New Brunswick HST: 15% rate, bilingual filing and CRA
For Saint John, Moncton, Fredericton and New Brunswick-wide businesses — HST 15% combined federal + provincial rate, bilingual English/French filing, point-of-sale rebates, CRA-administered.
New Brunswick was one of the three original HST provinces in 1997 (with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador) and remains the only province where all CRA correspondence and filings can be conducted in either English or French as a matter of constitutional right. The HST rate is 15% (5% federal + 10% provincial) administered entirely by the CRA, with one notable point-of-sale rebate — children's clothing and footwear under $100 per item gets the 10% provincial portion rebated. The province is the heart of Canada's pulp and paper industry, the Irving conglomerate's home base, and Atlantic Canada's logistics gateway via Saint John.
New Brunswick sales tax at a glance
| Tax | Rate | Authority |
|---|---|---|
HST (federal + New Brunswick provincial portion, combined) 5% federal GST + 10% New Brunswick provincial portion, blended into one rate at point of sale. | 15% | 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.
New Brunswick HST — and the bilingual filing requirement
New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada (Charter of Rights and Freedoms s. 16-20; New Brunswick Official Languages Act). The constitutional bilingualism means CRA correspondence, audit notices, and GST/HST returns can all be conducted in either English or French at the registrant's choice — and the CRA must respond in the language of the original request. For multi-province operators, the bilingual default is a practical advantage when employees or clients in NB prefer French — letters from Revenue Canada arrive in the same language as the filing.
Filing mechanics mirror the federal HST framework: single 15% rate, one CRA return via GST/HST NETFILE, ITC recovery on business inputs. The provincial 10% portion is distributed back to New Brunswick under the Comprehensive Integrated Tax Coordination Agreement, the same federal-provincial structure that governs all four Atlantic HST provinces and Ontario.
The $100 children's clothing rebate — different from Nova Scotia
New Brunswick rebates the 10% provincial HST portion on children's clothing and footwear under $100 per item (Nova Scotia's threshold is $94; PEI and Newfoundland & Labrador don't offer this rebate). The $100 threshold is per-item, not per-invoice — a $200 invoice with two $90 items both qualify. The seller charges HST on the federal 5% portion only, then claims the rebate amount back from CRA on Line 111 of the GST/HST return.
Practical edge case for multi-province retailers: the same product (a $95 children's jacket) qualifies for rebate in NB and NS but not in PEI/NL. HelloBooks tags inventory categories at the item master and applies the right rebate per destination — so a multi-province sale across the Atlantic ships with the right HST treatment per province automatically.
Filing cadence, the pulp/paper sector, and Saint John port
Annual under CAD 1.5M revenue, quarterly $1.5M-6M, monthly above $6M — standard CRA-assigned frequencies. Returns by end of next month for monthly/quarterly filers, 3 months post year-end for annual. New Brunswick's economy is concentrated in pulp/paper (Irving's mills in Saint John, Fraser Papers historically), agriculture/aquaculture, and Saint John port logistics. Importers using Saint John as an Atlantic entry point benefit from filing aligned with Customs Self-Assessment for working-capital efficiency on inventory in transit.
Questions New Brunswick businesses ask
Other Canadian province guides
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