For most goods bought online in Canada, the GST/HST rate is the rate of the province or territory where the goods are delivered or made available. A seller in Manitoba who ships a laptop to Halifax charges Nova Scotia’s 14% HST, not Manitoba’s 5% GST plus 7% retail sales tax. If the buyer picks the laptop up in Winnipeg, the place of supply is Manitoba.
That is the rule the Canada Revenue Agency uses on its charge-and-collect pages and in GST/HST Memorandum 3-3-3. Digital products and remote services use a different test. Vehicles have extra registration rules. None of what follows is tax advice or a filing service. It is the map of which rate should appear on the receipt, dated to the rates in force in 2026.
What GST, HST, PST, and QST each are
GST is the federal goods and services tax. It is 5% everywhere in Canada on taxable supplies that are not zero-rated.
HST is not a second tax stacked on GST. It is one combined line: the 5% federal part plus a provincial part, charged only in five participating provinces — New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island.
PST, RST, and QST are separate provincial statutes. The CRA does not administer B.C. or Saskatchewan PST, or Manitoba RST. QST is administered by Revenu Québec, except for selected listed financial institutions, whose QST CRA handles. A British Columbia invoice can show 5% GST and 7% PST as two lines. An Ontario invoice shows one 13% HST line.
2026 general rates
GST is 5% everywhere on ordinary taxable goods.
HST — one combined line of 5% federal plus a provincial portion:
- Ontario: 13% (5% + 8%)
- Nova Scotia: 14% (5% + 9%). The provincial cut took effect April 1, 2025.
- New Brunswick: 15% (5% + 10%)
- Newfoundland and Labrador: 15%
- Prince Edward Island: 15%
GST plus a separate provincial tax:
- British Columbia: 5% GST + 7% PST (12% combined)
- Manitoba: 5% GST + 7% RST (12% combined)
- Quebec: 5% GST + 9.975% QST (14.975% combined)
- Saskatchewan: 5% GST + 6% PST (11% combined)
GST only — no provincial sales tax on most goods:
- Alberta: 5%
- Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon: 5%
Nova Scotia is the only recent HST rate change. On April 1, 2025 the provincial portion fell from 10% to 9%, so the combined HST went from 15% to 14%. CRA’s calculator and Memorandum 3-3-2 (April 2026) both list 14%. Older pages that still say “all Atlantic HST is 15%” are out of date for Nova Scotia.
Ontario still has a separate retail sales tax on some items, including certain insurance and private sales of used motor vehicles. That is not the general goods rate.
Zero-rated supplies — basic groceries are the usual example — are taxable at 0% in every province. Exempt supplies, such as many residential rents and many health and education services, sit outside GST/HST altogether. Those categories do not change because a parcel crossed a provincial line.
The place-of-supply test for goods
CRA’s goods rule is short. A sale of tangible personal property is generally made in the province where the supplier delivers the property or makes it available to the buyer.
Three common facts that fix that province:
- The buyer takes the goods at the store or warehouse. Place of supply is that province.
- The seller mails or couriers the goods. Place of supply is the province they are sent to.
CRA’s own furniture example: a Vancouver store delivers a mattress to Toronto. Ontario 13% HST applies.
CRA’s own laptop example, updated for the 2025 Nova Scotia rate:
Jade in Winnipeg sells a $1,000 laptop to Emma in Halifax.
- If the laptop is delivered in Nova Scotia, Jade charges 14% HST, or $140. Emma pays $1,140.
- If Emma flies to Winnipeg and picks it up, the place of supply is Manitoba. Jade charges 5% GST ($50) plus Manitoba’s 7% RST ($70). Emma pays $1,120. Manitoba RST is a provincial tax, not HST.
The seller’s head office does not control the GST/HST rate. The customer’s billing address does not always control it either. Delivery, or deemed delivery under the shipping rule, does.
Same $200 gadget, different destination
A $200 taxable item, no special PST quirks, no rebate:
- Delivered in Calgary: 5% GST = $10. Buyer pays $210.
- Delivered in Vancouver: $10 GST + $14 BC PST. Buyer pays $224.
- Delivered in Toronto: 13% HST = $26. Buyer pays $226.
- Delivered in Halifax: 14% HST = $28. Buyer pays $228.
- Delivered in Moncton, St. John’s, or Charlottetown: 15% HST = $30. Buyer pays $230.
- Delivered in Montreal: $10 GST + $19.95 QST. Buyer pays $229.95.
Same catalogue price. Different legal place of supply. Different till total.
Digital products and remote services
Streaming, apps, e-books, online games, and many remote services are not parcels. They follow the intangible-property and services rules, and — for many foreign platforms — the digital-economy measures that took effect July 1, 2021.
