Selling Across Canada: GST/HST, PST and QST

Short answer: once you’re registered for GST/HST, you charge the GST or HST rate of the province where each order is delivered, wherever your business is based. Provincial sales tax is separate: you only charge it where you’re registered, but you must register in BC once BC sales pass $10,000 in 12 months, in Quebec once Quebec consumer sales pass $30,000 in 12 months, and in Saskatchewan and usually Manitoba as soon as you regularly ship there.

This guide is for Canadian businesses selling online to customers in other provinces: Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce stores, and sellers who use Etsy or Amazon alongside their own site. It’s current as of 1 November 2026.

What to charge in each province

Order delivered to	GST/HST you charge	Provincial tax you charge	When you must register for the provincial tax
Ontario	13% HST	— (included in HST)	Never separately
Nova Scotia	14% HST	—	Never separately
New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI	15% HST	—	Never separately
Alberta, Yukon, NWT, Nunavut	5% GST	—	No provincial tax
British Columbia	5% GST	7% PST, if registered	BC sales over $10,000 in 12 months
Saskatchewan	5% GST	6% PST, if registered	No minimum for out-of-province sellers
Manitoba	5% GST	7% RST, if registered	Usually from the first sales (see below)
Quebec	5% GST	9.975% QST, if registered	Quebec consumer sales over $30,000 in 12 months

All of this applies only once you’re a GST/HST registrant. If you’re still a small supplier (under $30,000), you don’t charge GST/HST at all, though the PST rules for Saskatchewan and Manitoba don’t depend on your GST/HST status. Every rate is in the sales tax by province table.

GST/HST: the place of supply rules

GST/HST follows the place of supply, and for goods that’s where they’re delivered or made available to the customer. In practice:

• You ship the order (Canada Post, a courier, your own van): the province of the delivery address.
• The customer collects from your studio or a pop-up: the province where they collect it.
• A gift sent to someone else: the province of the address you ship to, not the buyer’s billing address.
• Shipping and handling charges on the order follow the goods: taxed at the same rate.

Digital products and services sold to consumers (e-books, digital patterns, online courses, memberships) are generally taxed based on the customer’s address in Canada. So a Halifax designer selling a $20 digital knitting pattern to a buyer in Toronto charges 13% HST, and one in Calgary 5% GST.

Business customers don’t change the rate. You charge GST/HST to a registered business just as you would a consumer, and they claim it back as an input tax credit.

Your store software does this automatically once tax collection for Canada is turned on: see the setup guides for Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce.

Provincial sales tax as an out-of-province seller

Your GST/HST registration covers Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, because HST is collected by the CRA. It doesn’t cover the four provinces with their own tax. Each sets its own test for sellers based elsewhere in Canada.

British Columbia: $10,000 in 12 months

You must register to collect BC’s 7% PST if you’re a Canadian business outside BC and you:

1. sell taxable goods to customers in BC and accept their orders (online counts),
2. deliver the goods into BC, including by courier or Canada Post, and
3. had more than $10,000 of gross revenue in the past 12 months from retail sales of goods, software and telecommunication services to BC customers, or expect more than $10,000 in the next 12 months.

You must register regardless of the $10,000 if you hold inventory in BC at the time of sale, for example in a BC fulfilment warehouse. BC’s Bulletin PST 001 also has a scenario with no threshold for businesses that specifically solicit BC customers, so if you run BC-targeted advertising, read it before relying on the $10,000. You register and file through eTaxBC. BC PST applies to most goods, and to software including SaaS, but not to basic food, children’s-sized clothing and footwear, or books. See BC PST.

Saskatchewan: no minimum

Saskatchewan requires businesses outside the province to be licensed to collect its 6% PST if they make retail sales into Saskatchewan: they make taxable goods available for purchase there, accept orders originating there and cause the goods to be delivered there. The ministry’s guidance gives no minimum sales threshold for out-of-province sellers. If an unlicensed seller doesn’t charge the PST, the customer is supposed to self-assess it, and the seller can be assessed in an audit. Delivery charges on taxable goods are part of the taxable price. You register through the Saskatchewan Electronic Tax Service (SETS). See Saskatchewan PST.

Manitoba: the $30,000 exception rarely helps

Manitoba’s Bulletin 004 (revised June 2024) says an out-of-province business must register for the 7% RST if it sells taxable goods to Manitoba consumers and it:

• causes the goods to be delivered in Manitoba (shipping by courier or post counts),
• solicits orders in Manitoba, by advertising or any other means, and
• accepts orders originating in Manitoba,

or if it holds taxable inventory in Manitoba. Manitoba does exempt small businesses with annual taxable sales under $30,000, but that exception isn’t available to businesses that buy from out-of-province suppliers that don’t charge Manitoba RST. For most online sellers based in another province, that rules it out. You register through TAXcess. See Manitoba PST.

