Charging Canadian sales tax from .com

[double_identity]

I am a Canadian seller who sells on .com as the majority of my sales are from the US. Now my government says I have to charge sales tax to my Canadian customers. 

I can't find a way to set this up from the .com site. Do I have to transfer my listings from .com to .ca to be able to charge sales tax to Canada? If so, how do I do this?

Until I figure this out I have stopped selling to Canada as I have so few customers from my own country anyway. 

[*eponymous*]

There are threads on the ebay.ca selling board.  Since this is very new, there may be limited knowledge about the program.

eBay does charge you when you make sales here on the dot com to Canadian buyers.

Australia is doing the same thing as your government.  I guess everyone wants their bite of the pie.

[*eponymous*]

@femmefan1946 is a Canadian seller and good poster who might be able to assist.

[double_identity]

I checked the .ca board and the last message I say with regards to charging tax was from 2016.

[double_identity]

I checked out the seller you mentioned and he does not charge tax to Canadian customers. The tax man wants his share if you sell over $30,000 Canadian yearly. Maybe he doesn't sell over that amount.

[rixstuff]

I would think that you would have always been required to charge tax to your Canadian customers but NEVER to your US customers.  The rule is that you charge taxes to the buyers in your own jurisdiction - in the US it is if both buyer and seller are in the same state.  When items cross borders, your country's customs office may or may not charge customs taxes to let the item into the country but that is on THEM to collect not you.

[double_identity]

To quote part of my first post:

I am a Canadian seller who sells on .com as the majority of my sales are from the US. Now my government says I have to charge sales tax to my Canadian customers. 

I never said anything about charging tax to my US customers and never have. 

[rixstuff]

Are sales taxes new in Canada?

[double_identity]

I wish!! Every year they add more taxes to us. We have a Prime Minister now (that women swoon over) that has spent so much money that they are having a great time figuring out more ways to tax us and are having no problems doing it.
The rule about charging Canadian customers sales tax has been the same for quite a while. It's OK if you are a small sales seller but once your business does better you have to add up to 15% more depending on the province your buyer lives in.

[femmefan1946]

Now my government says I have to charge sales tax to my Canadian customers. 

Congratulations! That means you have exceeded $30,000 annually in sales!

Go to your province's revenue department website.

Here's the one for British Columbia.

http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/rev.htm

If you are having problems call the office of your MPP/MLA. You don't need her, somebody in her office will be used to guiding new business owners.

There's probably a brochure.

Do NOT attempt to charge taxes unless you are registered.

If you collect them and don't remit them, you will be in trouble with the Revenuers.

If most of your sales are outside Canada, you may actually make money on being registered.

You will get tax credits for your exports which will offset the GST/PST/HST you pay to your suppliers including the new GST on eBay fees which is annoying (or terrifying) so many sellers these days.

But Ghu knows I'm no expert.

@pierrelebel is a retired accountant with many years experience in mail order and the tax ramifications of online selling.

Wander over to Seller Central at dotCA and ask for his help--- after you do the basics yourself.

Free advice is worth every penny you pay for it.

[femmefan1946]

Are sales taxes new in Canada?

Bwah hah hah hah hah hah!

We have had provincial taxes in most provinces and territories since at least the early 60s.

And a federal sales tax since 1991.

Totals can range from only 5% in Alberta to 15% in other jurisdictions.

And both goods and services are taxed.

On the other hand, Universal Health Care, soooooo......

[vanleon8]

Hello, did you figure out how to apply CAD tax to .com? It only gives me tax policies for US states. 

[sin-n-dex]

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@double_identity wrote:

I am a Canadian seller who sells on .com as the majority of my sales are from the US. Now my government says I have to charge sales tax to my Canadian customers. 

I can't find a way to set this up from the .com site. Do I have to transfer my listings from .com to .ca to be able to charge sales tax to Canada? If so, how do I do this?

Until I figure this out I have stopped selling to Canada as I have so few customers from my own country anyway. 

---

What province are you in? The rules vary by province. If you're in a province that is HST compliant, you only need to register if in 12 months you exceed $30,000 CAD in worldwide sales.

If you're being told you need to charge tax, I imagine you either had to register for GST/HST, or you're living somewhere that has retail sales tax (which I believe applies to all sales regardless of volume if you're a reseller). Ontario used to have Retail Sales Tax until a few years ago.

You cannot charge Canadian taxes on the .com site. As you can see from the listings, it only gives you all 50 states for sales tax. You can charge taxes on the Canadian site if they are in your listings. You can't "add taxes" as a surcharge after the sale.

What I do, since I'm registered on .com, and have some Canadian sales (but my worldwide sales are why I'm registered for HST), is calculate the sales tax as a percentage of the total sale. So if I sell an item for $11.30, then I have $10.00 for the sale and $1.30 for HST tax to be remitted. If you have very few Canadian sales, the slight reduction in your margin shouldn't make a big impact on the big picture, but I tend to increase the prices a little bit on anything that frequently sells to Canada (like Canadian coins and tokens).

Cheers, C.