Do I Have to Charge GST/HST to Customers in Other Provinces?
As a GST/HST registrant, you must charge sales tax to customers across all Canadian provinces and territories — not just your own. The rate you charge is determined by where your customer is located (the "place of supply" rules), not where your business is based.
Your Province Doesn't Set the Rate — Theirs Does
This is one of the most common misconceptions in Canadian e-commerce, and it costs owners real money when they get it wrong (either by under-collecting or by scrambling to remit taxes they never collected).
The CRA's place of supply rules govern which rate applies to each sale. For physical goods shipped to a customer, the destination province controls the tax rate. Here's what that looks like in practice:
| Customer's Province | Tax to Charge | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario | HST | 13% |
| British Columbia | GST only | 5% |
| Alberta | GST only | 5% |
| Nova Scotia | HST | 15% |
| New Brunswick | HST | 15% |
| Prince Edward Island | HST | 15% |
| Newfoundland & Labrador | HST | 15% |
| Manitoba | GST only | 5% |
| Saskatchewan | GST only | 5% |
| Quebec | GST only* | 5% |
| Territories (YT, NT, NU) | GST only | 5% |
*Quebec is its own situation — see below.
The Quebec Exception: QST Is a Separate Beast
Quebec runs its own provincial sales tax system called the QST (Quebec Sales Tax), administered by Revenu Québec — not the CRA. If you're shipping to Quebec customers, you charge federal GST (5%) but not HST, because Quebec never joined the Harmonized Sales Tax framework.
Whether you also need to collect QST depends on your sales volume into Quebec. If you exceed the $30,000 threshold from sales to Quebec consumers, you're generally expected to register for QST separately. This is a genuinely distinct registration from your GST/HST number — most e-commerce owners outside Quebec don't realize it exists until they're already past the threshold.
The $30,000 Registration Threshold Still Applies — But It's Nationwide
You only need to collect and remit GST/HST once your total revenue across Canada exceeds $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters. Once you're registered, though, the obligation applies to all taxable sales to Canadian customers — not just customers in your home province.
If you're under $30,000, you're a "small supplier" and registration is optional (though you can register voluntarily, which lets you claim input tax credits).
What This Means for Multi-Platform Sellers
If you're selling on both your own Shopify storefront and marketplaces like Amazon or Etsy, your tax obligations can get complicated fast:
- Amazon Canada collects and remits GST/HST on marketplace sales on your behalf (as of 2022, under Canada's digital services tax rules for marketplace facilitators) — but this doesn't eliminate your own storefront obligations.
- Etsy similarly collects and remits for orders through their platform in most provinces.
- Your Shopify store is entirely on you — you're responsible for charging the right rate to the right province, every time.
Many hybrid sellers accidentally double-count (or miss) tax collected across platforms. The two streams need to be reconciled carefully at remittance time, because the CRA doesn't care which platform the sale came through — they care about what you owe.
The Practical Bottom Line
Set up your Shopify (or other storefront) tax settings to apply destination-based rates to every Canadian province and territory. If you're a registrant, leaving any province out isn't discretionary — it's non-compliance. And if your Quebec sales are growing, flag the QST question before you cross the threshold, not after.
Multi-platform sales tax is exactly the kind of thing that looks simple on the surface and quietly creates liability over time. Getting it right across every channel — and making sure your remittances actually match what each platform has collected — is the sort of work SGML Accounting does for Canadian e-commerce businesses every day.
Frequently asked questions
Do I charge HST or GST to a customer in Alberta?
Alberta has no provincial sales tax and did not join the HST framework, so you charge only the federal GST at 5% on sales shipped to Alberta customers.
What if I'm based in Ontario — do I charge 13% HST to everyone?
No. Your location doesn't determine the rate. You charge based on the customer's province: 13% HST to Ontario customers, 5% GST to Alberta customers, 15% HST to Nova Scotia customers, and so on.
Do I need a separate tax registration for Quebec (QST)?
Potentially yes. QST is administered by Revenu Québec, not the CRA, and requires a separate registration. If your sales into Quebec exceed $30,000, you're generally expected to register and collect QST in addition to the federal GST.
If Amazon collects sales tax on my behalf, am I fully covered for all my Canadian sales?
Only for the sales made through Amazon's marketplace. Your own Shopify or direct storefront sales are entirely your responsibility — Amazon's remittances don't cover those, and they need to be tracked and reconciled separately.
What happens if I've been charging the wrong provincial rate by mistake?
If you've been under-collecting, you may owe the difference to the CRA out of pocket — the obligation to remit exists regardless of whether you collected it. If you've been over-collecting, you've been overcharging customers. Either way, it's worth reviewing your settings and past filings, and potentially filing a correction with the CRA.
Every business's tax situation is different — thresholds, obligations, and platform rules can vary based on your specific circumstances. Talk to your accountant before making changes to how you collect or remit sales tax.