Which provinces collect hst

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Online Services Forms and Publications. Use our online services and download our forms, publications and guides. Search search Launch search. Learn More. Print Share. For all. How Can We Help? Contact Us for a No-Charge Consultation. Contact Us Phone: Toll Free: Fax: Email: [email protected]. Close Menu. Book an Appointment Call Us The CRA also has an overview of charging and collecting sales tax that you may find useful. Skip to main content When you do out-of-province business, it can be challenging to know which sales tax to apply.

As the name implies, it "harmonizes" combines the nation's federal goods and services tax and various provincial sales taxes. Five Canadian provinces use the HST. Proponents of the HST argue it improves the competitiveness of Canadian businesses by simplifying their administrative costs, leading to lower prices for consumers.

The vendor collects the tax proceeds by adding the HST rate to the cost of goods and services and then remits the collected tax to the Canada Revenue Agency CRA , the tax division of the federal government. Each province had its own rates, resulting in significant differences in the sales taxes throughout Canada.

The concept behind the HST was to streamline the recording and collection of federal and provincial sales taxes by combining them into a single, consistent levy across the country. Advocates argue it should reduce costs for businesses and ultimately customers since it simplifies their sales-tax-related bookkeeping.

Unfortunately, in practice, the HST can often complicate companies' lives instead. While the aim was to create a national sales tax, the Canadian government made adoption of the HST optional—and many provinces opted not to, keeping their separate systems and rates instead. Five of Canada's 13 provinces use the harmonized sales tax:. Several others apply only the federal goods and services sales tax and do not impose local sales taxes: Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.

It is the responsibility of Canadian business owners located in one of the five provinces to collect and remit the HST. So the exact amount of HST could differ, depending on which of the five provinces a business operates. While many goods and services are subject to HST, some are zero-rated or tax-exempt.

These include products like basic groceries, books, and many agricultural and fishery goods. Foreign purchasers of Canadian products do not have to pay HST provided that the goods or services will be solely used outside of the country. However, non-residents visiting Canada, such as tourists, are required to pay HST. In some cases, they may qualify for an HST rebate. There is still a constant debate as to how the HST impacts consumers and taxpayers.