HST in New Brunswick
One rate at home, three different ones next door
New Brunswick borders Quebec, Nova Scotia and Maine, and no two of those are invoiced the same way. The rate here is simple. Knowing when it stops applying is the useful part.
15%
New Brunswick
Rates checked against the Canada Revenue Agency in August 2026. See the CRA rate page
New Brunswick charges 15% HST. It is a single harmonized rate covering the federal and provincial share together, so there is no second tax to add and no split to make between labour and materials. The rate has been at this level since 2016, and it no longer matches the rate in Nova Scotia next door.
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 harmonized rate saves you doing
HST in New Brunswick is one harmonized sales tax at 15%, replacing what would otherwise be a federal tax and a provincial one. You show a single tax line. The federal and provincial portions are never separated on a customer's invoice.
Harmonized means the two taxes were merged into one and the CRA collects it all. For a contractor that removes an entire category of decision. There is no counter where you absorb a provincial tax on materials, and no line to explain.
The saving is real and it is also local. It applies inside this province and stops at its edges, which for a province with three borders is worth keeping in mind.
- 01A second registration with a provincial office
- 02Deciding whether labour is taxable separately
- 03Two tax lines for a customer to query
- 04A materials rule that changes who pays
What happens to the invoice at each edge
A New Brunswick contractor can work in three tax jurisdictions in one week without leaving the region.
- One harmonized rate
- One tax line on the invoice
- One registration through the CRA
- The rate you quoted is the rate you bill
- Nova Scotia: harmonized, but a lower rate
- Quebec: two taxes and a second registration
- PEI: harmonized, and the same rate as here
- Each decided by where the work happened
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.
Is it worth signing up before the threshold?
You are not required to charge anything until your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters. Below that the CRA treats you as a small supplier.
Most trades that intend to keep going register early anyway. The reason is that once you are in, the tax you paid on your saw, your ladder rack, your materials and your fuel comes back as an input tax credit. In a year where you are buying rather than coasting, that is worth more than the hour of filing.
Against that, registration is not something you drift out of. Every invoice carries tax afterwards and every period carries a return. It is a decision, so make it as one rather than crossing the line unnoticed.
What belongs on the invoice
The rate you used
Written plainly, so the customer is not reverse-engineering it from the total.
The tax amount
On its own line, or a clear statement that the total already includes it.
Your business number
Required once you are registered, and needed by any customer claiming the tax back.
One combined figure
Where a harmonized tax applies you show the single rate, never a federal half and a provincial half.
- 01
The rate you used
Written plainly, so the customer is not reverse-engineering it from the total.
- 02
The tax amount
On its own line, or a clear statement that the total already includes it.
- 03
Your business number
Required once you are registered, and needed by any customer claiming the tax back.
- 04
One combined figure
Where a harmonized tax applies you show the single rate, never a federal half and a provincial half.
Working somewhere else this month?
The rate follows the job. If the work crosses a border, so does the number you charge.
New Brunswick HST, answered
New Brunswick charges 15% HST. The one rate covers both the federal and the provincial share, so nothing else goes on top. It applies to your labour and your materials on the same footing.
Not any more. Nova Scotia cut its provincial share on 1 April 2025 and now sits below New Brunswick. For years the two matched, so a rate carried in your head from before that date is now wrong for one of them.
No. New Brunswick is a harmonized province, which means the provincial part is already inside the single rate. There is nothing separate to calculate and nothing extra to show.
Quebec's, and that means two taxes rather than one. The federal rate there is lower, but a separate provincial tax sits alongside it with its own registration. Crossing that border is more than a change of number.
Once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters. You can register before that if you want to, and many trades do so they can claim back the tax paid on tools, materials and fuel.
Generally yes. Anything you bill as part of a taxable supply is usually taxable too, so a call-out fee or a mileage charge on a taxable job carries the same rate as the work.
Because there is only one rate here. Work in Nova Scotia or Quebec and the number changes, and that is exactly the job where nobody stops to look it up. StrikeHoney applies the rate for where the work was, and keeps the tax report.
What to remember
New Brunswick itself is easy. One rate, one line, no provincial tax to work out alongside it. What makes this province worth reading about is its neighbours, because every border it has leads somewhere that invoices differently. If your work travels at all, the rate is the thing to check per job rather than per year.
Take the next job over the border with the right number
Take 90 days on us as one of the Founding 30, and send the invoice before you have driven home.