GST in Manitoba
It is called RST here, and the name is the smallest difference
Manitoba runs a retail sales tax alongside the federal one. What matters is not what it is called but when a contractor is the retailer and when they are the customer.
5% + 7%
Manitoba
Rates checked against the Canada Revenue Agency in August 2026. See the CRA rate page
Manitoba charges 5% GST plus 7% retail sales tax, or RST. Both apply to the price before tax and neither is charged on the other. On work that improves a building the contractor is usually treated as the buyer of the materials, so the provincial tax is paid at purchase rather than billed on.
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 RST first and then take 5% of the bigger number.
| Job amount before tax | $1,000.00 | |
| GST on the job amount | 5% | $50.00 |
| RST on the same amount | 7% | $70.00 |
| Total to invoice | $1,120.00 |
Whether the RST 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. RST: Manitoba.
Which side of the counter are you on?
GST in Manitoba is the 5% federal tax. Alongside it the province charges retail sales tax at 7%, which does the same job a PST does elsewhere under a different name. Manitoba administers it directly, so it comes with its own registration.
That is the whole of it. A retail sales tax is charged by whoever is making the retail sale, and the province decides whether a contractor fixing a roof counts as one.
Generally, on work that improves a building, you do not. You are the end buyer of the shingles, you pay the tax when you buy them, and the customer sees only the federal tax on the invoice. Sell goods without installing them and the picture reverses.
Where exactly the line sits depends on the contract and the trade, and Manitoba publishes guidance on it. Worth ten minutes before a job that matters.
- 01Improving a building, or selling goods?
- 02Do you pay the provincial tax at purchase?
- 03Or do you collect it on the invoice?
- 04Does a subcontractor change the answer?
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.
The CRA's own example, and why it is worth knowing
Manitoba shows up in the CRA's standard illustration of the place of supply rule. Here is what it turns on.
- The sale happens in Manitoba
- Manitoba treatment applies
- Federal tax plus the provincial one
- Your usual paperwork
- The sale happens in Nova Scotia
- Nova Scotia's HST applies instead
- One combined rate, no provincial tax
- A different number on the same product
Two offices, two thresholds, no shortcut
The federal registration is the familiar one. Cross $30,000 in taxable sales over four straight calendar quarters and it stops being optional. Under it, most trades still sign up so they can claim back the tax on tools and materials.
The provincial registration is separate, and it is a provincial matter with provincial rules. Having one does not give you the other and the CRA will not tell you about it.
If you are just starting out here, do both at the same time. It is a slow afternoon once, against the alternative of finding out two years in that half the paperwork was never opened.
What to settle before the first Manitoba invoice
Decide what you are supplying
Work on a building, or goods on their own. That answer sets who owes the provincial tax.
Check where the sale happens
Delivery moves the place of supply. A collected order and a delivered one are not the same job for tax.
Both taxes off one base
The pre-tax amount, every time. Never the running total with the federal tax already in it.
Keep the counter receipts
Provincial tax you paid on stock is a cost to price in. Federal tax on the same stock is money back.
- 01
Decide what you are supplying
Work on a building, or goods on their own. That answer sets who owes the provincial tax.
- 02
Check where the sale happens
Delivery moves the place of supply. A collected order and a delivered one are not the same job for tax.
- 03
Both taxes off one base
The pre-tax amount, every time. Never the running total with the federal tax already in it.
- 04
Keep the counter receipts
Provincial tax you paid on stock is a cost to price in. Federal tax on the same stock is money back.
Working somewhere else this month?
The rate follows the job. If the work crosses a border, so does the number you charge.
Manitoba sales tax, answered
Manitoba charges 5% GST. The province adds retail sales tax at 7% on top, as a separate tax with its own registration. Both are worked out on the amount before any tax is added.
Mostly the name. Manitoba calls its provincial sales tax a retail sales tax, and it does the same job as the PST in British Columbia or Saskatchewan. The rules and the rates differ province by province, so the label is the least important part.
Often not on the labour. Where the work improves a building the province generally treats the contractor as the buyer of the materials, so the tax is paid at the counter rather than billed to the customer. Check the province's rules for your trade before a large job.
No. Both taxes apply to the same pre-tax figure. Running the second one on a total that already carries the first overcharges the customer, and it is easy to do by accident on a phone calculator.
They are separate. The federal registration goes through the CRA once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters. The provincial one goes through Manitoba on the province's own terms.
Ontario's, if you deliver it there. The place of supply decides, and the CRA's own example is a Winnipeg shop selling to a Halifax customer. If the customer collects it in Winnipeg instead, Manitoba's treatment applies.
Because two taxes and a delivery address is three things to hold in your head at the end of a job. StrikeHoney applies the rate for where the work happened, carries it from quote to invoice, and keeps the tax report for filing.
What to remember
Manitoba is the quietest of the four provinces that kept their own sales tax, and the one people research least. Two taxes on one pre-tax base, and a materials rule that decides whether the second one is your cost or your customer's. Settle that question for the kind of work you do and the rest of Manitoba invoicing looks after itself.
Set the Manitoba rates once
Come in as one of the Founding 30 for 90 days free, and quote on site with both taxes already applied.