A Short Guide to Taxes for Freight Shippers

All You Need to Know About Taxes for Shipping Freight in Canada

[Updated June 2023]

If you’re looking to ship goods within Canada, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the applicable taxes for each province. 

In this article, we’re going to simplify the topic for you and when you book a shipment, our system will simplify the math.

So let’s get started.

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

The GST has been around since 1991. That year, it replaced the hidden manufacturer’s sales tax of 13.5%. 

The GST is applied to most goods and services apart from some essentials such as residential rent, groceries, medical supplies, etc. These items are called tax-exempt. 

The goods and services tax is what will be applied during your shipment booking with Freightera.

The amount applied varies from province to province and it’s determined solely on the delivery location’s province. 

The Exact GST Amounts in Canadian Provinces

• If your shipment is going to New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island, the amount is 15%.
• If you’re shipping to Ontario, the amount is 13%.
• If you’re shipping within Quebec, the amount is 14.975%.
• If you’re shipping from outside of Quebec into QC then the amount is 5%.
• And anywhere in the rest of Canada, the amount is also 5%.

We know all of this can get confusing which is why we’ve made our system simply calculate the amounts for you. However, if you’re a curious mind or you’d like to get an estimate of your own, then we hope this helps. 🙂 

Provincial Sales Tax (PST)

The provincial tax is, naturally, specific to each province. It is sometimes also known as the RST or the retail sales tax. The amounts are the same as those we’ve just listed above, so you don’t have to worry about checking for additional numbers.

Quebec utilizes its own (almost harmonized with the GST tax) called QST, or the Quebec sales tax. 

Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)

HST represents a harmonization or the combination of the provincial and goods and services taxes. Basically, it takes the other two and merges them into one. 

The Canadian government wanted to make the HST universal, however, due to some provinces not agreeing to it, it is only applicable in some (five to be exact) provinces such as Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland/Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. 

All of the provinces above apply HST in the amount of 15% except Ontario where it’s only 13%. 

The Freight Shipping Taxes

So what does all this mean for shipping? As we mentioned in the intro, the only amounts that concern you are those of the goods and services tax (GST). For detailed numbers, you can check out the section above but in practical terms, you really don’t have to.

The reason is that our system will automatically include the taxes during your payment phase of booking your pickup, which means that there are people and systems in place to worry about the amounts for you. 

Note that the freight quote you receive will not include taxes.

Find out what you needed to know? It’s time to actually get your quotes for freight shipping in Canada, and see just how little you have to worry about when booking your shipment! You just enter the details and leave the rest to us.

Happy shipping! 🙂