Eligible expenses

Eligible expenses include:

• Advertising and promotion
• Fuel costs (except for motor vehicles)
• Leasing expenses
• Legal, accounting and other professional fees
• Lodging
• Maintenance and repairs
• Meals and entertainment (allowable part only)
• Motor vehicle expenses (allowable part only)
• Office expenses
• Parking
• Rent
• Supplies
• Telephone and utilities
• Travel
• Workspace-in-the-home expenses

Capital cost allowance

You can claim a rebate of the GST/HST you paid when you acquired a motor vehicle, a musical instrument, or an aircraft, based on the amount of capital cost allowance (CCA) you deducted on that property for a tax year.

If you are a partner, the GST/HST rebate on the CCA is limited to the extent the partnership uses that property to make taxable supplies.

If you deduct CCA on more than one property of the same class, you have to separate the portion of the CCA for the property that qualifies for the GST/HST rebate from the CCA for the other non-eligible property. If any part of the rebate relates to the CCA deduction for a motor vehicle, a musical instrument, or an aircraft, you have to reduce the undepreciated capital cost of the related property by that part of the rebate.

For more information on calculating the eligible portion of CCA and the rebate, refer to the examples at the end of Calculate the rebate.

You may also be eligible for a rebate if you purchased your motor vehicle, musical instrument, or aircraft outside a participating province and brought the property into a participating province. You may have to do an additional calculation in this case.

Learn more: Situation 5 – Property and services brought into a participating province.

Non-eligible expenses

Non-eligible expenses include:

• Expenses on which you did not pay the GST/HST, such as:
  • Goods and services acquired from non-registrants (for example, small suppliers)
  • Most expenses you incurred outside Canada (for example, gasoline, accommodation, meals, and entertainment)
  • Certain expenses on which you do not pay GST or HST (goods and services that are subject to the GST/HST, but at a rate of 0%), including basic groceries, prescription drugs, medical devices, most agriculture and fish products, and certain expenses that farmers and fishers incur
  • Expenses that are not subject to GST or HST, including most health and dental care services, most educational services, medical underwriting fees, insurance premiums, bonding premiums, mortgage interest, residential rents, interest, motor vehicle licence and registration fees, and salaries
• Expenses you incurred when your employer or your partnership was not a GST/HST registrant
• Expenses that relate to an allowance you received from your employer that is not reported in Part C of the rebate application (for example, an allowance that was not included in your income as a taxable benefit because it was a reasonable allowance)
• Any personal-use portion of an eligible expense
• 50% of the GST/HST paid on eligible expenses for food, beverages, and entertainment (for long-haul truck drivers, 20% of the GST/HST paid on these expenses that were incurred during eligible travel periods)
• An eligible expense or part of an eligible expense, for which you were reimbursed or are entitled to be reimbursed by your employer or your partnership
• Expenses of a partner that relate to the partnership's supplies of exempt goods or services (if you are a member of a partnership that sells exempt goods or services as well as taxable goods or services, subtract the amount of expenses relating to the exempt sales from the total expenses)
  How to calculate these expenses

  Expenses of a partner that relate to the partnership's supplies of exempt goods or services may be calculated on a percentage basis (for example, by estimating the percentage of the expenses that relate to exempt goods or services) or by specifically identifying those expenses that relate to exempt goods or services supplied by the partnership.

Rebate restrictions

You can only file one rebate application for each calendar year. You cannot receive a rebate for an amount if:

• The amount was previously rebated, credited, refunded or remitted to you
• You received or are entitled to receive a rebate (other than this type of rebate), refund or remission of the amount
• You received a credit note or you issued a debit note for an adjustment, a refund or a credit that includes the amount
• The deadline for filing the rebate has passed