GST in British Columbia
Two taxes, and only one of them belongs on your invoice
BC is where contractors most often get the paperwork wrong, because the second tax usually gets paid at the supply counter instead of charged to the customer.
5% + 7%
British Columbia
Rates checked against the Canada Revenue Agency in August 2026. See the CRA rate page
British Columbia charges 5% GST plus 7% PST, and both come off the price before tax rather than stacking on each other. On work that improves a building, a contractor is normally treated as the buyer of the materials, so the PST is paid at purchase instead of appearing on the customer invoice.
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 a thousand dollar job actually invoices at
Both taxes come off the price before tax. You never work out the PST first and then take 5% of the bigger number.
| Job amount before tax | $1,000.00 | |
| GST on the job amount | 5% | $50.00 |
| PST on the same amount | 7% | $70.00 |
| Total to invoice | $1,120.00 |
Whether the PST lands on your labour or only on your materials depends on the trade and the job, so check with the province. Both calculators make it optional for that reason.
Rates checked against the Canada Revenue Agency in August 2026. Federal rate: Canada Revenue Agency. PST: British Columbia.
Who actually pays the provincial tax on a renovation?
GST in British Columbia is the 5% federal tax, charged alongside a separate 7% provincial sales tax that the province administers itself. BC never harmonised the two, so they stay two taxes with two sets of rules. Which of them reaches your invoice depends on what you are selling.
That distinction is the whole game in BC. On a renovation, a deck or a re-pipe, the province generally treats you as the buyer of the materials rather than a reseller of them. You pay the provincial tax at the counter, price it into the job, and it never shows up as a line the customer sees.
Sell a customer an appliance and walk away, and the picture flips: now you are selling goods, and the tax goes on the invoice.
Where the line falls depends on the trade and the contract, and the province publishes bulletins on exactly this. Read the one for your trade before a big job rather than after it.
- 01Work that improves a building: you pay at the supply counter
- 02Goods sold on their own: the customer pays on your invoice
- 03Federal tax: always on your invoice, either way
- 04Materials brought in from Alberta: still owed here
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 changes when you install what you sell
Two jobs, one supplier, one invoice book. The tax treatment is not the same.
- Work improves the building
- You pay the provincial tax on the parts
- The customer sees one federal tax line
- The tax is inside your priced materials
- You are selling goods, not improving a building
- The provincial tax goes on the invoice
- The customer sees two tax lines
- You are collecting it, not absorbing it
Do you need one registration or two?
Two, and they are nothing to do with each other. The federal one runs through the CRA and kicks in once your taxable sales cross $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters. The provincial one runs through BC, on the province's own terms.
Plenty of one-truck outfits register federally early on purpose. Every drill, every length of pipe and every tank of diesel carries tax you can claim back once you are in, and in a year where you buy a trailer that adds up faster than the extra paperwork costs.
Do not assume one registration covers the other. They arrive separately, they file separately, and missing the provincial one is the kind of thing that surfaces two years later with interest attached.
Before you send a BC invoice
Decide what you sold
Work on a building, or goods on their own? That answer sets whether the provincial tax is yours to pay or theirs.
Work both taxes off the pre-tax amount
Never the running total. Tax on tax is the mistake that shows up when a customer checks your arithmetic.
Show the federal tax clearly
Its own line, or a plain note that the total includes it. The customer should not have to work backwards.
Keep the supplier receipts
The provincial tax you paid on materials is part of your cost, and the federal tax on them is money you claim back.
- 01
Decide what you sold
Work on a building, or goods on their own? That answer sets whether the provincial tax is yours to pay or theirs.
- 02
Work both taxes off the pre-tax amount
Never the running total. Tax on tax is the mistake that shows up when a customer checks your arithmetic.
- 03
Show the federal tax clearly
Its own line, or a plain note that the total includes it. The customer should not have to work backwards.
- 04
Keep the supplier receipts
The provincial tax you paid on materials is part of your cost, and the federal tax on them is money you claim back.
Working somewhere else this month?
The rate follows the job. If the work crosses a border, so does the number you charge.
BC sales tax, answered
British Columbia charges 5% GST. On top of that the province runs its own 7% PST, which is a separate tax with separate rules. The two are worked out on the same pre-tax amount, so you never charge one on top of the other.
Usually not, where the work improves a building. The province generally treats the contractor as the end buyer of the materials, so the tax is paid when you buy them rather than charged on your invoice. It depends on the job, so check the province's own bulletin before you price a big one.
No. Both taxes apply to the price before tax. Working out the provincial tax first and then taking the federal share of the larger figure overcharges the customer, and it is the single most common mistake on a BC invoice.
Once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters. PST registration is separate and runs through the province, with its own threshold and its own form.
The job is in BC, so BC rules follow the work. Buying somewhere with no provincial sales tax does not remove the provincial obligation on materials brought in and used here. The province expects the tax either way.
No. The rate belongs to the place the work happens, so an Alberta job carries the Alberta treatment. That means the federal tax only, with no provincial sales tax to think about.
Because BC has two taxes and a spreadsheet has no opinion about which one belongs on the invoice. StrikeHoney applies the rate for the province the work is in and keeps the tax report, so the decision happens once in settings instead of on every job.
What to remember
In BC the federal tax is the easy half and the provincial one is where the money goes missing. Improve a building and you are usually the end buyer of the materials, so you pay that tax up front and price it into the job. Sell goods on their own and you charge it. If you have been adding it to labour on renovation invoices, that is worth a look at your last few jobs.
Price the next BC job with the tax already in
Take 90 days on us as one of the Founding 30, and price the next renovation without a calculator on the dash.