Guide
GST, HST, PST and QST rates by province, and which one applies to you
Current GST, HST, PST, RST and QST rates for every province and territory, and which rate applies when you sell or buy across provincial lines.
Last reviewed 7 min readRead as Markdown
Every sale in Canada carries 5% federal GST. Five provinces fold their share into a single harmonised tax (HST): Ontario at 13%, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island at 15%, and Nova Scotia at 14%. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba charge a separate provincial tax on top of GST, Quebec charges 9.975% QST on top, and Alberta and the three territories charge GST only, at 5%.
- Federal GST
- 5%, everywhere in Canada
- Lowest combined rate
- 5% — Alberta, NT, NU, YT
- Highest combined rate
- 15% — NB, NL, PEI
- Provinces with HST
- Five
- Separate provincial tax
- BC, SK, MB, QC
- Rates last reviewed
- 2026-09-15
What is the sales tax rate in each province?
| Province or territory | Tax type | Provincial portion | Combined rate | Administered by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | GST only | — | 5% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| British Columbia | GST + PST | 7% | 12% | BC Ministry of Finance |
| Manitoba | GST + RST | 7% | 12% | Manitoba Finance |
| New Brunswick | HST | 10% | 15% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | HST | 10% | 15% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| Nova Scotia | HST | 9% | 14% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| Northwest Territories | GST only | — | 5% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| Nunavut | GST only | — | 5% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| Ontario | HST | 8% | 13% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| Prince Edward Island | HST | 10% | 15% | Canada Revenue Agency |
| Quebec | GST + QST | 9.975% | 14.975% | Revenu Québec |
| Saskatchewan | GST + PST | 6% | 11% | Saskatchewan Ministry of Finance |
| Yukon | GST only | — | 5% | Canada Revenue Agency |
Quebec's 9.975% is not a rounding artefact. QST is applied to the pre-GST amount, so a CA$100 purchase in Quebec carries CA$5.00 GST and CA$9.98 QST for a CA$114.98 total. It has not been compounded on top of GST since 2013, and a bookkeeping system that still compounds it will overstate the tax on every Quebec receipt.
Which province's rate applies to a sale?
The place of supply, not the location of your business. This is the rule that surprises people most often: an Ontario consultant billing a client in Halifax generally charges 15% Nova Scotia HST, not 13%, and an Ontario business buying fuel in Calgary pays 5%, not 13%.
- Goods: normally the province where the goods are delivered or made available to the customer.
- Services: normally the province of the customer's business or home address, as obtained in the ordinary course of business.
- Digital products and subscriptions sold to Canadian consumers: the customer's usual place of residence.
- In-person purchases: where the transaction happens. That is why a week of travel produces receipts at three different rates.
For expense records, the consequence is simple and unforgiving: a receipt cannot be assigned a tax rate from your business address. It has to carry the rate that was actually charged, which means the province has to travel with the record.
How do PST, RST and QST differ from HST?
HST is one tax, administered federally, and a registrant claims the whole thing back as an input tax credit on one return. The separate provincial taxes are administered by the province and behave differently — which matters a great deal to what you can recover.
| Tax | Where | Recoverable by a registered business? |
|---|---|---|
| HST | ON, NB, NL, NS, PEI | Yes — claimed as an input tax credit with the GST portion |
| GST alone | AB, NT, NU, YT | Yes — claimed as an input tax credit |
| PST | British Columbia, Saskatchewan | Generally no. PST is a cost, not a credit, with narrow exemptions |
| RST | Manitoba | Generally no. Same treatment as PST |
| QST | Quebec | Yes, as an input tax refund on the Revenu Québec return |
When do you have to register to charge sales tax?
For GST/HST, once your worldwide taxable revenues exceed CA$30,000 in a single calendar quarter or across four consecutive calendar quarters you stop being a small supplier and registration is mandatory. Below that it is optional — and often worth doing anyway, because registration is what lets you claim input tax credits on everything you buy.
The provincial taxes have their own thresholds and their own registries. Quebec's QST broadly follows the CA$30,000 line. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba each set their own rules, and selling into those provinces can create an obligation to register there even when you have no physical presence. If you sell across provincial lines at any volume, that is a question for an accountant rather than a guide.
What this means for your expense records
- Store the province on every transaction. Without it, the tax figure cannot be checked and cross-province purchases will be reconciled at the wrong rate.
- Store each tax as its own amount. GST, HST, PST and QST behave differently at filing time, and a single merged "tax" field destroys that difference permanently.
- Never back-derive tax from a rate. Take the number printed on the receipt. Rates change, mixed-rate receipts exist, and some items on the same bill are zero-rated.
- Date the rate you used. A record spanning a rate change needs to show which side of the change each transaction fell on.
SimpleLoonie reads the tax lines printed on the receipt rather than recalculating them, records GST, HST, PST and QST as separate amounts against the transaction, and keeps the province with the record. What the receipt said is what the books say.
Frequently asked questions
What is the sales tax rate in Ontario?
13% HST — 5% federal and 8% provincial, charged as a single harmonised tax and administered by the Canada Revenue Agency. A registered business claims the whole 13% back as an input tax credit on purchases made for commercial activity.
What is the sales tax rate in British Columbia?
12% in total: 5% GST plus 7% provincial sales tax. The two are separate taxes. The 5% GST is recoverable by a registered business as an input tax credit; the 7% PST generally is not, so it is a real cost on every BC purchase.
What is the sales tax rate in Alberta?
5%, the federal GST alone. Alberta charges no provincial sales tax, as do the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon, which makes 5% the lowest combined rate in Canada.
Why is Quebec's QST rate 9.975%?
It is the rate left after Quebec stopped compounding QST on top of GST in 2013. The old 9.5% applied to the GST-inclusive amount; 9.975% applied to the pre-tax amount produces the same result. QST is now calculated on the same base as GST, so a CA$100 purchase carries CA$5.00 GST and CA$9.98 QST.
Do I charge my own province's rate or my customer's?
Your customer's, in most cases. GST/HST place-of-supply rules point at where the goods are delivered or where the customer is located for services, not at where your business sits. An Ontario supplier billing a New Brunswick client generally charges 15%.
Is PST recoverable like GST?
Generally not. British Columbia PST and Manitoba RST are costs to your business, with only narrow exemptions such as goods bought for resale. GST, HST and QST are recoverable by a registrant. That is the main practical reason to keep the taxes as separate fields rather than one total.
Which provinces use HST?
Five: Ontario at 13%, Nova Scotia at 14%, and New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island at 15%. HST combines the federal and provincial portions into one tax administered by the CRA.
When did Nova Scotia's HST rate change?
1 April 2025, from 15% to 14%. Records that span that date legitimately contain both rates, and reconciling a Nova Scotia year means respecting the change rather than applying one rate to the whole period.
Sources
This page is general information about Canadian tax administration, not tax advice, and it was last reviewed on . Rules and rates change. For a decision that matters to your business, check the source above or talk to an accountant.