Alberta GST: 5% federal rate, registration and CRA filing
For Calgary, Edmonton, and Alberta-wide businesses — federal GST 5% only, no provincial sales tax. The simplest Canadian sales-tax regime for SMBs and out-of-province sellers.
Alberta is the only Canadian province without a provincial sales tax. The federal 5% GST is the only sales tax that applies to taxable supplies in Alberta — administered by the CRA, filed via GST/HST NETFILE, recoverable through full Input Tax Credit (ITC) on business inputs. No QST (Quebec), no PST (BC, SK, MB), no HST provincial portion (ON, NS, NB, PE, NL). For SMBs and out-of-province sellers, Alberta is the simplest Canadian sales-tax jurisdiction by a wide margin. The CAD 30,000 small-supplier threshold applies; below it, registration is optional.
Alberta sales tax at a glance
| Tax | Rate | Authority |
|---|---|---|
GST (federal only) No provincial sales tax in Alberta. GST is the only sales tax on taxable supplies. | 5% | Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) |
| Federal small-supplier threshold | $30,000 | Trailing 4 quarters worldwide taxable supplies |
Rates verified against CRA and the relevant provincial revenue authority as at 2026-05-18. Re-verify each year before relying on these figures for a filing.
Why Alberta has no PST
Alberta is the only province in Canada that has never adopted a provincial sales tax. The three territories (NWT, Nunavut, Yukon) also have no PST. Alberta's choice was driven historically by significant resource revenues (oil and gas royalties) reducing the need for broad-based consumption taxation; the Alberta government has retained the no-PST stance even through commodity-price downturns. Proposals to introduce a provincial sales tax have surfaced periodically (most recently in 2020 budget discussions) but have not been adopted.
The practical result for businesses: Alberta-based and Alberta-selling vendors file only the federal GST return — no separate provincial registration, no separate provincial portal, no separate provincial tax-base reconciliation. This is the lowest administrative-overhead province in Canada for sales tax. Multi-province sellers based in Alberta still need to register for HST/PST/QST in any other province they exceed nexus thresholds for, but their home-province compliance is GST-only.
GST registration, place of supply, and ITCs
Mandatory GST registration triggers at CAD 30,000 in trailing-4-quarter worldwide taxable supplies — the standard federal small-supplier threshold. Below that, voluntary registration lets you claim ITCs on business inputs (rent, software, equipment) which is often net-positive for B2B businesses even at lower revenue. Place-of-supply rules: for goods, destination of physical delivery sets the rate; for services, the recipient's location; for digital services, the recipient's billing address.
Input Tax Credits work the same in Alberta as in any other province — GST paid on business inputs is claimable on the GST/HST return against GST collected. The simplicity is that there's no PST/QST sunk cost layer like in BC or limited-ITR layer like in Quebec. Every dollar of GST is in the value-added cycle and recoverable. For asset-heavy businesses (manufacturing, construction, real estate development), Alberta's no-PST regime is a meaningful cash-flow advantage vs operating in BC, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba.
Filing cadence and CRA NETFILE
GST filing frequency is set by the CRA based on annual taxable supplies: annual if under CAD 1.5M (with quarterly installments if owing); quarterly if CAD 1.5M to CAD 6M; monthly if above CAD 6M. You can voluntarily request monthly filing at lower thresholds to speed ITC refunds. Returns are filed via GST/HST NETFILE by the end of the month following the period (annual filers get 3 months post year-end). Alberta has no separate provincial portal to learn — one CRA system, one return, one set of due dates.
Questions Alberta businesses ask
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