Which Province's GST/HST Rate Goes on Your Invoice

The rate you charge is set by the place of supply, not by where your business sits. For goods it is the province you deliver to; for most services it is the customer address you obtained in the ordinary course of business - not where the work was done.

The 60-second version

The rate on your invoice is set by the place of supply - where the sale is treated as being made - not by where your business is located [7].
For goods sold outright, the place of supply is the province where you deliver them or make them available to the customer. Shipping by mail or courier deems delivery at the destination address [3].
For most services, the place of supply is the province of the customer's home or business address that you obtain in the ordinary course of business - not the province where you did the work [4].
Nova Scotia has been 14%, not 15%, since April 1, 2025. A great deal of invoicing software and template guidance still says 15% [8] [10].
You collect the tax as agent of the Crown [6]. If you charge 5% where you should have charged 13%, the shortfall is still yours to account for - the customer is not the one CRA looks to.

Your own address is not the answer

The single most common invoicing error in Canada is a business in a non-participating province - Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec or the three territories - charging 5% GST on everything it sells, because 5% is what it charges at home.

That is not how the Act works. Section 165 imposes GST at 5% on every taxable supply made in Canada, and then adds a second layer: every recipient of a taxable supply made in a participating province pays, in addition, tax at the tax rate for that province [1]. The participating provinces are Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia - the HST provinces.

Section 144.1 then supplies the definition that does the real work:

For the purposes of this Part, a supply is deemed to be made in a province if it is made in Canada and is, under the rules set out in Schedule IX, made in the province, but is deemed to be made outside the province in any other case and a supply made in Canada that is not made in any participating province is deemed to be made in a non-participating province [2].

Nothing in that sentence refers to the supplier. The question is never "where am I?" It is "under Schedule IX and its regulations, in which province was this supply made?" Your address is relevant only when it happens to be the answer to that question.

CRA states the same thing in one line on its own guidance page: the rate of tax to charge depends on the place of supply, which is where you make your sale, lease or other supply [7].

Goods: the province where you deliver them

For tangible personal property sold outright, Part II of Schedule IX is short and unusually clear. A supply by way of sale of tangible personal property is made in a province if the supplier delivers the property or makes it available in the province to the recipient of the supply [3].

The follow-on provision is the one that catches people. Property is deemed to be delivered in a particular province, and deemed not to be delivered in any other province, where the supplier ships it to a destination in that province specified in the contract for carriage, transfers possession to a common carrier or consignee retained on the recipient's behalf to ship it to such a destination, or sends the property by mail or courier to an address in that province [3].

So a Vancouver furniture store that ships a mattress to a customer in Toronto charges 13% HST, not 5% GST plus BC PST. CRA uses very nearly that example on its own page [7].

Flip the same transaction and the answer flips with it. If the customer drives to Winnipeg and picks up the laptop at the counter, the property was made available to them in Manitoba, and the supplier charges 5% GST plus whatever provincial retail sales tax Manitoba imposes - which is not GST/HST at all and does not go on your GST/HST return [7].

The practical consequence for anyone issuing invoices: the shipping address is a tax input, not just a logistics field. If your invoicing system lets a user change the ship-to province without recalculating tax, that is a defect.

Services: the address you obtained, not the work you did

Services are where most professional firms get it wrong, because the intuitive answer - "the province where I performed the work" - is the fallback rule, not the main one.

Section 13 of the New Harmonized Value-added Tax System Regulations sets the general rule:

Subject to sections 14 to 17, a supply of a service is made in a province if, in the ordinary course of business of the supplier, the supplier obtains an address in the province that is (a) if the supplier obtains only one address that is a home or a business address in Canada of the recipient, the home or business address in Canada obtained by the supplier; (b) if the supplier obtains more than one address described in paragraph (a), the address described in that paragraph that is most closely connected with the supply; or (c) in any other case, the address in Canada of the recipient that is most closely connected with the supply [4].

Read the conditions in order, because they are a cascade, not a menu.

One Canadian home or business address obtained in the ordinary course of business. That province wins. Full stop.
More than one such address. Use the one most closely connected with the supply.
Neither. Use whatever Canadian address of the recipient is most closely connected with the supply.

Only if you obtain no address at all does subsection 13(2) send you to where the Canadian element of the service was actually performed [4]. In ordinary commercial practice you almost always have an address, because you had to invoice somebody. That makes the fallback rare.

