01
Registering for one and assuming it covers both
The most common one by a distance. They are different registrations with different numbers. Having a GST number does not put you on the province’s books, and nobody writes to tell you.
GST and PST in British ColumbiaTwo taxes, 12% together
GST is 5% and federal, PST is 7% and provincial, and BC has no HST. They register separately, file separately, and disagree about what is taxable.
Work it out
BC sales tax calculator
GST 5% plus PST 7% is 12% combined on most goods in British Columbia.
- Subtotal
- $100.00
- GST (5%)
- $5.00
- PST (7%)
- $7.00
- Total
- $112.00
Most goods carry both. Many services are exempt from PST while still attracting GST — see what is and is not taxable. Rates current as of July 2026.
The rates
Sales tax in British Columbia is 12% on most goods: 5% GST, which is federal, plus 7% PST, which is provincial. BC has no HST — the two are charged side by side on one invoice and stay separate taxes all the way through.
Most BC owners meet them in the wrong order: they register for one, assume it covers them, then hear about the other from a letter. Two governments, two registrations, two sets of deadlines, two definitions of what is taxable.
Neither one tells you anything about the other. Being registered for GST does not mean you should be registered for PST, and being exempt from PST does not exempt you from GST.
5%
GST
Federal. You usually have to register once your taxable revenue passes $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters. You charge it on most sales, and you claim back the GST you paid on business purchases.
7%
PST
Provincial, and completely separate. Its own registration, its own deadlines, its own list of what is taxable. Most goods are taxable and many services are exempt. You cannot claim any of it back.
Side by side
The difference between GST and PST
Who collects it
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), federally.
The BC Ministry of Finance, provincially.
When you must register
Generally once your taxable revenue passes $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters. You can register earlier by choice.
It turns on what you sell, not how much. Most businesses selling goods in BC need to register. Five kinds of professional service were to join them on 1 October 2026, but the province paused that expansion, so many service businesses still do not.
What it applies to
Most goods and services, with a defined set of zero-rated and exempt categories.
A different list again. Many services are exempt while most goods are not, and the two lists do not line up.
Can you claim it back
Yes. You claim input tax credits for the GST you paid on business purchases, so you remit the difference.
No. There is no input credit. PST you pay on business inputs is generally a cost, not something you recover.
How often you file
Monthly, quarterly or annually, on the schedule the CRA assigns you.
On the schedule the province assigns you, which will not necessarily match your GST period.
What is taxable
What PST applies to in BC
The two lists do not line up, and neither one follows a rule you can guess from first principles. PST has its own definition of what is taxable, and it is narrower than GST in some places and wider in others.
What follows is the shape of it, not the whole of it. The categories are drawn tightly and have been redrawn before, and the only version that matters is the one covering what you sell.
Usually carries PST
- Goods sold or leased in BC — stock, equipment, furniture, tools, vehicles
- Software, and telecommunication services
- Work performed on goods: repairs, maintenance, restoration
- Legal services
- Accommodation
- Goods bought outside BC and brought in for use here
Usually does not
- Food for human consumption
- Books, newspapers and magazines
- Children's clothing and footwear
- Bicycles
- Prescription medications
- Labour to improve real property — though the materials are a different question
That last one catches contractors in particular. You generally do not charge PST on improving real property, but you usually do pay PST on the materials that go into it. Those materials are a cost to you, not something you collect and pass along.
If you are not certain which side your work falls on, do not guess. Say what you sell in the form and we tell you in the quote.
Registering
Whether you have to register at all
The GST test is about size: broadly, once your taxable revenue passes $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive quarters you must register. You can register earlier by choice.
PST does not work that way. It turns on what you sell, not how much, so a small business can be required to register from its first sale while a much larger one never is. There is no revenue figure to wait for.
The return
How to file a PST return in BC: form FIN 400
The PST return is form FIN 400. Most businesses file it online through eTaxBC instead of on paper. You report what you sold, what PST you collected, and any PST you owe on things you bought without paying it, then pay the balance with the return.
The return itself is not the hard part. Filing it from unreconciled books is. The figure on the return has to match the figure in the bank, and if the month was never closed there is nothing to check it against.
There is no input credit. Unlike GST, what you collect is what you remit, and PST you paid on your own purchases does not come off it.
