text: Alberta Sales Tax - Canada - Geocaching Forums
  By mr magellan, April 19, 2004 in Canada
  mr magellan 0
  Hi guys do you pay taxes on things in Alberta if i ordered lets say a gps shipped to a Montreal Quebec thanks Larry
  nope...just Martin's tax.
  Technically, businesses that are shipping products to other provinces are supposed to collect taxes for, and remit to, the destination province. That is, although there is no PST charged in Alberta, a business located in Alberta would have to collect Quebec's PST (or HST) and remit to the government for shipments destined to Quebec. But, we all know what REALLY happens...
  I think the purchaser is suppose to remit the tax to the province, I remember when I lived in New Brunswick, if you purchased something, say, in Nova Scotia, by law you were to apply for a sales tax rebate from Nova Scotia and then remit the owed sales tax to New Brunswick, which at the time was higher (this is before the HST, sales tax in NB was 11% and I think it was 9% in NS, but I am getting old and senility is starting to set in), never knew anyone that did this tho. Then again, by law you are also suppose to include in your income tax that bottle you found while caching and brought back for the nickel of income . I actually know someone that includes this in their tax return .
  This way you all get to share in the Alberta Advantage
  As an Alberta company is not a legally-recognized entity in another province, they are not required to remit taxes (in fact, how can they do this? Are they supposed to mail loose change in an envelope to the reciever general of the other province, and include their Alberta business license?) How are they even expected (legally) to know what the PST is supposed to be, or how it's calculated?
  If the buyer came themselves to Alberta, bought the same product, and mailed it back to their home, would you still expect the seller to collect and remit PST? If so, why? If not, why is this different than the store shipping it directly? How about if the buyer comes in, buys the product, then asks them to deliver it to an address in a different province? How about if they buyer orders something, and has it shipped to a location in Alberta, and then gets someone else to ship it to another province?
  If they were supposed to, and didn't, what is the expected punishment? Is the other province gonna revoke their business license?
  And how does this work with other provinces? Is Manitoba supposed to collect PST for NB? In addition to their own PST, or do they waive Manitoba's PST? (Repeat all of the questions above, ad absurdum.)
  I challenge you to show an Alberta (or federal) law that says that an entity that exists solely in Alberta (or any province, for that matter) is required to collect and remit taxes for a different province.
  I think the purchaser is suppose to remit the tax to the province
  This makes a whole lot more sense, and bypasses all of the 'what ifs' I mentioned.
  This is not only an Alberta advantage no PST is charged on most shipments from Quebec to Ontario.
  Edited April 20, 2004 by Car37&Shnde
  We have no sales tax... we have oil
  Edited April 20, 2004 by Geo-Explorer
  We have an BC-based e-commerce site, we set up the customer to pay only the GST is they are out of BC, but HST provinces, we do have to charge the HST and submit it with our other tax reporting. I don't know the ins & outs but come audit-time the numbers better add up or we know which creek to commence exploring. US and other overseas customers don't pay any tax at all.
  Edited April 20, 2004 by cachewidow
  dobelady 0
  I got a GPSr, I live in BC, from an online retailer in Alberta and paid only GST. I upgraded to overnight courier after I saw that!
  I do think that if you live in an HST province you'll get hit with that though, it is right on their invoice...