A consultant in Moncton doing work for a client headquartered in Calgary, with a Calgary business address on file and nothing else, is making a supply in Alberta: 5% GST. The same consultant serving a client whose business address is in Halifax charges 14%, wherever the consultant was sitting when the work got done.

The phrase "in the ordinary course of business" is doing quiet work here. It means an address you genuinely obtained through your normal dealings - the one on the engagement letter, the account record, the billing profile. It is not an invitation to select whichever of the customer's offices carries the lowest rate.

Two exceptions worth knowing

Sections 14 to 17 of the Regulations displace the address rule for certain supplies. The two that matter most to small businesses:

Services in relation to real property follow the property, not the address. A supply of a service in relation to real property is made in a participating province if the real property situated in Canada is situated primarily in participating provinces, subject to tie-breaking rules where it straddles more than one [5]. A contractor, property manager, inspector or stager billing an out-of-province owner charges the rate for the province where the building is.

Rentals and leases are not governed by the sale rule. Where continuous possession or use is provided for three months or less, the place of supply is where the property is delivered or made available, as with a sale. For longer arrangements, it is the ordinary location of the property, with a special rule registering specified motor vehicles under the law of the province [3].

Nova Scotia is 14%, and your template probably says 15%

On April 1, 2025, Nova Scotia reduced the provincial portion of the HST to 9%, producing a combined rate of 14% [7] [10]. Every province's current rate, per CRA's own table [8]:

5% GST: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon
13% HST: Ontario
14% HST: Nova Scotia
15% HST: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island

If you have hard-coded rates anywhere - a spreadsheet, an invoice template, a tax table in an accounting file - Nova Scotia is the entry to check today. Transitional rules govern supplies that straddle the April 1, 2025 change date; CRA published Notice 342 for personal property and services, and a companion notice for housing and real property [10].

Quebec is a separate system, not a fifth HST province

A supply made in Quebec attracts 5% GST. QST at 9.975% is a provincial tax administered under Quebec law, not part of the HST, and it is not imposed by section 165 [8]. It has its own registration thresholds and its own return.

The invoicing consequence is that a Quebec sale shows two separate tax lines with two separate registration numbers, and the QST does not belong on your GST/HST return. Treating Quebec as "just another 14.975% province" is how businesses end up with a GST/HST filing that does not reconcile.

Why undercharging is your problem, not the customer's

Section 221 puts it plainly: every person who makes a taxable supply shall, as agent of Her Majesty in right of Canada, collect the tax payable by the recipient [6].

You are not a party negotiating a price that happens to include tax. You are a collection agent, and the amount you were required to collect is measured by the correct place of supply, whatever you actually put on the invoice. Charge 5% on a supply made in Ontario and the 8% you did not collect does not disappear; it remains an amount you were obliged to collect and account for.

Section 224 gives you a civil remedy, but a conditional one. A supplier who was required to collect tax, has complied with subsection 223(1), and has accounted for or remitted the tax without collecting it, may sue the recipient to recover it as a debt [11]. Subsection 223(1) is the disclosure requirement - the obligation to tell the recipient the tax payable or that the price includes it. Fail that and you have arguably lost the remedy. And even where it is available, it is a lawsuit against a customer, which tells you how much better it is to get the rate right on the invoice.

Overcharging is not a safe default either. Tax you charge and collect is tax you must account for, so collecting 15% where 13% applied does not leave you with a 2% cushion - it leaves you having overcharged a customer who may well notice.

What to actually record

Place of supply is a documentation problem before it is a tax problem. For each customer, keep the address you obtained in the ordinary course of business, and keep it distinct from the shipping address, because for goods and services those two fields answer different questions.

A workable minimum:

Bill-to address, captured at onboarding, dated, and never silently overwritten - when a customer moves, keep both records.
Ship-to address per transaction, for anything physical.
The province you determined and which rule got you there, stored with the invoice rather than recomputed later from whatever the customer record says today.
Property address on any invoice for work on real property.

The last point is the one people skip and later regret. If your system derives the tax rate live from the current customer record, then a customer relocating from Halifax to Calgary silently changes the apparent tax treatment of invoices you issued two years ago. Store the determination with the document.

One note on sources

If your accountant or your software vendor points you at CRA Technical Information Bulletin B-103 on place of supply, that publication has been cancelled. It was replaced by GST/HST Memorandum 3-3-2, Place of Supply in a Province - Overview, which is the current CRA guidance [9]. B-103 is still widely linked, so it is worth checking which one you are reading.

Frequently asked questions

Do I charge GST/HST based on my province or my customer's province?