Deadlines
When your PST return is due
You do not choose your reporting period. The province assigns one when you register, based on how much PST it expects you to collect, and tells you what it is. It can be changed later, and it changes on their initiative as often as yours.
Whichever you are on, the rule is the same: the return and the payment must arrive by the last day of the month after the period ends.
Monthly
The highest collection volumes.
Last day of the following month — so January is due 28 February.
Quarterly
The band most small businesses that collect PST land in.
Last day of the month after the quarter ends.
Semi-annual
Lower volumes, assigned at the province’s discretion.
Last day of the month after the six months end.
Annual
The smallest collectors.
Last day of the month after the year ends.
Do not assume this lines up with GST. The CRA assigns your GST period and the province assigns your PST period independently, using different information. A business filing GST quarterly can be on a monthly PST cycle, and a calendar built around one will miss the other.
Self-assessment
When you owe PST nobody charged you
PST also runs the other way: you can owe it on your own purchases.
Buy something for use in BC where PST should have applied but was not charged, and you report and pay it yourself. That is self-assessment, and it goes on the same return.
Three cases cover most of it. Buying equipment or supplies from an out-of-province seller who is not registered here. Importing goods for use in the business. Taking something out of your own resale stock to use yourself, which counts as a sale to you even though no money moved.
All three arrive without PST on the invoice, and the obligation sits with the buyer, not the seller.
Also asked
HST, zero-rating, and the rate in Vancouver
Does BC have HST?
No. British Columbia charges GST and PST separately — 5% and 7%, 12% together on most goods. There is no harmonized sales tax here and no single combined return.
The confusion is earned rather than careless. BC did run an HST: it replaced GST and PST in July 2010, a referendum overturned it, and the province went back to separate GST and PST on 1 April 2013. Anyone who ran a business here through those years lived under all three arrangements, and accounting software set up for another province still offers BC an HST code that should never be used.
What it means in practice is two of everything. Two registrations, two returns, two reporting periods set by two different governments, and two lists of what is taxable that do not line up. An HST province files once. You file twice.
Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island are the HST provinces. If your supplier or your customer is in one of them, their invoice will look different from yours, and that is the reason.
When you charge GST, and when you do not
Once you are registered, GST at 5% is the default on what you sell in Canada. The question worth understanding is not which sales are taxable — most are — but which of the two exceptions a sale falls into, because they behave very differently.
Zero-rated means the sale is taxable at 0%. You charge nothing, and you still claim back the GST you paid on everything that went into it. Basic groceries, prescription drugs, most medical devices and exported goods sit here.
Exempt means the sale is outside GST altogether. You charge nothing, and you claim nothing back either, so the GST on your own costs becomes a cost. Most residential rent, most health and dental care, and most financial services sit here.
The difference is worth real money and it is invisible on an invoice — both read as no tax to the customer. A business that treats an exempt supply as zero-rated claims input tax credits it is not entitled to, and that is the sort of error that surfaces years later with interest attached.
Where you charge is a separate question from whether. GST follows the place of supply, so a sale to a customer in an HST province is generally taxed at that province’s rate rather than at BC’s. Selling across provincial lines is where this stops being theoretical.
Sales tax in Vancouver, and the rest of BC
There is no Vancouver sales tax. GST and PST are federal and provincial, so the rate on an invoice in Vancouver, Surrey, Kelowna or Prince George is the same 12%. No municipality in BC levies a sales tax of its own, and your address does not change what you charge.
What does change by location is narrower than people expect and almost always about accommodation. Short-term accommodation carries the municipal and regional district tax on top of PST in the communities that have adopted it, and Vancouver adds a further major-events levy. If you rent rooms or nights, the rate on your invoice is genuinely local. If you sell anything else, it is not.
Vehicles are the other place a different number appears, and it is not a local rate either — PST on a private vehicle sale runs on its own scale, set provincially and driven by the price rather than by where the buyer lives.
Everything else follows the province. That is also why a bookkeeper's location does not matter here: the return is the same return whichever side of the bridge it is prepared on.
Questions
What people ask about PST
How much is sales tax in BC?
12% on most goods — 5% GST plus 7% PST. GST is federal and goes to the Canada Revenue Agency; PST is provincial and goes to the BC Ministry of Finance. Some sales carry GST alone, because the PST list is narrower and does not follow the GST one. Accommodation and private vehicle sales run on their own rates.