For a Canadian consumer buying from a non-resident vendor or platform registered under those rules, GST/HST is generally charged at the rate of the consumer’s usual place of residence in Canada. CRA’s public FAQ lists the kinds of indicators vendors use: home address, billing address, IP address, payment information, and SIM card. Two or more indicators pointing to Canada are generally enough to treat the person as resident in Canada. The provincial rate then follows that usual residence.
Specified supplies in CRA’s digital-economy material include subscription video or music, mobile apps, e-books, online games, and some traditional services such as legal or accounting work sold to Canadian consumers. Supplies made through a registered distribution platform are typically collected by the platform, not by the small vendor behind it.
CRA’s older domestic examples still help when the vendor is already a normal Canadian registrant:
- A software licence that can be used only from an office in Ontario is supplied in Ontario. Ontario 13% HST applies.
-
An editor in Quebec who never asks for the client’s address charges 5% GST, not HST — Quebec is not a participating province. QST may still apply on top of the GST.
QST on digital products sold into Quebec is a Revenu Québec regime. It is not HST and is not administered as HST.
The $30,000 figure is a vendor rule, not a shopper rule. Foreign platforms must register and charge GST/HST once their sales to Canadian consumers pass $30,000 in a 12-month stretch. Your Netflix bill does not stay tax-free because you spent less than that.
When HST was paid in one province and the goods went to another
You cannot convert New Brunswick’s 15% HST into Manitoba tax at the cash register. If you bought eligible goods in an HST province and then took them home to another part of Canada, you may be able to recover the provincial part of that HST on Form GST495. The 5% federal GST stays.
You need every one of these to apply:
- You live in Canada.
- You bought eligible goods in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, or P.E.I., and you paid HST.
- Those goods were for use outside that HST province — generally 90% or more.
- You took them out within 30 days of delivery. Time in storage there does not count.
- You paid whatever provincial tax applies where you took them. In Alberta, that can be none.
- If you bought them as a consumer (not a specified motor vehicle), you live in the place you took them.
- Each receipt has at least $5 of eligible tax.
- The rebate totals at least $25.
How to file:
- Apply within one year of the day you remove the goods.
- Individuals and sole proprietors: one application per calendar quarter. Put several trips on the same form.
- Other applicants: one application per calendar month.
- File in CRA My Account, or mail Form GST495 to the Prince Edward Island Tax Centre.
- Keep receipts, proof of the other province’s tax, and storage receipts if storage delayed the 30-day clock.
Do not use GST495 for everything. GST189 covers some import and digital/service cases. A vehicle has its own CRA rules and is often taxed when you register it. A car is not a toaster.
How the rebate split works
You buy eligible goods in New Brunswick, pay 15% HST on a $500 pre-tax price ($75 tax), take them to Alberta within 30 days, and pay no provincial sales tax there because Alberta has none. If every GST495 condition is met, the provincial part — 10 percentage points, or $50 — is the amount the rebate is built from, not the entire $75. The 5% federal GST stays. The $25 minimum and $5-per-receipt floor still apply. This is an illustration of the split, not a completed claim.
What the receipt will not tell you
Marketplace platforms often collect tax as if they made the sale. The line item may say “HST” or “GST” without naming the rule. The legal test is still place of supply.
A “shipping from Ontario” badge on a product page does not fix the rate if the parcel is delivered in Alberta.
A billing address in Alberta does not pull a delivered-in-Ontario mattress down to 5%.
Collecting only 5% GST on a shipment into New Brunswick because “we are an Alberta company” is the error CRA’s examples are written to stop.
Decision path
- Is the thing zero-rated or exempt? Stop. The rate is 0%, or the supply is outside GST/HST.
- Is it a specified motor vehicle? Use the vehicle rules, not this page.
- Is it a physical good? Use delivery or the deemed shipping destination. Add PST, RST, or QST only if that destination’s own statute says so.
- Is it a digital product or remote service from a platform? Expect the rate of the buyer’s usual place of residence.
- Did you pay HST in a participating province and then leave with the goods within 30 days? Read GST495 before assuming you are stuck with the higher provincial part.
- Confirm the destination rate on CRA’s GST/HST calculator. Nova Scotia is 14% from April 1, 2025.
Short wrap
Online, the GST/HST rate on a shipped good is usually the destination’s rate. Pickup can pull the sale back to the seller’s province. Digital products generally follow the buyer’s usual residence. HST is one fused line in five provinces. Everywhere else the federal 5% stands beside a separate provincial tax, or stands alone. A rebate of the provincial HST portion exists, with tight dollar, day, and residency conditions. Check the CRA calculator for the current number before treating any blog list as a filing position.
This explains how the rates work. It is not tax advice. Confirm current rates on the CRA calculator.
SOURCES: Canada Revenue Agency, Revenue Québec
