Indirect Taxes
(GST/HST, PST, SALT, Sales & Use Tax)
in Canada and USA

Canada’s main indirect taxes include:

• Federal goods and services tax (GST), harmonized sales tax (HST), Quebec sales tax (QST), plus the three provincial sales tax (PST) regimes in western Canada;
• Federal and provincial fuel, excise, and carbon taxes on most fossil fuel products;
• Provincial accommodations taxes, including PST on lodging; and
• Federal and provincial excise taxes and levies on insurance.
• Federal customs duties.
• US state indirect taxes, include state and local income taxes (“SALT”), state and local sales and use taxes (” SUT”) and other property taxes along with certain federal excise taxes.

Sales taxes, custom duties and other indirect taxes impact nearly every facet of your business. These taxes affect your sales, purchases, imports/exports, and sometimes payroll, so the total tax dollars flowing through your business can affect more than cash flow.  Incorrectly managed, they can represent a significant cost for your business.

Businesses operating in, importing in, or selling into, Canada often administer more in sales taxes, customs duties and other indirect taxes than they pay in income tax. If the overall administration and responsibility for these taxes rests on you, we encourage you to ensure that you understand the impact that these taxes have on your business.

Company stakeholders and especially directors, should ensure there are processes and controls in place to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the calculation, reporting and remitting of indirect tax, customs declarations, and financial statements. Most indirect tax laws include director liability and joint and several liability provisions, putting the directors of the company at risk for imperfect reporting. These rules are in place to ensure compliance.

If you’re doing business in the USA or simply selling to US customers, we can now provide your business with not only federal US taxes, but more importantly, state-level taxes such as state income or franchise taxes, state and local (city, county, etc.) sales and use taxes, property taxes along with other federal excise and similar taxes. Our Canadian customs and trade advisors can also work with their US customs counterparts, to advise your business on importing goods into the USA.

Whether you’re new to doing business in Canada, or you’ve just started importing or selling into, Canada, we can help you navigate the indirect tax and customs duties environment across Canada. We also work with companies who have been doing business in Canada, but who may still need some help tightening up their indirect tax and/or customs and importing processes. In doing so, we can help you understand the impact of these indirect taxes on your business.

With over 20 years of experience, we can assist with your, indirect tax and customs advisory needs. Our team will help you to manage risks related to indirect taxes and customs duties such as financial risk exposure for underpaid indirect taxes, duties and potential penalties and interest.

We can weigh in on changes to your supply chain and the impacts customs duties and indirect taxes will have, through to handling these taxes on corporate reorganizations such as M&A due diligence, to managing indirect tax and customs audits or reviews by the authorities, and everything in between.

If you carry on business in other countries, we partner with other firms that have specialists who can assist your business in these areas.

Sales taxes and other indirect taxes impact nearly every facet of your clients’ business operations. These taxes affect their sales, purchases, imports/exports, and sometimes payroll, so the total indirect tax dollars flowing through your clients’ businesses can affect more than cash flow.

Incorrectly managed, they can represent a significant cost for your clients’ businesses.  If you’ve struggled to assist your clients with deep indirect tax expertise or supporting them effectively through indirect tax audits and controversy, we can be the solution for you and your clients.

Whether your clients are new to doing business in, or selling into, Canada, or your clients have been operating in Canada for some time already, we can help you and your clients navigate the sales and indirect tax environment across Canada.  In doing so, we can help you understand the impact of these taxes on your business. Canada’s main indirect taxes include:

• Federal goods and services tax (GST), harmonized sales tax (HST), Quebec sales tax (QST), plus the three provincial sales tax (PST) regimes in western Canada;
• Federal and provincial fuel, excise and carbon taxes on most fossil fuel products;
• Provincial accommodations taxes, including PST on lodging; and
• Federal and provincial excise taxes and levies on insurance.

If your clients are planning to, or already doing business in the USA or simply selling to US customers, we can now provide your clients with not only federal US taxes, but more importantly, state-level taxes such as state income or franchise taxes, state and local (city, county, etc.) sales and use taxes, property taxes along with other federal excise and similar taxes. Our Canadian customs and trade advisors can also work with their US customs counterparts, to advise your business on importing goods into the USA.

Businesses operating in, or selling into Canada often administer more in sales and other indirect taxes than they pay in income tax.  Your clients’ stakeholders and especially directors, should ensure there are processes and certain controls over the accuracy and completeness of the indirect tax amounts reported on returns and financial statements.  Most indirect tax legislation has director liability and/or joint and several liability provisions to ensure that these taxes are managed and remitted correctly to the governments’ indirect tax authorities.

With over 20 years of extensive cross-industry experience and strong technical knowledge, we can assist with your clients’ indirect tax needs and challenges and help them to manage related risks such as financial risk exposure for underpaid indirect taxes and potential penalties and interest that can apply under audits.

We can weigh in on changes to their operations, new markets, supply chain and the impacts indirect taxes will have, to handling these taxes on corporate reorganizations such as M&A due diligence to managing indirect tax audits or reviews by the authorities, and everything in between. 

In addition, we now have US state and local income tax and sales and use tax resources that can assist our clients in navigating the sales tax registration and compliance requirements in all US states as well as state income tax matters.

We partner with other firms to provide the required expertise you and your clients need to assist with other countries’ sales or indirect taxes, such as U.S. state sales or use tax or global value-added tax regimes.