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I have a small business registered to collect GST/HST. I purchased a product from Amazon.ca, and they charged me HST. However, the invoice they emailed me did not contain the HST/GST, or Business Number (BN), for Amazon Canada. In order to claim my ITC (Input Tax Credits), I am required to have this number.

According to the CRA website:

The GST/HST account number (also referred to as a Business Number or registration number) must be included on receipts, invoices, contracts, or other business papers used when taxable goods or services of $30 or more are supplied by a person registered for GST/HST.

Amazon Canada does not include this information on emailed invoices, and may thus be in violation of Canadian tax law. Is there anywhere else on the website where this information is provided? Or perhaps it was on the shipping slip and I failed to notice it?

If not, who would I contact at Amazon to get this resolved? All the contact info on the Amazon website seems to be either for Marketplace sellers (I am not one) or to process product returns. Has anyone else claimed an ITC for items purchased from Amazon.ca? If so, what GST/HST number did you use, and where did you find it?

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    After spending over 3 hours on the phone today, I was able to get hold of Tom in Washington who said that he sent my request on to Amazon's tax department, and that they would send me an email with Amazon's GST number. I also called the CRA directly, and verified that printing the GST number on all invoices is a legal requirement on the part of Amazon Canada, so that other businesses can claim our ITCs. I'm amazed that this has never come up before; has no other Canadian small business ever used Amazon Canada as a supplier? After going through all this nonsense, I I never will again.
    – fastfinge
    Commented Feb 10, 2014 at 20:20
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    Yes, they did ship physical items. But I assumed the e-mail invoice and shipping invoice would be the same, so never checked them that closely. Instead, I made PDFs of the invoice e-mails, and got rid of the paper copy, only to discover at year end that the electronic invoices were missing tax information. But the number you provided is exactly what I was looking for; if you post it as an answer, I'll accept it. I verified that the number you typed is correct via the GST Registry.
    – fastfinge
    Commented Feb 10, 2014 at 21:51
  • Many thanks for the help! I accepted your answer. Also, thanks for the clarifying edits to the question, if that was you.
    – fastfinge
    Commented Feb 10, 2014 at 23:26
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    Two years later and they still haven't fixed this bug. Here is a receipt from March 2016 for my Prime membership renewal, and it doesn't show the GST amount (even though it's obvious from the subtotal and total that there was GST charged) and doesn't indicate their GST/HST registration number. Amazon is a huge company and it's surprising they are not in compliance with Canadian tax law. Have seen similar problems on paperwork from Google and other large tech companies - they just don't seem to care.
    – rkagerer
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 10:44
  • I just finished chatting with Amazon Tech Support (July 2017) about this exact issue and the best they could do is send me a hand-written email (the support agent hand-wrote it). I had to coach her on what had to be included.
    – Zippit
    Commented Jul 24, 2017 at 19:01

2 Answers 2

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FWIW, I've got a printed Amazon.ca invoice that was included in a shipment of books that I received in July, 2013. In the right-side side panel, at the bottom and in fine print, it reads:

Amazon.com.ca, Inc.
410 Terry Avenue
North Seattle, WA 98109-5210
GST Registration Number/No enregistrement TPS
85730 5932 RT0001
[etc.]

If I view the same order online at Amazon.ca, the on-screen version does not have that detail. Interestingly, at the bottom of the online invoice page it says: "Please note: This is not a VAT invoice." That probably should've said "GST/HST", for Canada, and not "VAT", which is presumably for the United Kingdom. So, it would appear that Amazon may only print their GST/HST details on the shipped invoice printout.

Which made me wonder: Did you purchase something that was fulfilled electronically, i.e. no physical shipment to you? e.g. a Kindle book, an app, or a service like Cloud Drive? If no physical invoice shipped means one doesn't get the required GST details, then there's still a Canadian tax requirement Amazon isn't fulfilling on such invoices, though not as broad an issue as you suspected.

On the other hand, if you did get a physical invoice [and your comment confirmed you did], then what you were seeking was most likely printed on that version, just as mine was.

At the moment, I'm not sure why Amazon wouldn't also include the GST number on electronic versions of invoices (whether received by email, or viewed on the web site) but if I find out more, I'll update my answer later.

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  • I did track down the email I got from Amazon for a Kindle purchase...only to find that Amazon does not charge taxes on Kindle purchases in Canada! So the BN wasn't printed, obviously. Unfortunately, I don't use AWS, so I can't verify that.
    – fastfinge
    Commented Feb 10, 2014 at 23:48
  • @fastfinge Re: Kindle purchases. Interesting. Though, could depend on whether the Kindle is tied to an Amazon.com account, or an Amazon.ca account, the latter of which only became available for Kindle use some time after.
    – Chris W. Rea
    Commented Feb 10, 2014 at 23:56
  • It was tied to a Canadian account, as I only got my Kindle after it became available in Canada.
    – fastfinge
    Commented Feb 11, 2014 at 1:42
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I just received the following email from Amazon, after my many phone calls of yesterday:

Amazon.ca
Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 12:54 AM
Reply-To: "[email protected]"
To: "[email protected]"

Hello,
Amazon.ca's GST/HST number is 85730 5932 RT0001. This number is listed on the packing slip included with each order.
These registration numbers are also listed on the packing slip included with each order.
We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Best regards,
Kumar. K
Amazon.ca
Your feedback is helping us build Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company.
http://www.amazon.ca
=====================

So that confirms the accepted answer above. Unfortunately, no word on why they don't provide it on the online invoices. If they get back to me again, I will update.

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