British Columbia GST/PST Guide

British Columbia charges 5% federal GST plus 7% provincial PST (a retail sales tax), for a combined rate of 12%. Unlike HST provinces where the provincial component is part of a VAT and recoverable, BC's PST is a final consumption tax that businesses cannot recover. This makes PST a cost of business inputs.

British Columbia is the only province that has actually tried harmonized sales tax and voted to get rid of it — in 2011, a province-wide referendum forced Victoria to unwind the HST and return to the split GST/PST system by April 2013, and BC has run that split system ever since.

That split matters more than a rounding difference on a receipt. Combine the federal 5% GST with BC's 7% PST and a taxable sale in Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond, or Kelowna carries 12% tax — but only the 5% GST portion flows through as a recoverable input tax credit. The 7% PST is a straight cost of doing business in BC, embedded in overhead the same way rent or insurance is, and it never comes back.

This guide walks through how GST and PST actually work together for a BC business: how to register for both, when each return is due, why PST behaves so differently from GST on your books, what changes on October 1, 2026 when PST expands into professional services, and how the rules apply to digital products and out-of-province sellers. All figures below come directly from BC Ministry of Finance and CRA guidance current as of July 2026.

GST: CRA standard frequencies. PST: Monthly (>$12K PST), Quarterly ($3K–$12K), Annual (<$3K). PST returns filed via BC eTaxBC.

CRA assigns GST/HST filing frequency based on your annual taxable sales. Enter your estimated annual taxable sales below to see your required filing frequency.

BC business owners deal with two entirely separate tax administrations, and conflating them is the single most common setup mistake. GST registration runs through the Canada Revenue Agency once your worldwide taxable revenue crosses $30,000 CAD over four consecutive calendar quarters — that threshold is federal and applies the same way in every province.

PST registration is provincial and separate. You register with the BC Ministry of Finance through the eTaxBC portal using form FIN 418, and the threshold for businesses making taxable sales into BC — including remote and out-of-province sellers — is $10,000 CAD. Once you cross it, you need a PST number before your next taxable sale, not retroactively.

In practice, most BC-based businesses register for both at once: CRA first for the GST/HST number, then eTaxBC for the PST number. A business physically located in BC that sells taxable goods or services generally needs a PST registration regardless of revenue, while the $10,000 threshold specifically governs remote sellers with no physical presence in the province.

• GST: register with CRA once revenue exceeds $30,000 over 4 consecutive quarters
• PST: register with eTaxBC using form FIN 418
• PST remote-seller threshold: $10,000 CAD in taxable sales into BC

Once registered, don't assume your GST and PST filing calendars line up — they're assigned independently and rarely match. CRA sets your GST/HST filing frequency (monthly, quarterly, or annually) based on your annual taxable revenue, and your GST return and remittance are due by the deadline shown on your CRA filing profile.

eTaxBC assigns your PST filing frequency separately, again based on the volume of tax you collect, and the PST return itself is filed on form FIN 400 through the eTaxBC portal. A business can easily end up filing GST monthly with CRA while filing PST quarterly with the province — two different logins, two different due dates, two different sets of records to reconcile each period.

Missing either deadline carries its own penalty and interest regime, and CRA and BC Finance don't share enforcement — falling behind on PST doesn't show up on your CRA account and vice versa. The usual habit of leaving 'sales tax' to one line item in your bookkeeping isn't a full compliance plan in BC; both filings need their own attention.

This is the part that catches businesses moving to BC from HST or PST-free provinces off guard. GST is a value-added tax — the 5% you pay on business inputs is recoverable as an input tax credit against the GST you collect from customers, so it nets out to roughly nothing over time. PST is not built that way. It's a retail sales tax charged on the final purchase, and BC's rules don't allow businesses to claim it back as a credit.

Work through an actual purchase. A Vancouver technology company buys $20,000 of computer equipment and business software for internal use. GST at 5% adds $1,000 — fully recoverable as an ITC on the next GST return, effectively a wash. PST at 7% adds $1,400 — and that $1,400 is gone. It sits on the books as part of the asset cost, never reduces a future tax remittance, and never comes back.

Multiply that across a year of equipment, software licences, and taxable services, and the PST line becomes a real number in the budget, not a rounding error. Any BC business used to operating in a harmonized province needs to rebuild its pricing and procurement math around that fact — the 7% is a cost to plan for, not a tax to pass through.

GST and PST apply different exemption logic to the same transaction, and a category exempt from one is often still taxable under the other. GST exemptions and zero-rating follow federal rules — basic groceries, most health and dental services, and residential rents, for example, are treated one way federally regardless of province.

PST exemptions are set by BC and cover their own list of goods and services under the Provincial Sales Tax Act and the small business guide published by the Ministry of Finance. A business needs to check both sets of rules for every product line it sells, because assuming GST treatment tells you nothing about PST treatment, or the reverse.

This double-checking is exactly where the October 2026 professional services expansion changes the map — services that have never carried PST are about to need a fresh look, even though their GST treatment isn't changing at all.

The single biggest change to BC's sales tax landscape in years lands on October 1, 2026. Budget 2025 announced, and BC Finance has confirmed, that PST will expand to cover accounting, architecture, engineering, geoscience, security, and non-residential real estate services from that date forward.

For firms in those sectors, this is a structural shift, not a rate tweak — engineering firms, accounting practices, architecture studios, security service providers, and commercial real estate services in BC go from charging clients GST only to charging both GST and PST on their invoices, at the full 12% combined rate. Billing systems, engagement letters, and client contracts drafted before October 2026 need to be reviewed against the new rules before that date, not after.

Clients of these firms feel it too — and because PST isn't recoverable, a BC company paying its lawyer or engineer after October 1, 2026 absorbs that 7% the same way it absorbs PST on equipment purchases. Professional service fees that used to carry only 5% federal tax will carry 12% total, with none of the increase recoverable as a credit.

BC treats software and digital products as squarely within PST's reach. Software used on a device located in BC is subject to PST regardless of where the vendor is based, and streaming services — music and video subscriptions alike — are taxable. Marketplace facilitators selling into BC are required to collect PST on digital goods on behalf of the sellers using their platform.

Out-of-province and foreign sellers aren't exempt just because they lack a BC address. The same $10,000 remote-seller threshold that applies to physical goods applies to digital sales into the province, and once a seller crosses it, they need to register through eTaxBC and start charging PST on qualifying sales — self-assessment by the BC customer is the fallback only when the seller hasn't registered.

A few other levies round out BC's sales tax picture and are worth knowing even if they don't touch every business: the Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) adds up to 3% on short-term accommodation in participating municipalities, on top of GST and PST, and passenger vehicles priced over $150,000 attract a luxury PST surcharge of 15% on the portion of the price above that threshold.

• Software used on a BC device: subject to PST
• Streaming subscriptions: taxable
• Marketplace facilitators: must collect PST on digital goods
• Remote-seller PST threshold: $10,000 CAD
• MRDT on short-term accommodation: up to 3% (participating municipalities)
• Luxury vehicle PST surcharge: 15% on the portion of price over $150,000

These official resources provide authoritative information on sales tax rules, registration, and compliance in British Columbia.