers, forage blowers, silo unloaders and shredders with an operational width of at least 3.66 m or 12 feet
• tractor-mounted, self-propelled or pull-type field sprayers with tank capacities of at least 300 litres or 66 gallons
• granular fertilizer or pesticide applicators with operational capacity of at least 0.2265 cubic metres or 8 cubic feet
• liquid box, tank or flail manure spreaders, and injection systems for liquid manure spreaders
• leaf-cutter bees
• complete feeds, supplements, micro-premixes, macro-premixes or mineral feeds other than trace mineral salt feeds, as defined and labelled in accordance with the Feeds Regulations, 1983 and designed for rabbits or a specific type of farm livestock, fish, or poultry ordinarily raised or kept for human consumption or to produce wool, when sold in bulk quantities of at least 20 kg (44 lbs.) or in bags that contain at least 20 kg (44 lbs.)
• feed sold in bulk quantities of at least 20 kg (44 lbs.) or bags that contain at least 20 kg (44 lbs.) that is designed for ostriches, rheas, emus or bees
• farm refrigerated bulk milk coolers
• food processing by-products and plant and animal products sold in bulk quantities of at least 20 kg (44 lbs.) or bags that contain at least 20 kg (44 lbs.) used as feed or as ingredients in feed for farm livestock, fish or poultry that is ordinarily raised or kept for human consumption or to produce wool, or for rabbits, ostriches, rheas, emus or bees
• pesticides having a purpose that includes agricultural use and having a product class of other than domestic labelled in accordance with the Pest Control Products Regulations
• sales of quotas authorized by a government agency or marketing board for zero-rated products for human consumption (including dairy, turkey, chicken, eggs), certain agricultural products (including farm livestock, zero-rated grains or seeds, hops, barley, flaxseed, straw, sugar cane or sugar beets) and tobacco leaves
• farmland rented to a registrant under a sharecropping arrangement to the extent that consideration for the supply is a share of the production that is zero-rated is part of the price (any other extra payments are taxable)

 Examples of zero-rated supplies of fishing products and equipment are:

• most fish feed and other specified products when sold in quantities of at least 20 kg. For more information, see GST/HST Memorandum Series 4-4, Agriculture and Fishing
• fish or other marine or freshwater animals, such as oysters, clams and mussels, not further processed than frozen, salted, smoked, dried, scaled, eviscerated or filleted, provided they are ordinarily used as food for human consumption, and not used as bait for recreational fishing
• fish eggs that are produced for hatching purposes
• fishing vessels you buy either inside or outside Canada to use in commercial fishing, if you provide all the following documents to the vendor or the customs office:
  • your GST/HST account number
  • a declaration signed by you stating you intend to use the vessel in commercial fishing
  • your valid commercial limited-entry fishing licence number issued by Fisheries and Oceans Canada or a provincial or territorial government (licensing requirements may vary from region to region)
• the following nets and related equipment:
  • gill-nets, seines and trawl-nets
  • webbing, leadlines, corkline (top rope) for gill-nets, seines and trawl-nets
  • floats for gill-nets and seines
  • drums for gill-nets, seines, trawl-nets and long-lines
  • entrapment and predator webbing
  • trawl-net doors
• the following equipment and products:
  • automatic baiters, jiggers and net-pen feeders
  • manufactured netpens for use in aquaculture
  • mechanical net washers and pescalators