Neither, exactly. You charge based on the place of supply, which is determined under Schedule IX to the Excise Tax Act and the New Harmonized Value-added Tax System Regulations. For goods sold outright it is the province where you deliver them or make them available. For most services it is the province of the customer's home or business address that you obtain in the ordinary course of business. Your own location is relevant only when it happens to also be the place of supply.

I am in Alberta and my client is in Ontario. Do I charge 5% or 13%?

For a service, if the Ontario business address is the address you obtained in the ordinary course of business, the supply is made in Ontario and you charge 13% HST. Being registered and located in Alberta does not make it a 5% supply. For goods shipped to Ontario, the deemed-delivery rule reaches the same result.

What is the HST rate in Nova Scotia now?

14%. Nova Scotia reduced the provincial portion of the HST to 9% effective April 1, 2025, giving a combined rate of 14% rather than the former 15%. Transitional rules apply to supplies straddling that date, covered in CRA Notice 342 for personal property and services.

Which address do I use if my customer has offices in several provinces?

Section 13(1)(b) of the Regulations says that where you obtain more than one Canadian home or business address of the recipient, you use the one most closely connected with the supply. That is a factual test about the engagement, not a free choice - use the office that actually contracted for and received the work.

Does the province where I performed the work matter?

Only as a fallback. Subsection 13(2) sends you to where the Canadian element of the service was performed, but it applies only where subsection 13(1) does not - that is, where you obtained no Canadian address of the recipient at all. In ordinary commercial practice you have a billing address, so the address rule governs.

What happens if I charged the wrong rate?

Under section 221 you collect tax as agent of the Crown, so an amount you were required to collect remains an amount you must account for even if you did not invoice it. Section 224 lets a supplier who has remitted uncollected tax sue the recipient to recover it, but only where subsection 223(1) - the obligation to disclose the tax to the recipient - was complied with. Correcting the invoice and speaking to your accountant is far cheaper than either outcome, and the correction should be made for the reporting period involved rather than quietly absorbed.

Sources cited in this article

Excise Tax Act, section 165
Imposes GST at 5% on taxable supplies made in Canada, plus the participating province tax rate on supplies made in a participating province.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-15/section-165.html
Excise Tax Act, section 144.1
A supply is deemed made in a province if, under the rules in Schedule IX, it is made in that province; otherwise it is made in a non-participating province.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-15/section-144.1.html
Excise Tax Act, Schedule IX (consolidated text)
Part II, Tangible Personal Property: delivery or making available in the province governs sales, and shipping by carrier, mail or courier deems delivery at the destination. Act current to 2026-06-21.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/FullText.html
New Harmonized Value-added Tax System Regulations, section 13
The general place-of-supply rule for services: the home or business address in Canada of the recipient obtained by the supplier in the ordinary course of business, with a most-closely-connected tie-breaker.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2010-117/section-13.html
New Harmonized Value-added Tax System Regulations (full text)
Part 1, Place of Supply. Division 3 covers services, including section 14 for services in relation to real property and sections 15 to 17 for the remaining exceptions.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2010-117/FullText.html
Excise Tax Act, section 221
Every person who makes a taxable supply shall, as agent of Her Majesty in right of Canada, collect the tax payable by the recipient.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-15/section-221.html
CRA - Charge and collect the GST/HST: which rate to charge
CRA's plain-language statement that the rate depends on the place of supply, with worked delivery and pickup examples and the Nova Scotia transitional links.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/charge-collect-which-rate.html
CRA - GST/HST calculator and current rates by province
CRA's current rate table: 5% GST provinces and territories, Ontario at 13%, Nova Scotia at 14%, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island at 15%, Quebec QST at 9.975%.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/charge-collect-which-rate/calculator.html
CRA - GST/HST Memorandum 3-3-2, Place of Supply in a Province - Overview
Current CRA guidance on place of supply. It replaced Technical Information Bulletin B-103, which has been cancelled. Last updated 2026-04-09.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/3-3-2.html
CRA - GST/HST Notice 342, Nova Scotia HST Rate Decrease
General transitional rules for personal property and services on the April 1, 2025 reduction of the Nova Scotia HST rate to 14%.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/notice342.html
Excise Tax Act, section 224
Right of a supplier to sue the recipient for tax remitted but not collected, conditional on having complied with the subsection 223(1) disclosure requirement.
https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e-15/section-224.html

All sources verified August 24, 2026. Spotted a link that has moved? Email support@mapleinvoice.com and we will correct it.