If you purchase online is the GST & PST seperated out on the invoice or is it clumped together as "Tax" or "Sales Tax"?

Many thanks.

Not as easy a question as you might think.

If you live in B.C. and order something from a place in Ontario I'm not entirely sure you will be charged PST.

But if you lived in Ontario and purchased from the same vendor you most likely would be charged both GST and PST.

As far as I know if you are charged both then they should be separate on the bill unless the province has an HST (Harmonised Sales Tax).

If you mail order within your province, you will pay the GST and PST

If you mail order from a province with harmonised (combined) sales tax (HST), then you pay the whole whack

If you order from a different province with seperate PST & GST, then you pay only the GST

Except where there is HST the PST and GST are seperate line items on the paperwork.

If you order from the US, then its a lottery, you likely wont pay any sales tax upon ordering, but will likely have to pay the PST and GST upon delivery over the border. Some shipping firms are smart enough to factor that in to the shiping rates up front, others charge you after the fact, along with a hefty handeling charge (UPS, I'm talking about you!).

Like the others have said - it depends where you are buying and where it is being shipped....
Goods that i bought in ontario always showed what you paid on both, so you knew what GST and PST you paid...

i made an enquiry the other day to buy something from ontario and ship to alberta, they advised i would only have to pay the GST, so i am ok with that

They should be shown separately on the invoice.

Oh heck, this is all very complicated. I thank you again for this very useful information. I really need to get over and get on a tax course don't I?

Many thanks, I fear a rather "interesting" few months ahead.

It not really.

If you buy in your province you pay GST and PST.

If you buy elsewhere in Canada you pay only GST, unless they opted for HST.

If you buy in the US you dont pay sales tax, but will likely pay PST and GST when its imported.

And duty if the product has a duty on it and wasn't made in North America

I'm still in the UK, but when I visit Canada I do find my self saying things life "Hey dude" and "sure man" etc etc... I don't even cringe when I hear myself saying it.

I actually prefer the Canadian way, though if things panned out & we could settle in Canada, as much as I'd like to sound Canadian, I'm unsure that it wouldn't sound forced.

IMO, when in Rome, do as, or at least have a go...

Strangely, when I talk with Australian's for a few hours I actually adopt there accent rather convincingly - whats that all about !

M.

^^^ Im guessing that was intended for the "accent" thread, and arrived here by mistake

it did throw me for a minute.

I know it is just different and the "problem" I now have is that the ecommerce software that I want to use isn't going to be suitable and I now need to go and research all that as well, although I suspect I may already have a trial version of the correct software now I come to think about it ..

Oooops

LOL.

M.

QuickBooks and Simply Accounting are made for Canada small company accounting packages. They handle Canadian taxes just fine. You may find it dificult to adapt software designed for other jurisdictions. QuickBooks has many add-ons as a lot of US software aimed at small comapnies is designed to integrate with it. I am sure there is an e-commerce suit available.

We have quick books so will look at getting a Canadian version. I was hoping to duplicate the content we have on our current sites onto .ca domains using the same host and ecommerce software but I know they aren't set up for Canada/US taxation as I've already asked if they can adapt it (hence the question about needing to seperate it out). I am sure I will find something suitable it is just ashame because I do like what we have and a straight duplication would have been so much easier.

Thank you about the Quckbooks hint - we will speak to them and see if we can get an add on for Canada or whether we need to get a whole new package.