Short answer: You charge the rate of the province your client is in. A designer in Vancouver billing a client in Toronto charges 13 percent HST, because the tax follows the client's address rather than yours. This is the CRA's place-of-supply rule, and for freelance services it usually comes down to one thing: the business address you've got on file for that client.
That single sentence covers most freelance invoices. The rest of this page covers the rates themselves, the cases where the rule bends, Quebec, and clients outside Canada.
Which rate applies to which province?
If you're registered for GST/HST, these are the rates you charge based on where your client is:
| Client's province or territory | Rate you charge |
|---|---|
| Alberta | 5% GST |
| British Columbia | 5% GST |
| Manitoba | 5% GST |
| Saskatchewan | 5% GST |
| Quebec | 5% GST (plus QST if you're QST-registered) |
| Northwest Territories | 5% GST |
| Nunavut | 5% GST |
| Yukon | 5% GST |
| Ontario | 13% HST |
| Nova Scotia | 14% HST |
| New Brunswick | 15% HST |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 15% HST |
| Prince Edward Island | 15% HST |
Nova Scotia is the one people get wrong. Its rate came down to 14 percent, and plenty of the rate tables floating around online still show 15. If you're copying a number off a blog post, copy it off a recent one, or check the CRA page directly.
Why does the client's province decide the rate?
Because the CRA taxes where the supply is made, and for a service the supply is treated as being made where the customer is. The formal name for this is the place-of-supply rule. The general rule for services is simple enough: if you obtain an address for your client in the ordinary course of business and that address is in Canada, the tax rate is the one for that province.
In practice, "the address you obtain in the ordinary course of business" means the billing address sitting in your records. The one on the contract. The one you put at the top of the invoice. If your client is a company headquartered in Halifax, you charge 14 percent, whether you did the work from your kitchen table in Calgary or from a train.
What trips freelancers up is the assumption that this works like income tax, where your own province matters. It doesn't. On the sales-tax side you're collecting on the CRA's behalf from your customer, so the customer's location is what counts.
What if the client has offices in more than one province?
Use the address of the specific business location you're actually dealing with, which is normally the one on the contract and the one you invoice. A national company with an office in every province doesn't make you pick the highest rate. It makes you use the address of the office that hired you.
Where it genuinely gets complicated is a service physically performed across several provinces, like on-site work that moves around. Two things are worth knowing there. If the work is split roughly evenly between two participating HST provinces, the higher rate applies. If more than half of the work happens in non-participating provinces, you charge 5 percent GST instead of HST. Most freelancers working remotely never hit either case, but if your work is on-site and mobile, it's worth a conversation with an accountant.
Do I charge anything at all if I'm not registered?
No. If you're a small supplier, meaning your worldwide taxable revenue is under 30,000 dollars over four consecutive calendar quarters, you aren't required to register and you don't charge GST or HST to anyone, in any province. Your invoice is just the amount you agreed on.
Once you cross that threshold, registration is required and everything on this page starts to apply. It's also the moment your registration number has to appear on your invoices, because without it your client can't claim the tax back.
How does Quebec work?
Quebec runs its own sales tax alongside the federal one, which is why it looks like an exception.
For a client in Quebec you charge 5 percent GST like any other non-participating province. QST at 9.975 percent sits on top of that, and whether you charge it depends on whether you're registered for QST with Revenu Quebec. Businesses operating in Quebec generally are. A freelancer in another province often isn't, and in that case you charge the 5 percent GST alone.
If you're based in Quebec, you're almost certainly registered for both, so you charge GST plus QST to your Quebec clients while still charging the destination rate to clients elsewhere. A Montreal copywriter billing a client in Ontario charges 13 percent HST and no QST.
What about clients outside Canada?
Services supplied to a non-resident client who isn't in Canada are usually zero-rated, which means you charge 0 percent. Zero-rated and tax-exempt aren't the same thing, and the difference works in your favour: you still get to claim input tax credits on the expenses that went into that work.
There are conditions, and they're the kind that are easy to satisfy for typical remote freelance work and easy to fail if the client has a Canadian presence. If a large share of your income comes from clients abroad, get an accountant to confirm your specific setup once, then stop worrying about it.
What has to appear on the invoice itself?
For your client to claim the tax back, the invoice needs your GST/HST registration number on it for any amount over 30 dollars, along with the date, your business name, and the amount of tax charged or a statement that the total includes tax. Show the tax as its own line instead of folding it into the total. A missing registration number is one of the most boring reasons an invoice gets stuck in someone's accounts-payable queue, and it costs you weeks.
How do you keep this straight without thinking about it?
You store the rate against the client. That's the whole trick.
If your invoicing setup knows your Ontario client is an Ontario client, the 13 percent is automatic and permanent, and you never recalculate anything. If you're working off a spreadsheet or a duplicated template, the risk is that you copy last month's invoice for a Vancouver client, change the name to the Halifax one, and quietly undercharge by 9 percent. That difference comes out of your own pocket at filing time.
This is one of the reasons Loot exists. You set each client's province once, and every invoice you send them carries the right GST, HST or QST line automatically, with your registration number already on it. The tax you collect is tracked per invoice so you know what you owe before the quarter ends, and payments land straight in your account instead of sitting in someone else's holding tank. It's Canadian, built for freelancers, and free to start.
Reviewed for accuracy against CRA and Revenu Quebec guidance. This is general information for Canadian freelancers and it isn't tax advice for your specific situation.
Frequently asked questions
Do I charge GST/HST based on where I live or where my client lives? Where your client is. For services, the CRA's place-of-supply rule uses the client's address that you have on file, so a freelancer in Alberta billing an Ontario client charges 13 percent HST rather than 5 percent GST.
What rate do I charge a client in Nova Scotia? 14 percent HST. Nova Scotia's provincial portion was reduced, so many older rate tables still show 15 percent. Ontario is 13 percent, and New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island are 15 percent.
Do I charge QST to a Quebec client if I'm not based in Quebec? Only if you're registered for QST with Revenu Quebec. If you aren't, you charge the 5 percent GST on its own. Freelancers operating in Quebec are generally registered for both and charge GST plus QST at 9.975 percent.
Do I charge GST/HST to a client in the United States? Usually no. Services supplied to a non-resident client outside Canada are typically zero-rated at 0 percent, and you can still claim input tax credits on related expenses. Confirm your specific arrangement with an accountant if most of your income comes from abroad.
Do I have to charge GST/HST if I make under 30,000 dollars? No. Under the small-supplier threshold of 30,000 dollars in worldwide taxable revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters, you aren't required to register and you don't charge the tax at all. Once you cross it, registration is required.