Quebec: $30,000 to Quebec consumers

Since 1 September 2019, Canadian businesses outside Quebec that are registered for GST/HST must register for QST under Revenu Québec’s specified (simplified) system once their taxable sales of goods, intangibles and services to specified Québec consumers (buyers not registered for QST) pass $30,000 over 12 months. You then charge 9.975% QST on those sales and file simplified QST returns. Two catches:

• You can’t claim input tax refunds under the specified system.
• If your goods are stored in Quebec, or delivered within Quebec other than by mail or courier, you register under the general QST system instead.

Don’t charge QST to a business that gives you a general-system QST number. See Quebec QST.

Worked example: a Toronto apparel brand selling across Canada

Northline Apparel is a Toronto clothing brand selling hoodies and tees on Shopify, with a small Etsy shop on the side. It’s registered for GST/HST. Its Shopify sales over the last 12 months, by delivery province:

Province	Shopify sales (12 months)	Registration needed?	Why
Ontario	$140,000	HST: already covered	Part of its CRA GST/HST account
Quebec	$34,000	QST, specified system	Over $30,000 to Quebec consumers
British Columbia	$18,000	BC PST	Over $10,000 delivered into BC
Alberta	$12,000	None	GST only
Nova Scotia	$8,000	HST: already covered	—
Saskatchewan	$6,000	Saskatchewan PST	No minimum for out-of-province sellers
Manitoba	$4,000	Manitoba RST (on Bulletin 004’s wording)	It ships there, advertises online and takes Manitoba orders. It buys stock from outside Manitoba, so the $30,000 exception doesn’t apply

Once registered everywhere, here’s what a customer pays for an $80 hoodie (adult sizes, so BC PST applies):

Delivered to	Tax	Customer pays
Toronto	13% HST = $10.40	$90.40
Halifax	14% HST = $11.20	$91.20
Calgary	5% GST = $4.00	$84.00
Vancouver	5% GST $4.00 + 7% PST $5.60	$89.60
Regina	5% GST $4.00 + 6% PST $4.80	$88.80
Winnipeg	5% GST $4.00 + 7% RST $5.60	$89.60
Montreal	5% GST $4.00 + 9.975% QST $7.98	$91.98

Northline remits the GST and HST to the CRA on one return, and the PST, RST and QST to BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Revenu Québec on separate returns. Its Etsy sales to BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba buyers don’t need any of this, because Etsy collects those provincial taxes itself.

If Northline sold children’s sizes, BC would exempt them from PST (children’s-sized clothing is PST-exempt in BC), and Ontario would rebate the 8% provincial part of the HST at the till, so a child’s hoodie to Toronto would carry only 5%. Its store needs product-level tax overrides for that.

Marketplaces: Etsy, Amazon and eBay

Sales through a marketplace work differently from sales through your own store:

• GST/HST. Under Canada’s digital economy rules, platforms collect GST/HST on goods sold through them by sellers who aren’t registered. Etsy, for example, collects GST/HST and QST on Canadian orders from Canadian sellers who haven’t added a GST/HST number. Once you add your number, Etsy stops and you charge and remit the tax yourself. Amazon works the same way: see selling on Amazon Canada.
• PST, RST. BC (since 1 July 2022), Saskatchewan and Manitoba make marketplace facilitators collect provincial tax on sales they process. Etsy collects BC PST, Saskatchewan PST and Manitoba RST on orders to those provinces whatever your registration status.
• Your own store isn’t covered. BC says plainly that a seller may still need to register for sales made outside the marketplace, such as through its own website.
• Every channel counts towards the $30,000 GST/HST threshold, including marketplace sales.

Marketplaces also charge GST/HST on their own fees. Once you’re registered, you can claim that back as an input tax credit.

Edge cases

• Resellers and wholesale. Business customers buying for resale can usually buy PST-exempt by giving you their PST number (or QST number in Quebec). GST/HST still applies.
• Pre-orders and subscriptions. The rate is set by where each shipment is delivered, so a subscription box customer who moves from Alberta to Ontario starts paying 13% HST.
• Free shipping thresholds. If shipping is free, there’s no shipping charge to tax. If you charge it, tax it at the order’s rate.
• Selling at events in other provinces. Selling in person at a craft fair in Vancouver is a sale made in BC, which can require BC PST registration on its own terms. Check the province’s rules for temporary vendors.
• Exports. Orders shipped outside Canada are zero-rated: see selling to US customers.

Official sources

• CRA: GST/HST rates by province
• BC: Bulletin PST 001, Registering to collect PST and PST 142, Online marketplace facilitators
• Saskatchewan: Provincial sales tax
• Manitoba: Bulletin 004, Information for vendors and TAXcess
• Revenu Québec: Registration under the specified system

Selling into BC, Quebec or the Prairies?

Tell us roughly how much you sell into each province. We'll tell you which PST, RST and QST registrations you need now, which thresholds you're close to, and how to set up your store to charge them. Then our Canadian partners handle the registrations and returns.

Ask a tax expertor email hello@goodvat.com

A real person replies within one business day