Sales Tax for B3A — Dartmouth

What Postal Code B3A Covers

B3A covers downtown and north-end Dartmouth on the eastern side of Halifax Harbour within the Halifax Regional Municipality. The historic ferry between Dartmouth and downtown Halifax is North America's oldest saltwater passenger ferry service.

Communities & neighbourhoods in B3A

Local landmarks

• Dartmouth Ferry Terminal
• Alderney Landing
• Halifax Harbour

Where B3A Sits — and What That Changes at the Till

B3A covers ground within about 2 km of the centre of Halifax — one of 6 forward sortation areas the city is split across, each carrying the same 14% but covering very different retail. Its closest postal neighbours are B2Y (Dartmouth) immediately alongside and B3J (Halifax) about 2 km off.

The nearest postal area we hold in another province is E4H (Riverside-Albert, New Brunswick), about 150 km from B3A. A $500 order delivered into B3A carries $70.00 in HST; the same order delivered into E4H carries $75.00 in HST — $5.00 apart on one invoice. Because Canadian sales tax follows the customer, a seller in Dartmouth shipping to both charges 14% on the first and 15% on the second, from the same warehouse on the same day.

B3A is dense urban ground — 3 named neighbourhoods inside one postal area — and density changes the taxable mix rather than the rate. Prepared food, personal services and in-person retail dominate what is rung through Dartmouth codes like this one, all of it at 14%, while the zero-rated grocery basics that anchor a suburban shop are a smaller share of the total than the province-wide averages suggest. Traffic through Dartmouth Ferry Terminal shows up in the local mix as fuel, prepared food and accommodation rather than durable retail — categories where the rate is the same 14% but the separate municipal levies are not.

The 14% above is set for the whole of Nova Scotia and does not move between postal codes — B3A pays exactly what every other Nova Scotia code pays. Dartmouth is inside Halifax for tax purposes, and overnight accommodation is where Halifax parts company with the rest of Nova Scotia. The municipality levies a 3% Marketing Levy on top of HST, so a $200 room night inside B3A carries $6.00 that the identical room would not carry in a Nova Scotia municipality that never adopted one. The rate rose from 2% on 1 October 2023. The province caps the levy at 3%, so Halifax now charges the most Nova Scotia allows anyone to charge.

Everything above is particular to B3A; the rules that are not — registration thresholds, filing frequency, input tax credit recovery, point-of-sale rebates — are set for the whole of Nova Scotia, and they live on the Nova Scotia sales tax guide rather than being restated on B3A's page, where the calculator above is already locked to 14%.

Working the 14% on a Purchase in B3A

FSA B3A Tax Breakdown and Calculation Example

For FSA B3A in the Dartmouth area, the sales tax rate is 14%. Here is how tax is calculated on typical purchase amounts:

Selling into B3A: What You Need to Register For

Nova Scotia runs a HST system administered by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), with a registration threshold of $30,000 (HST). Filing frequency, input tax credit recovery, point-of-sale rebates and the full registration walkthrough are set out on the Nova Scotia sales tax guide — they are province-wide rules, identical for every postal code here, so this page links them rather than repeating them.

1. Charge the rate the address decides. A delivery into B3A is a Nova Scotia sale, so charge 14% HST — your own address does not enter into it.
2. Show it the way Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) expects. One HST line and the total tax amount on each invoice.

Everything else about selling here — thresholds, filing frequency, ITC recovery, point-of-sale rebates, and the full province-by-province sourcing rules — is identical for every postal code in Nova Scotia and is set out once on the Nova Scotia sales tax guide and in the Nova Scotia GST/HST calculator.

Postal Codes Near B3A

All 14%, like B3A — what differs is the ground each one covers, and with it the municipal levies on lodging and prepared food worth checking before you invoice.

All Nova Scotia FSAs →FSA Lookup Tool →