Does BC have HST?
No. BC charges GST and PST separately, 5% and 7%. The province did have an HST from July 2010 until 1 April 2013, when a referendum sent it back to the two separate taxes, which is why the question still comes up. Two registrations, two returns and two reporting periods, where an HST province files once.
When do you charge GST in BC?
Once registered, on most of what you sell in Canada, at 5%. Two exceptions behave differently: zero-rated sales such as basic groceries and exports are taxed at 0% and you still claim back the GST on your costs, while exempt sales such as residential rent and most health care are outside GST and you claim nothing back. On sales into an HST province the place of supply rules generally apply that province's rate instead.
What does PST apply to in BC?
Goods sold or leased in BC, software and telecommunication services, work performed on goods, legal services, and accommodation. Accounting, security, non-residential real estate, architectural, engineering and geoscience services were to join that list on 1 October 2026; the province paused that expansion, so they stay exempt for now. Food for human consumption, books, children's clothing, bicycles and prescription medications are long-standing exemptions. The list is specific and does not follow from what your industry is called.
What is GST and PST in BC?
Two separate sales taxes that both apply in British Columbia. GST is federal, 5%, and goes to the Canada Revenue Agency. PST is provincial, 7%, and goes to the BC Ministry of Finance. On most goods you charge both, for a combined 12%. They have separate registrations, separate returns, separate deadlines and different rules about what is taxable.
What is the difference between GST and PST?
Three differences matter. Who you register and file with: the CRA for GST, the province for PST. What triggers registration: revenue for GST, what you sell for PST. And whether you get it back: GST on business purchases comes off what you remit, PST never does. PST is a cost.
Do I need to register for PST in BC?
It depends on what you sell, not how much. Most businesses selling or leasing goods in BC need to register, as do those selling certain specified services. That list was to grow on 1 October 2026 to take in accounting, security, non-residential real estate, architectural, engineering and geoscience work, but the province paused the expansion. There is no revenue threshold to wait for the way there is with GST.
What is a PST number in BC?
The registration number the province issues once you are registered to collect PST. It is separate from your GST number and from your business number, and it goes on your invoices and on your returns. Having one of the two numbers tells you nothing about whether you should have the other.
How do I file PST in BC?
On form FIN 400, the Provincial Sales Tax Return, filed online through eTaxBC for most businesses. You report your sales, the PST you collected and any PST you owe on your own purchases, and pay the balance with the return. It is due by the last day of the month after your reporting period ends.
What happens if I should have registered for PST and did not?
You owe the PST you should have collected, plus interest, whether or not you charged it. If you did not charge it, it comes out of your own margin. Coming forward voluntarily usually beats being found. Get advice before you do either.
Do GST and PST have the same filing deadline?
No. The CRA assigns your GST reporting period and the province assigns your PST one, separately and using different information. They frequently do not align.
What goes wrong
Four ways this catches people out
02
Charging PST on something exempt, or missing it on something taxable
Both directions cause problems. Charge tax you should not have, and you owe your customer a refund. Miss tax you should have charged, and you pay it out of your own margin, because the customer is long gone.
03
Treating the two filing calendars as one
The periods are assigned separately and often do not align. A business that files GST quarterly can easily be on a different PST cycle, and remembering only one of them is how a return gets missed.
04
Leaving the money in the operating account
Sales tax you collect is not revenue. It is money you are holding for a government. Spending it in a good month and finding it gone at the deadline is extremely common, and the shortfall comes out of the owner’s pocket.
What we do
What we do about it
We confirm both registrations at the start, not at the first deadline. If you should be registered for something and are not, you hear it in the written quote, not a year later.
We prepare and file both returns on schedule, GST to the CRA and PST to the BC Ministry of Finance, and we hold the deadlines. The amounts owing come from books reconciled during the month, so the figure on the return matches the figure in the bank.
If you should have registered earlier than you did, we explain what that involves before doing anything about it. Coming forward voluntarily usually puts you in a better position than being found.
Not sure which you are registered for?
Say so in the form. We check both against what you sell and confirm them in your quote, before filing anything.
Plenty of owners have registered for only one of the two, and it is fixable. Say so in the form and we check both in your quote. Rates current as of July 2026.