Is home care GST/HST exempt in Canada? It depends on public funding

Section 1 of the same Part defines it as "a household or personal care service, such as bathing, feeding, assistance with dressing or medication, cleaning, laundering, meal preparation and child care, if the service is rendered to an individual who, due to age, infirmity or disability, requires assistance."

GI-166 splits that in two. Personal care is hands-on: transfers and mobility, bathing, feeding, dressing, grooming, oral care, incontinence care, and medication administration and reminders. Household services are ordinary housekeeping.

A place of residence can include a nursing home, assisted living home, or long-term care or other health care facility. But the operator gets no exemption for the care, cleaning and meals it provides to its own residents, and in Example 4 the care and housekeeping a funded operator buys from outside providers is not exempt either.

Edge cases agencies run into

• Nursing. In Example 2, a registered nurse’s care is a nursing service, not a home care service, though it may be exempt under another provision.
• Errands. Medication pickup or drop-off, rides to appointments and grocery shopping generally do not qualify when supplied on their own. In Example 3 they are part of an overall home care service, which is exempt.
• Companionship. The definition does not list it, but in Example 1 it is part of a funded package of personal care, and the whole service is exempt.

Paragraph 13(c) answers this one. Extra home care a client buys privately can be exempt if it is a home care service rendered in their place of residence. GI-166 then adds: "Also, the individual must be concurrently receiving a publicly funded home care service."

GI-166 puts the proof on the client: "The individual must provide the service provider with evidence to demonstrate" that they receive publicly funded exempt home care. Keep a copy with the client record.

The private service does not have to match the funded one (Example 11), and it can come from a second provider (Example 10). In Example 12, a client with a funded 10-hour day service buys an 8-hour overnight service from the same provider, and both are exempt whether the overnight staff member is awake or asleep.

Once publicly funded home care ends, later out-of-pocket home care is no longer exempt. A brief gap, such as the funded provider being short-staffed for a while, does not by itself remove the exemption if the funded service resumes.

Section 13 names three kinds of public funder: a government, a municipality, or an organization administering a government or municipal home care program. The money can go to your agency or to anyone for the purpose of getting the service. Example 6 shows how far that reaches: a department hires a private insurance company to run its program, the insurer pays the provider, and the service is exempt.

In Ontario, the province’s home and community care page (opens in a new tab) (updated May 5, 2026) says "Ontario Health atHome provides home care" and "If you qualify, the Ontario government pays for home care." It adds: "You can also pay for your own care through private companies." For that last group, Example 9 and paragraph 13(c) decide the tax.

In a 2015 interpretation letter, Revenu Québec treated a CLSC and a CSSS as each an organization administering a government home care program, and the Department of Veterans Affairs as a "government" under paragraph 13(b), so home care they paid for was exempt. Those are the bodies that letter names, not a list of Quebec’s funders today.

Generally not, as long as you are a small supplier and have not registered voluntarily. For most businesses, the CRA’s threshold (opens in a new tab) is $30,000 of revenue from taxable supplies (including zero-rated supplies) made inside and outside Canada, counting your associates, tested in a single calendar quarter and over four consecutive calendar quarters.

The same page sets separate tests, including a $50,000 taxable-supplies test, for charities, public institutions and other public service bodies.

• Over $30,000 in one quarter: "You have to start charging GST/HST on the supply that made you exceed $30,000," and registration takes effect no later than the day of that supply.
• Over $30,000 across four consecutive quarters: "You are no longer a small supplier at the end of the month following the quarter in which you exceed $30,000."
• Under the threshold, you generally do not have to register, but you may register voluntarily if you make taxable supplies in Canada.
• Only exempt clients? "You generally cannot register for a GST/HST account if you provide only exempt supplies."

Exempt visits have a cost too. For exempt supplies, CRA guide RC4022 says "you are generally not entitled to claim ITCs on property and services purchased to provide these supplies." With both exempt and taxable clients, ask the CRA or your accountant how input tax credits work for that mix.

"In Quebec, Revenu Québec generally administers the GST/HST," says RC4022, so a Quebec agency usually deals with Revenu Québec on GST as well as QST. Revenu Québec’s interpretation letter 15-025985-001 (opens in a new tab) (July 8, 2015) looked at a for-profit home care agency. Services in the client’s own dwelling "pourront être taxables ou exonérés" (may be taxable or exempt) depending on whether the client receives other home care funded under paragraph (a) or (b), and because the regimes are "généralement harmonisés" (generally harmonized), QST follows GST. In the same letter, home care the agency supplied to a CHSLD resident was a taxable supply.

Staff supplied to work under a health facility’s day-to-day direction is generally a taxable supply of personnel ("prêt de personnel"); in home care, staff generally work under the agency’s direction. And the letter says "Ces commentaires ne sont pas des décisions" (these comments are not rulings): they do not bind Revenu Québec.

In BC, PST Bulletin 138, Personal Services (opens in a new tab) (issued September 2014, revised October 2022) says "You do not charge PST on your sales of personal services," and lists "Personal care (e.g. home care)" among examples it calls not a complete list. So PST does not apply to the home care service itself, and the GST question still follows section 13.

This article does not cover how Manitoba’s RST or Saskatchewan’s PST treat home care. Check with your provincial finance ministry.

It usually happens when a client’s public funding starts or ends partway through a month, or when proof of funding arrives after the invoice went out.

Section 232 (opens in a new tab) covers tax charged or collected "in excess of the tax" that was collectible, such as GST/HST on a visit that turns out to be exempt. The supplier "may, within two years after the day the amount was so charged or collected," adjust, refund or credit the excess. If it does, paragraph 232(3)(a) says it must "within a reasonable time, issue to the other person a credit note" with the prescribed information, unless the client has issued a debit note.

CRA Memorandum 12.2 (April 2008) is blunt: "It is at the discretion of the supplier whether the tax is refunded, adjusted or credited." The credit note is required only once you do.

1. 1

   Your status

   Are you a GST/HST registrant, or still a small supplier under the threshold ($30,000 of taxable supplies for most businesses)?

2. 2

   The service

   Personal care or household help, or nursing or a stand-alone errand?

3. 3

   The place

   The client’s place of residence, and not a facility operator caring for its own residents?

4. 4

   The funding

   Supplied or paid for by a public funder? If not, is the client also receiving funded home care?

5. 5

   The evidence

   Is the client’s proof of public funding on file, and current?

6. 6

   Any change

   Has public funding ended? Private hours after that are no longer exempt.

7. 7

   The province

   Quebec: GST plus QST, both generally with Revenu Québec. BC: Bulletin 138 lists home care as a personal service you do not charge PST on.

8. 8

   Past mistakes

   Excess tax may be refunded or credited within two years, with a credit note within a reasonable time.

When a client does not fit cleanly, confirm the treatment with the CRA, or with Revenu Québec in Quebec.

CareKindle does not decide whether a client’s visits are exempt. That call stays with you. What it takes off your desk is the invoice work around it.

• Invoices are priced from verified visits, from what your staff confirmed at the door, never retyped hours.
• The tax your client’s own location calls for is worked out on every line: GST/HST by province in Canada. Where a built-in default does not fit, you set your own rate and name the line yourself.
• An invoice already sent, even a paid one, can be corrected with a credit note: its own numbered document with the tax worked out from the invoice, a PDF for the client, and the invoice’s balance lowered to match.
• Connect your own QuickBooks Online company and run the sync when you choose. It sends your clients and the payers you bill, your staff, contractor bills and invoices billed in Canada.

The full workflow is on the home care billing page.