Canada · Place of supplyLast updated: May 15, 2026

GST/HST place-of-supply: rate by province for every sale

Place-of-supply is the rule that decides whether a sale gets 5% GST, 13% HST (Ontario), 14% HST (Nova Scotia) or 15% HST (NB / NL / PE). It rarely depends on your business location — what matters is the customer's address and the kind of supply. Get it wrong and the CRA assesses the differential plus interest.

Why your business location usually doesn't matter

An Alberta consultant selling services to an Ontario client charges 13% HST, not 5% GST — even though the consultant is in a GST-only province. The Atlantic-HST provinces (NS at 14%; NB / NL / PE at 15%) and Ontario at 13% protect their tax base from cross-border erosion by tying the rate to the place where the supply is consumed, not the place where the seller is located.

This is the most-missed rule in Canadian GST/HST. HelloBooks applies it automatically using the customer's address — but you should know the logic in case a customer pushes back.

The rules by supply type

Supply type	Rate is based on…
Tangible goods	Province where the goods are delivered (or where the recipient takes possession).
Services — to a business (B2B)	Customer's business address most closely connected with the supply (the address on file usually wins).
Services — to an individual (B2C)	Where the service is performed, OR where the recipient ordinarily resides for remote / online services.
Real property	Province where the property is located.
Intangibles (IP licenses, digital products)	Place where the customer can use them, usually inferred from the customer's address.
Subscription / SaaS	Customer's billing address (per the intangibles rule).

Worked examples

Alberta consultant → Ontario corporate client. Service to a business; customer's business address is in Ontario. Rate: 13% HST.
BC retailer → NS customer (online order, shipped). Tangible goods; delivery address is Nova Scotia. Rate: 14% HST (since 1 April 2025).
Quebec SaaS company → Alberta business subscriber. Intangible; customer's billing address is Alberta. Federal portion: 5% GST. (Quebec's QST is a separate filing against Revenu Québec and doesn't apply for the AB customer.)
Ontario contractor → real-property renovation in Manitoba. Real property; property is in Manitoba. Federal portion: 5% GST. (Manitoba's RST is a separate provincial tax, not part of GST/HST.)

What about Quebec, BC, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan?

Four provinces have their own provincial sales taxes that sit on top of (or alongside) the 5% federal GST and are administered separately:

Quebec QST (9.975%) — Revenu Québec, separate return
BC PST (7%) — BC government, separate return
Manitoba RST (7%) — Manitoba Finance, separate return
Saskatchewan PST (6%) — Sask. Finance, separate return

Each has its own place-of-supply rules that often differ from the federal GST/HST rules — typically tied to where the goods are delivered or the service performed, with provincial-specific tweaks. HelloBooks records these as line-level taxes alongside the federal piece, but the filings happen through each province's own portal.

How HelloBooks routes each line

Customer records carry primary, billing, and shipping addresses with province codes.
Each invoice line carries a supply-type tag (good / service-B2B / service-B2C / real-property / intangible).
At posting, the engine resolves the right address-supply-type pair against the place-of-supply rules and stamps the line with the resulting rate.
You can override per-line if substance differs from the default rule — the override is recorded on the journal entry for audit.
The stamped rates flow through to line-105 / line-108 ledger accounts so each return position can be totalled from the trial balance. The in-app CRA return preview that builds the form straight from the stamped rates is on the roadmap.

Check a sale

Answer three questions in the free place of supply helper to see which province's rate generally applies.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the customer's address decide the GST/HST rate?

Canadian place-of-supply rules generally tie the rate to where the supply is *consumed* rather than where the seller is located. For tangible goods that's the delivery address. For services to a business it's the customer's business address. The principle protects the participating-HST provinces from cross-border under-collection — an Ontario business buying services from an Alberta seller still pays 13% HST, not 5% GST.

What if my customer has multiple Canadian addresses?

For B2B service supplies, place-of-supply uses the customer's business address most closely connected with the supply. The CRA's tie-breaker rules look at where the supply is actually performed or used. HelloBooks lets you set a per-invoice override on the place-of-supply when the default address-based rule doesn't reflect the substance of the transaction.

How does place-of-supply work for SaaS and digital services?

Digital and intangible supplies generally follow the customer's address (the place where the customer can use them). For a B2B customer with offices in multiple provinces, the place-of-supply is the address most closely connected with the supply. For B2C subscribers, the address on file (or the billing address) drives the rate. HelloBooks routes each subscription invoice using the customer record's primary address.

What happens if I get place-of-supply wrong?

You either undercharged or overcharged. If you undercharged (charged 5% GST instead of 13% HST), you owe the differential to the CRA plus interest, and you cannot collect retroactively from the customer if too much time has passed. If you overcharged, you have to refund the difference or remit it. The CRA expects reasonable systems to apply the rules consistently — recording the place-of-supply on each invoice is the audit defence.

Are exports zero-rated under place-of-supply rules?

Yes. Goods exported outside Canada are zero-rated (0% GST/HST) regardless of which province they ship from. Services performed outside Canada or used outside Canada by a non-resident are typically zero-rated too — but the rules around services to non-residents are intricate; consult the CRA's place-of-supply technical bulletins for the specifics. HelloBooks zero-rates supplies marked as exports and keeps the supporting export documentation linked.

Authoritative sources

Canadian tax rules change with each federal and provincial budget. Always verify the current position with the official CRA and provincial sources below before filing.

Canada Revenue Agency — canada.ca/en/revenue-agencyFederal tax authority. Definitive guidance on GST/HST registration, rates, filing periods, and the rules for every input tax credit (ITC) claim.
CRA — GST/HST for businessesThe main reference for charging, collecting and remitting GST/HST, including place-of-supply, zero-rated and exempt supplies, and bad debts.
CRA — Place-of-supply rulesAuthoritative HST place-of-supply technical bulletin that decides which provincial rate (or just the 5% GST) applies to a sale.
Government of Quebec — Revenu QuébecQuebec's tax authority. QST (Quebec Sales Tax) is administered separately from GST/HST and is filed with Revenu Québec, not the CRA.

Run Canadian GST/HST on autopilot in HelloBooks

GST/HST classification, place-of-supply routing across all ten provinces and three territories, and CRA-ready return generation are built into HelloBooks. Every figure on every line ties back to a journal entry you can audit.

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