GST in Alberta
The shortest tax line in the country
Alberta is the only province with no sales tax of its own. That makes the invoice easy and it makes the border expensive, because nothing about your habits transfers.
Alberta charges 5% GST and nothing else. It is the only province with no provincial sales tax, so there is one federal tax, one line, and no second rate to look up. The moment a job is in another province, though, that province's rules apply, and most of them are not this simple.
Rates on this page are read from the same table our GST/HST calculator uses, checked against the Canada Revenue Agency. It is a rate page, not tax advice.
What one tax actually saves you
GST in Alberta is the 5% federal goods and services tax, charged on its own. Alberta has never brought in a provincial sales tax, so nothing is harmonized and nothing is added alongside. The rate here is the federal rate, full stop.
Every one of those is real work in another province. In British Columbia the treatment of materials on a renovation is genuinely tricky. In Quebec there is a second registration and a second return. Here there is a rate and an invoice.
Worth knowing what you are not doing, because the habits you build here are the ones you will take across a border. None of them survive the trip.
- 01Work out whether a line is labour or materials
- 02Register with a provincial tax office
- 03Decide who pays the tax on the materials
- 04Explain two tax lines to a customer
- 05Check whether a rate changed this year
Four questions that decide the rate you charge
Run these in order before you write the number on a quote. Most rate mistakes are a wrong answer to the first one.
- 01
Where was the work actually done?
The place of supply sets the rate, not where your business is registered.
- 02
Goods, or work on a building?
Delivered goods and work on real property follow different rules.
- 03
Are you registered yet?
Under the small-supplier threshold you do not charge GST or HST at all.
- 04
Does a separate provincial tax apply?
Four provinces charge one alongside the 5% GST, on the same pre-tax amount.
What an Alberta outfit runs into in Kelowna
Same crew, same tools, same customer expectations. Different tax entirely.
- One federal tax on the invoice
- One registration, one return
- Materials are just a cost
- No provincial office to deal with
- A second tax with its own rules
- Possibly a second registration
- Materials may carry tax you absorb
- A provincial office with its own deadlines
Is registering worth it before you have to?
The threshold is $30,000 in taxable sales over four straight calendar quarters, and under it registering is your call.
The argument for going early is input tax credits. Once registered you claim back the federal tax you paid on everything the business buys: the mitre saw, the ladder rack, the diesel, the materials that go into a job. In a year where you kit out a van, that is a meaningful number rather than a rounding one.
The argument against is that it is a commitment. Every invoice carries tax from then on, and every period carries a return. Neither is hard, but both are forever, so it is worth deciding rather than drifting into it.
Alberta invoicing, start to finish
Price the work
Labour and materials on the same footing. Nothing here needs splitting out for tax reasons.
Add the one tax
The federal rate on the taxable total. There is no second number and no second calculation.
Show it plainly
Its own line, or a clear note that the total includes it, plus your business number once you are registered.
Keep the purchase receipts
The tax you paid on tools and materials is money back once you are registered. No receipt, no claim.
- 01
Price the work
Labour and materials on the same footing. Nothing here needs splitting out for tax reasons.
- 02
Add the one tax
The federal rate on the taxable total. There is no second number and no second calculation.
- 03
Show it plainly
Its own line, or a clear note that the total includes it, plus your business number once you are registered.
- 04
Keep the purchase receipts
The tax you paid on tools and materials is money back once you are registered. No receipt, no claim.
Working somewhere else this month?
The rate follows the job. If the work crosses a border, so does the number you charge.
Alberta GST, answered
Alberta charges 5% GST. There is no provincial sales tax on top, so that single federal rate is the whole tax on a normal job. It applies to your labour and your materials alike.
None. Alberta is the only province without a sales tax of its own, and it has never had one. Some municipalities levy other charges on things like accommodation, but nothing that lands on a contractor's invoice for work on a building.
Once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters. Below that it is optional. Many trades sign up early anyway so they can claim back the tax paid on tools, materials and fuel.
British Columbia's treatment, because the rate follows the work rather than your address. That means the federal tax plus a separate provincial tax with its own rules about who pays it. Read those rules before you price the job, not after.
Sometimes. Your federal registration travels with you, but a province running its own sales tax may want you registered there too. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec each run their own, and each decides separately.
Yes. The federal tax applies to services as well as goods, so your hours are taxable in the same way your materials are. There is no split to make here, which is exactly why Alberta invoices are short.
For the week it stops being simple. StrikeHoney applies the rate for the province the job is in, so an Alberta outfit taking work in BC does not have to relearn a tax at the same time as learning a new customer. The tax report comes with it.
What to remember
Alberta is the easiest province in Canada to invoice in and the easiest to build a bad habit in. One tax, one rate, no second registration and no argument about labour versus materials. The risk is what happens the first time you take a job in BC or Saskatchewan, where the tax you have never had to think about is suddenly yours to work out.
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