What's the difference between GST, HST, QST, and PST for a US DTC brand?
The reality that surprises US brands shipping into Canada at scale isn't the tax rate. It's the architecture. Canada isn't one sales tax with provincial variations; it's four distinct tax regimes administered by three separate tax authorities, layered on top of each other in specific provinces. A single shipment to a Quebec address touches both the federal GST regime at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the separate Quebec Sales Tax (QST) regime at Revenu Québec. A shipment to British Columbia touches the CRA and the BC Ministry of Finance. The rate a Shopify checkout has to apply isn't "the Canadian rate" but the province-specific stack.
The reference grid:
| Regime | Rate | Where it applies | Administered by | Separate registration? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GST (federal) | 5% | All of Canada (alone in AB, NT, NU, YT) | CRA | One CRA account covers GST and HST |
| HST | 13% (ON); 15% (NB, NL, NS, PE) | Five harmonized provinces | CRA | Same CRA account as GST |
| QST | 9.975% (stacks with 5% GST = 14.975%) | Quebec | Revenu Québec | Yes, separate from CRA |
| BC PST | 7% (stacks with 5% GST = 12%) | British Columbia | BC Ministry of Finance | Yes, separate |
| SK PST | 6% (stacks with 5% GST = 11%) | Saskatchewan | Saskatchewan Finance | Yes, separate |
| MB RST | 7% (stacks with 5% GST = 12%) | Manitoba | Manitoba Taxation Division | Yes, separate |
Two structural distinctions matter for understanding why this is four regimes and not one. First, the CRA administers federal GST and harmonized HST under a single statute (the Excise Tax Act) through a single registration.[1] The five HST provinces gave up their separate provincial sales tax in exchange for a share of harmonized federal-plus-provincial collection. Quebec, BC, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba did not. Each operates its own provincial sales tax statute, its own registration system, and its own filing portal.[2][3][4][5] Second, GST and HST are value-added taxes with input tax credit recovery for registered businesses; QST is also a value-added tax with an input tax refund mechanism through Revenu Québec; the three provincial PSTs are retail sales taxes more similar in shape to US state sales tax, with no general input credit equivalent.[6][7][8] Same noun (provincial sales tax), different mechanics.
GST: the 5% federal layer and where it applies alone
GST is the federal goods and services tax imposed under the Excise Tax Act on most taxable supplies of property and services made in Canada.[1] The rate is 5% and it applies to every taxable sale shipped into Canada, regardless of province. A US DTC brand that has registered for GST/HST and is shipping a taxable good to a Canadian address is collecting at minimum the 5% GST on that shipment. In the four jurisdictions that have not harmonized and do not impose a separate provincial sales tax, 5% GST is the entire tax: Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.[9]
In the five HST provinces, the 5% federal component is bundled into the harmonized rate (13% or 15%) and collected through the same CRA registration. In Quebec, BC, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, the 5% GST is collected by the CRA registration; the provincial layer is collected separately. Either way, the GST itself never goes away. The federal 5% sits underneath every other Canadian indirect tax a US brand encounters at the point of sale.
The threshold is the CAD $30,000 small supplier threshold measured on worldwide taxable supplies over four consecutive calendar quarters, not Canadian sales alone.[10] Once registered, the brand receives a CRA-assigned Business Number with an RT 0001 program account that covers federal GST and harmonized HST through a single filing.
Shopify Markets handles the rate detection at checkout once the BN is configured in the Shopify admin under Settings > Taxes and duties > Canada.[11] The Canadian GST chain runs through the CRA on its own compliance track and does not consolidate with the brand's US sales tax platform, regardless of how the rates stack at checkout.
HST: the five harmonized provinces and one CRA filing
HST is the harmonized federal-plus-provincial tax in the five provinces that agreed to fold their provincial sales tax into the federal GST system: Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.[9] The harmonization happened in stages between 1997 (the original Atlantic provinces) and 2013 (Prince Edward Island's transition). The mechanics for a non-resident vendor are straightforward: a single CRA GST/HST registration covers all five provinces, the brand collects HST at the applicable provincial rate, and the CRA distributes the provincial share to each province on the back end.
