Registering for PST When You Sell Into a Province You Don't Live In
We’ve covered why Quebec’s QST means registering with a second revenue agency. The related but different trap is registering for PST when selling into another province: some provinces expect you to register for their sales tax even if your business is based somewhere else entirely.
Q: Do I charge BC PST if I am based in Ontario?
Possibly. This is the part that surprises newcomers used to thinking of GST or HST as the one federal-style tax that follows the business rather than the customer. Several provinces, British Columbia among them, run their own provincial sales tax separately from the federal GST, and a business based outside the province can still trigger an obligation to register and collect that province’s PST once it’s selling into the province in the way the rules define as carrying on business there. This post doesn’t have a verified current threshold for BC specifically — check it against the province’s current tax authority guidance rather than a general assumption.
Q: What triggers PST registration for an out-of-province seller?
Usually it comes down to specifics: a physical presence, employees or inventory in the province, or actively soliciting sales there through advertising, a website targeting that province’s customers, or a sales rep. That’s a different situation from simply having an occasional customer who happens to live there. The line between an occasional cross-border sale and carrying on business in a province is genuinely fact-specific, and worth getting a definitive answer on for your actual business model.
Q: Do online sellers have to register for provincial sales tax?
Often yes, and it’s one of the more common questions from newcomers running an e-commerce or service business, because the intuitive answer — “I’m registered in my home province, that should cover it” — is often wrong. Multiple provinces have specifically extended their registration expectations to cover online sellers reaching their residents. That’s a different standard than a local shop that only ever serves foot traffic. Confirm it for every province where you have a meaningful volume of sales, beyond just the one you’re physically in.
Q: How do you know if you actually have an obligation?
Honestly, this isn’t a question a general blog post can settle for your specific business — the thresholds and definitions differ by province and change over time. An accountant familiar with multi-province sales tax, engaged once your business has more than trivial revenue from outside your home province, is the right investment here, and cheaper than a retroactive assessment and penalties for a province you didn’t know you owed.
The pattern across both posts
Between Quebec’s separate QST administration and other provinces’ rules for out-of-province sellers, the common thread is that sales tax in Canada runs as up to thirteen separate systems rather than one. A small business selling nationally can end up with obligations in several at once. Map where your customers actually are, not just where your business is registered. Cape2Canada’s guide on what the move really costs is a starting point for budgeting the professional help this kind of setup usually needs.