Work out whether you have to
Before anything else, and against what you sell, not what your industry is called. This step decides the other four.
PST registration in BCRegistering for PST in British Columbia
Whether you have to, what the province needs, and what changes once you are registered. What you sell decides it, not how much of it you sell.
Registering for PST is not difficult and it does not take long. The hard part is the question before it — whether you have to at all — because PST does not use the revenue threshold people expect from GST.
There is no turnover figure to cross. It turns on what you sell, so the answer can be yes from your first sale, or no at any size.
The one exception runs the other way. It lets a very small seller stay out of the system, on two conditions held together: annual BC sales under a low figure, and no established commercial premises to sell from. A shop, a market stall or a room at home set up for selling breaks the second one.
The exemption has a price. A small seller also loses the resale exemption, so you pay PST on your own stock with no way to recover it. For a business holding real inventory, registering is usually the better end of that trade.
Who it applies to
Which side of the line you are on
Generally must register
- You sell or lease goods in BC in the ordinary course of business
- You sell software or telecommunication services here
- You provide legal services
- You perform work on goods — repairs, maintenance, restoration
- You provide accommodation in BC
- You are outside BC but sell goods into it above the province’s thresholds
Generally need not
- Everything you sell falls in an exempt category
- You only make wholesale sales to registered resellers who give you their number
- You provide services that are not on the taxable list — which the paused expansion would have widened
- You are not carrying on business in BC at all
The second column is where people get it wrong. "My work is a service" is not a complete answer. The taxable-services list is specific and follows no obvious principle, and it nearly grew on 1 October 2026 to cover accounting, security, non-residential real estate, architectural, engineering and geoscience work before the province paused that. Check what you sell against the list instead of reasoning from your industry.
How to register
Five steps once the answer is clear
Get your details together
Your business number, the legal name and structure, what you sell, where you operate from, when you started or expect to start making taxable sales, and your banking details. Assembling it first turns the registration into a single sitting.
Register through eTaxBC
Online, through the province’s eTaxBC system, which is where you file the return later. You can register up to six months before your first taxable sale. Approval takes time, so start early enough that your first taxable invoice has a number to carry.
You get a PST number
A registration number of your own, separate from your GST number and from your business number. It belongs on your invoices, and you need it to file. Having one of the two tax numbers never implies the other.
Start charging, and start tracking
From your effective date you charge PST on taxable sales, keep it separate from your own money, and file on the reporting period the province assigns you. What you collect is what you remit. There is no input credit to net it down.
After registration
What changes once you are registered
You are collecting money for the province from the effective date, not from the date the paperwork clears. If you registered late, the obligation still runs from when you should have started.
A reporting period arrives with the registration, monthly through annual, and it will not necessarily match your GST period. Two calendars kept separately is the ordinary state of affairs.
Every period gets a return, including one in which you collected nothing. A nil return takes minutes, and skipping it draws the same interest and penalty as skipping a return with money on it.
Move the PST out of the operating account as you collect it. Sales tax sitting in the current account gets spent during a good month, and the shortfall at the deadline is the owner’s to cover.
Late registration
If you should have registered earlier
Common, and fixable. You owe the PST you should have collected, plus interest. If you never charged it, that comes out of your own margin.
Coming forward voluntarily generally puts you in a better position than being found. Understand the options before you do either.
Not sure whether you need to register?
Tell us what you sell. We check it against both registrations and confirm the answer in your quote, before filing anything.