British Columbia is one of the provinces in Canada that charges separate 7% Provincial Sales Tax (PST) and 5% federal Goods and Services Tax (GST). Most goods and services are charged both taxes, with a number of exceptions.
There are categories of goods and services that are not charged PST. These rebates and exemptions are separate from the ones granted on a national level.
These categories include:
Many more goods and services are also exempt from the PST. You can find a comprehensive list on the government of British Columbia’s website.
Registered First Nations are exempt from the 7% PST for goods and services purchased on First Nations lands. See the BC Provincial Sales Tax Bulletin for more details.
Use our simple BC income tax calculatorThere are two types of exemptions for GST: direct exemptions and zero-rated goods and services. The difference is related to how businesses handle costs related to the exemptions, but as a consumer, you would not have to pay GST on items from either category.
Goods and services that are zero-rated from GST include:
Goods and services that are directly exempt from GST include:
Sales taxes make up a significant portion of BC’s budget. Revenues from sales taxes such as the PST are estimated to total $10.187 billion, or 22.5% of all of BC’s taxation revenue, during the 2023 fiscal year. This is greater than the revenue from BC’s corporate income tax and property tax combined.
Sales taxes also contribute to the Canadian government’s budget. As per Statistics Canada’s data, the 5% Goods and Services Tax brought approximately $54.4 billion in tax revenue during the 2023 fiscal year. This amounts to 11.9% of total revenue at the federal level.