The rates by province:
| Province | HST rate | Federal component | Provincial component |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 13% | 5% | 8% |
| New Brunswick | 15% | 5% | 10% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 15% | 5% | 10% |
| Nova Scotia | 15% | 5% | 10% |
| Prince Edward Island | 15% | 5% | 10% |
The operator observation that matters here: HST is what makes the federal CRA footprint stretch farther than it looks. Ontario alone represents a substantial share of Canadian retail sales, and the Atlantic HST provinces add meaningfully more.[12] A US DTC brand registered only with the CRA, with no provincial registrations in Quebec, BC, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba, is still covering close to half of the Canadian retail market through one consolidated filing. The mistake is reading "five provinces" and assuming the footprint is small. It isn't. The five HST provinces and the four GST-only jurisdictions together cover nine of Canada's thirteen provinces and territories under a single CRA registration.
Filing cadence is set by the CRA based on annual Canadian taxable supplies: monthly above CAD $6 million, quarterly between CAD $1.5 million and CAD $6 million, annual at or below CAD $1.5 million.[13] The cadence is assigned, not elected, and missing the assigned deadline triggers a 1% per month late-remittance penalty plus daily compound interest at the prescribed rate.[13] Remittance must be in CAD, converted from the brand's USD functional currency at the Bank of Canada exchange rate applicable to the filing period.[13] Filing in USD or using an undocumented conversion methodology is treated as a filing discrepancy.
QST: Quebec's separate 9.975% regime under Revenu Québec
Quebec runs entirely outside the federal HST framework. The Quebec Sales Tax is 9.975%, administered by Revenu Québec under An Act respecting the Québec sales tax.[2] It is a value-added tax structurally similar to GST in that registered businesses can claim input tax refunds (ITRs) on QST paid on Quebec-incurred business costs.[14] But the registration, filing, and remittance run on a parallel track from the CRA, through a different statute, a different portal, and a different filing form.
For a US DTC brand, the practical consequence is that a single shipment to a Montreal customer touches two regulatory authorities. The federal 5% GST is collected and remitted to CRA. The 9.975% QST is collected and remitted to Revenu Québec. The combined tax at checkout on a Quebec address is 14.975%, but the two pieces are administered separately and filed on separate cadences through separate portals.
Revenu Québec extended QST registration obligations to non-resident vendors of physical goods through Quebec's 2018 budget reform and subsequent legislation, with the registration mechanics for non-resident suppliers of corporeal movable property administered through Revenu Québec's online portal.[2][15] The applicable threshold and registration path for non-resident physical goods sellers have been updated in recent years; confirm the current rules directly with Revenu Québec or a Canadian indirect-tax practitioner before relying on a default.
The recurring failure mode this introduces: a US brand registered for GST/HST but not QST is collecting only the federal 5% on Quebec orders when the combined collection obligation is 14.975%. The 9.975% QST gap accumulates as uncollected tax on every Quebec sale, with no mechanism for retrospective recovery from the customer. M&A diligence on US ecommerce brands shipping into Canada at material volume routinely surfaces unregistered QST exposure as a compliance gap, with back tax, accrued interest, and Revenu Québec penalties as the cost of the gap.
PST: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba
The three remaining non-harmonized provinces each impose a separate provincial sales tax, administered by the provincial finance ministry rather than the CRA. These PSTs differ structurally from GST, HST, and QST in that they are retail sales taxes without a general input tax credit or refund mechanism. The closer analog is US state sales tax: tax on the final retail sale, collected by the seller, remitted to the provincial authority, no general business-input recovery. The acronym varies (PST in BC and Saskatchewan, RST in Manitoba) but the mechanics are similar.
British Columbia (PST, 7%)
The BC Provincial Sales Tax is 7%, administered by the BC Ministry of Finance under the Provincial Sales Tax Act.[3] BC requires registration by out-of-province sellers, including US-based vendors, that make retail sales of taxable goods to BC consumers above a small threshold and that solicit those sales in BC.[16] Registration is through eTaxBC. The rules for physical goods sellers differ from BC's rules for software and telecommunications services. A US brand with regular BC volume should confirm current registration requirements and the applicable threshold with a Canadian practitioner before assuming the obligation does or does not attach.
