HST in Newfoundland and Labrador
The drive is part of the job, and part of the tax
Distance is the thing that makes invoicing here different. Travel, mobilisation and accommodation billed onto a job are generally taxable in the same way the work is.
15%
Newfoundland and Labrador
Rates checked against the Canada Revenue Agency in August 2026. See the CRA rate page
Newfoundland and Labrador charges 15% HST, a single harmonized rate that covers both the federal and the provincial share. There is no separate provincial tax to add. Charges you bill as part of the job, including travel time, mileage and mobilisation on a remote site, are generally taxable at the same rate as the work itself.
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.
Does the drive get taxed like the work?
HST in Newfoundland and Labrador is one harmonized sales tax at 15%, charged in place of a separate federal and provincial pair. One rate goes on the invoice and one tax line shows. It sits level with New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The instinct is to treat travel as a cost being passed on rather than something you are selling. On a taxable job that instinct is usually wrong.
Where you bill a charge as part of supplying the work, it generally takes the tax treatment of that work. Splitting it out as an untaxed line does not change what it is, and the shortfall is yours rather than the customer's when it surfaces.
For an unusual arrangement, a long remote contract with costs recharged at cost, it is worth confirming rather than assuming. For the ordinary case of a call-out two hours up the coast, put it on the invoice and tax it like everything else.
- 01Travel time you bill as labour
- 02Mileage or a fuel surcharge
- 03Mobilisation and setup charges
- 04Accommodation recharged to the customer
- 05Disposal and site clearance
Two ways to bill the same day
Same work, same distance, same customer. One of these leaves you short.
- Labour taxed, travel added underneath untaxed
- Fuel treated as a reimbursement
- Accommodation passed through at cost, no tax
- A total that does not reconcile at year end
- Every billed line part of one taxable supply
- Travel and mileage taxed with the work
- Recharged costs treated as part of the job
- One tax figure that matches the return
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 a lot of driving is actually worth once registered
The threshold is $30,000 in taxable sales over four straight calendar quarters, and under it charging tax is optional.
For a trade covering real distance, registering early tends to pay for itself faster than it does elsewhere. Every tank of fuel, every set of tires, every night away and every load of materials carries tax you claim back once you are in. Over a year of long drives, that is not a rounding difference.
The other half of it is that the tax you charge is not yours either. It is collected on the CRA's behalf and held until you file. Treating it as income during a good summer is how a routine return turns into an unpleasant one.
Invoicing a job you had to drive to
Quote the travel up front
Mileage, time or a flat mobilisation charge. Agreed before the drive is a conversation you never have to have.
Put it on the same invoice
Part of the job, not a separate note underneath it. That is what keeps the tax treatment consistent.
Tax it with the work
Where the job is taxable, the charges that make it possible generally are too.
Hold the tax you collect
It is not turnover. Keep it separate from the money that pays for fuel and it is there when the return is due.
- 01
Quote the travel up front
Mileage, time or a flat mobilisation charge. Agreed before the drive is a conversation you never have to have.
- 02
Put it on the same invoice
Part of the job, not a separate note underneath it. That is what keeps the tax treatment consistent.
- 03
Tax it with the work
Where the job is taxable, the charges that make it possible generally are too.
- 04
Hold the tax you collect
It is not turnover. Keep it separate from the money that pays for fuel and it is there when the return is due.
Working somewhere else this month?
The rate follows the job. If the work crosses a border, so does the number you charge.
Newfoundland and Labrador HST, answered
The province charges 15% HST. One rate covers the federal and provincial share together, so nothing goes on top. It applies to your labour and your materials on the same basis.
Generally yes, where you are billing them as part of a taxable job. They are usually treated as part of what you are supplying rather than as a separate untaxed reimbursement, so the same rate applies to them.
If you are recharging it as part of the job, it usually follows the job and carries the same tax. Passing a cost through does not make it tax free. Worth confirming for a big remote contract before you price it.
No. This is a harmonized province, so the provincial portion already sits inside the single rate. Nothing extra is calculated and nothing extra appears on the invoice.
Once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters. Registering earlier is allowed, and for a trade that drives a lot it often pays, because the tax on fuel comes back as an input tax credit.
Yes. It is one province for tax, so the rate does not change between the island and Labrador. What changes is how much travel ends up on the invoice, not the rate applied to it.
Because a job three hours away is one you invoice from memory days later. StrikeHoney lets you build the quote on site with travel and materials already on it, so the invoice is the quote rather than a reconstruction of it.
What to remember
The rate here is simple and the invoices are not, because so much of the cost of a job is getting to it. Travel, mileage and mobilisation billed as part of taxable work are generally taxable too. The mistake worth avoiding is treating them as a separate untaxed reimbursement, because that leaves you owing tax you never collected.
Get the travel on the invoice, taxed properly
Take 90 days on us as one of the Founding 30, and build the quote at the site before the drive back.