The Canada Revenue Agency offers a GST rebate for public service bodies. The public service bodies rebate allows claimants to write off a percentage of the GST or HST paid for eligible supplies if the claimants meet the eligibility requirements for the rebate. As of 2017, your organization may be eligible for the rebate if it’s claiming income tax as a registered charity that issues receipts for charitable donations, a nonprofit organization with at least 40% of its revenue derived from government funding, or a public service body – such as a public college or university, municipality, or hospital authority. The expenses that are eligible to be claimed may include your operating costs (including rent and utilities), employee allowances and reimbursements, the cost of property and services that you use to run your organization, and in many cases capital property. However, capital property costs can’t be claimed if the organization changed its property from mainly commercial to mainly non-commercial use within the period that you’re claiming. If your organization qualifies for the rebate, fill out Form GST66. This form serves as an application for the rebate, and it should only be used the first time you claim it. On this form, you must specify what eligible services your organization provides, and the amount you are claiming for each. The form lists the rebate percentages for each type of eligible activity. After you’ve submitted Form GST66, the CRA will provide you with a copy of Form GST284, a customized version of GST66 that your organization should use for all future claims of this particular rebate. Since some provinces use HST to combine the federal and provincial goods and services tax, some qualifying organizations in these provinces can also claim the provincial fraction of the total HST. Check the CRA’s full explanation of the public service bodies rebate for information about which provinces and expenses are eligible.

References & Resources

• cra-arc.gc.ca
• cra-arc.gc.ca