Non-Resident GST/HST Registration Checker for Digital Services
Selling software, apps or digital content to Canadians from outside Canada. Find out whether you have to register, which of the two regimes applies, the date you crossed the threshold, the rate to charge in each province, and what an unregistered back period is costing you.
registration required
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The Threshold Test
| Item | Basis | Amount |
|---|
Which Regime Applies to You
| Factor | Your Position | Effect |
|---|
Simplified Against Normal Registration
| Factor | Simplified | Normal |
|---|
Rate by Customer Province, on Your Consumer Sales
| Province or Territory | Rate | Tax on Your Consumer Sales |
|---|
Points That Change the Answer
What to Do Next
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Disclaimer: This checker applies the cross-border digital products and services rules in subdivision E of Division II of the Excise Tax Act, the CAD $30,000 threshold measured over any twelve month period on supplies to specified Canadian recipients, the fulfilment warehouse rules that require normal registration, and the distribution platform operator rules under which the platform accounts for the tax on its own sales. Back tax is illustrated at the Ontario rate of 13% and the true figure depends on where your customers live. Whether you carry on business in Canada is a question of fact determined on the CRA’s factors, and it affects both registration and your income tax position. Nova Scotia reduced its rate to 14% on 1 April 2025. This page is general information, not tax advice.
Since 2021, Selling Digital Products to Canadians Can Make You a Canadian Tax Collector
Before July 2021 a foreign software company with no presence in Canada generally had no GST/HST obligation. Canadian consumers were meant to self-assess and almost never did. The digital economy measures moved the obligation onto the vendor.
If you supply digital products or services to Canadian consumers and your sales to them exceed CAD $30,000 over any twelve month period, you have to register, charge tax at the rate of the customer’s province, and remit it quarterly. You do not need an office, staff or a single asset in Canada.
Three Sets of Rules, Not One
| Situation | Who Registers | Which Regime |
|---|---|---|
| Digital products or services sold direct to Canadian consumers | You | Simplified |
| Sales through a specified distribution platform | The platform operator | Its own registration |
| Goods held in a Canadian fulfilment warehouse | You, or the platform operator | Normal |
| You carry on business in Canada | You | Normal |
| Sales only to registered Canadian businesses | Generally nobody | The customer self-assesses |
The Threshold Only Counts Consumers
This is the point most vendors get wrong in both directions. The CAD $30,000 threshold measures supplies to specified Canadian recipients, meaning Canadian customers who are not registered for GST/HST. A Canadian business that gives you its registration number is taken out of the calculation entirely, and you do not charge it tax under the simplified regime.
A business-to-business software company selling only to registered Canadian corporations may have millions of dollars of Canadian revenue and no registration obligation at all. A consumer app with a few thousand Canadian subscribers may cross the threshold in a month.
That makes collecting registration numbers a commercial decision, not just a compliance one. Every customer who provides a valid number reduces your threshold count and removes the tax from that sale. Building the field into checkout, and validating it, is the cheapest compliance step available to you.
Simplified Against Normal Registration
| Factor | Simplified | Normal |
|---|---|---|
| Available to | Non-residents supplying digital products and services | Anyone, and required where you carry on business in Canada |
| Input tax credits | None at all | Full |
| Filing | Calendar quarter, simplified return | Frequency set by sales volume |
| Remittance currency | Canadian or United States dollars | Canadian dollars |
| Security deposit | Not required | May be required with no Canadian establishment |
| Business number | A simplified account only | A full business number |
| Customers can recover the tax | No | Yes |
| Sales to registered businesses | Not taxed at all | Taxed, and they recover it |
The simplified regime gives no input tax credits, and that is not always the cheaper answer. A vendor paying meaningful Canadian tax on hosting, contractors, advertising or professional fees is throwing all of it away. Where those costs are significant, registering under the normal regime, if you qualify, can leave you better off despite the extra administration and the possible security deposit.
The Fulfilment Warehouse Rule
Putting goods into a Canadian fulfilment centre changes everything. A non-resident whose goods are stored in Canada for sale is required to register under the normal regime, not the simplified one, once the threshold is met. The fulfilment business itself has to notify the CRA and keep records of the non-residents whose goods it holds, so the arrangement is visible to the CRA whether or not you register.
This catches software companies more often than they expect, because a company that also ships a hardware device, a book or branded merchandise into a Canadian warehouse has stepped out of the digital rules for everything.
Marketplaces and Platform Operators
Where a supply is made through a specified distribution platform, the platform operator is deemed to be the supplier and is responsible for charging and remitting the tax. The underlying vendor is not.
Two practical points follow. First, only your direct sales count toward your own threshold, so a vendor selling mostly through a marketplace may be well under it. Second, get written confirmation from the platform that it is registered and accounting for the tax, because the deeming rule only helps you where it genuinely applies.
Which Rate to Charge
The rate follows the usual place of residence of the customer, not where you are. You need at least two non-contradictory indicators to determine it, such as the billing address, the internet protocol address, the payment instrument and the telephone country code.
| Rate | Provinces and Territories |
|---|---|
| 5% | Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon |
| 13% | Ontario |
| 14% | Nova Scotia |
| 15% | New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island |
Nova Scotia reduced its rate from 15% to 14% on 1 April 2025. Systems still charging 15% there are over-collecting, and over-collected tax has to be remitted to the CRA or refunded to the customer. It cannot simply be kept.
If You Should Have Registered and Did Not
The tax you failed to charge is still owed. In practice you cannot go back to consumers months later and ask for it, so it comes out of your margin, with interest on top and penalties for the unfiled returns.
A voluntary disclosure filed before the CRA contacts you removes the penalties and most of the interest. The CRA does look: app store data, payment processor information and exchange of information with other tax authorities all point at foreign vendors with Canadian revenue.
Registering Does Not Automatically Mean an Income Tax Return
GST/HST registration and Canadian income tax are separate questions. Whether you have to file a Canadian corporate return depends on whether you carry on business in Canada and on whether a treaty protects you, and a treaty-protected corporation may still have to file a return claiming that protection.
It is worth settling both at the same time, because the facts that make you register for GST/HST frequently touch the same test.
What This Checker Does Not Cover
- Quebec sales tax, which has its own separate registration regime for non-residents
- Platform-based short-term accommodation, which has its own rules
- The detailed carrying on business test, which is factual and needs a proper review
- Digital services taxes and provincial sales taxes in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
- Customs and duty on physical goods entering Canada
- Your income tax filing position, which is a separate question
Registration takes days. The back period is what costs money. If you have been selling into Canada for a while without registering, deal with both at once rather than registering and hoping nobody looks backwards. Our GST/HST registration service covers the application, the regime choice and the disclosure where a back period exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions from foreign vendors selling into Canada.
Related Calculators and Guides
More tools for non-residents doing business in Canada.
Register and Deal With the Back Period Together
Tell us your Canadian sales, how they split between consumers and registered businesses, and when you started. We confirm which regime applies, register you, and prepare a disclosure where an unregistered period exists.