Saskatchewan (PST, 6%)
Saskatchewan PST is 6%, administered by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Finance under The Provincial Sales Tax Act.[4] Saskatchewan has extended registration obligations to non-resident vendors making retail sales of taxable tangible personal property into Saskatchewan, with registration through the Saskatchewan eTax Services (SETS) portal.[17] The threshold mechanics for non-resident sellers have changed in recent years and warrant practitioner confirmation.
Manitoba (RST, 7%)
Manitoba's Retail Sales Tax is 7%, administered by Manitoba's Taxation Division under The Retail Sales Tax Act.[5] Manitoba's 2021 budget extended RST collection obligations to certain non-resident vendors selling taxable goods through online channels to Manitoba consumers, with registration through Manitoba's Tax Administration System.[18] As with BC and Saskatchewan, confirm current registration requirements with a practitioner before deciding the obligation does not apply.
The structural distinction: PST/RST in these three provinces has no input tax credit. The full 6% or 7% collected from the consumer is remitted to the provincial authority, with no recovery on PST/RST paid on business inputs. For a US DTC brand, this means the PST/RST collected at checkout is gross provincial revenue, not net. The brand cannot reduce its remittance by recovering provincial tax paid on Canadian-incurred costs the way it can with GST/HST input tax credits or QST input tax refunds.
TaxCloud's filing scope is the US side: real-time calculation across 13,000+ US jurisdictions through one API, consolidated SST filing across the 23 full member states plus Tennessee as associate through one of the program's Certified Service Providers, and the audit-defense documentation trail. The Canadian provincial registrations and filings sit outside that scope; CRA, Revenu Québec, the BC Ministry of Finance, Saskatchewan Finance, and Manitoba Taxation Division each administer their own. The US compliance chain and the Canadian compliance chain run on separate calendars, separate portals, and separate currency bases without interfering with each other.
What this means operationally: the registration footprint for a US DTC brand
The registration footprint a US DTC brand actually ends up with selling at scale into Canada looks like this. One CRA GST/HST registration covering federal GST and harmonized HST across nine provinces and territories (AB, ON, NB, NL, NS, PE, NT, NU, YT). One Revenu Québec QST registration if Quebec volume warrants the registration. One BC PST registration if BC volume meets the BC threshold. One Saskatchewan PST registration if Saskatchewan volume meets the threshold. One Manitoba RST registration if Manitoba volume meets the threshold. "Register for Canadian tax" resolves to three to six separate registrations depending on which non-harmonized provinces are in scope.
The pattern we see at $20-80M Shopify and Shopify Plus brands:
- Register first with the CRA via Form RC1 once worldwide taxable supplies exceed CAD $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters.[10] This is universal. The CRA registration is the entry point for Canadian compliance.
- Add Revenu Québec QST when Quebec sales volume becomes material. Quebec represents a substantial share of the Canadian retail market by population,[12] and most brands shipping nationally reach material Quebec volume early.
- Evaluate PST in BC, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba based on volume into each. BC's threshold is the most aggressive of the three for out-of-province sellers; Saskatchewan and Manitoba have lower volume profiles for most US DTC brands and may not require registration immediately.
- Engage a Canadian indirect-tax practitioner for the filing workflow, ITC and ITR claims, and multi-province remittance. The four-regime architecture is hard to run on staff time without Canadian indirect-tax expertise in the room.
- Configure Shopify Markets with the CRA-assigned BN under Settings > Taxes and duties > Canada.[11] Shopify Markets detects the customer's shipping province and applies the appropriate rate from the province-specific stack: 5% in Alberta, 13% in Ontario, 14.975% in Quebec, 12% in BC, 11% in Saskatchewan, 12% in Manitoba.
The reader here is past wondering whether Canada has sales tax. The question is what the operating model looks like when one shipment to one Canadian customer can touch two or three tax authorities at once. TaxCloud is built for the US side of that operating model: 13,000+ jurisdictions through one API, consolidated SST filing across the 23 full member states plus Tennessee as associate through one of the program's Certified Service Providers, native Shopify and Shopify Plus integration that runs parallel to Shopify Markets on Canadian addresses, and the documentation trail for US audit defense. The CRA, Revenu Québec, and provincial PST registrations are handled by the brand with a Canadian indirect-tax practitioner; keeping the US chain clean is what lets the team spend its judgment on the Canadian decisions that actually need it.