Amazon GST/HST for Canadian Sellers: What You Owe and When

Amazon collects GST/HST on your sales. You have seen this in your Seller Central reports. Many sellers conclude that means the tax is handled and they have no further obligations.

That conclusion is partially correct, but it hides where most compliance mistakes happen.

The CAD $30,000 Registration Threshold

Canadian sellers must register for GST/HST once taxable revenues exceed CAD $30,000. This threshold is measured over four consecutive quarters or within a single calendar quarter.

Two important points most sellers miss:

The threshold uses gross sales revenue, not payouts. The CAD $30,000 is calculated on what customers paid, not on what Amazon deposited into your account after fees. A seller receiving CAD $4,000 monthly in payouts may have gross revenue of CAD $5,500 or more. Sellers tracking only deposits may cross the threshold without realizing it. For a detailed breakdown of what a payout actually contains versus gross revenue, see How to Read a Shopify Payouts Report — the same distinction applies across all platforms.

The threshold applies to all commercial revenues. If you sell on multiple platforms, gross sales across all channels count toward the CAD $30,000 limit, not just Amazon sales.

Once you cross the threshold in any single quarter, you are required to register and begin collecting GST/HST on sales from that point forward. Late registration creates a liability for uncollected tax that comes out of your margins.

For the official threshold rules, refer to the CRA small supplier definition.

Voluntary Registration Below the Threshold

Sellers below CAD $30,000 can register voluntarily. The main benefit is access to Input Tax Credits (ITCs): you can recover GST/HST paid on eligible business expenses.

Recoverable expenses include:

• Amazon referral fees
• FBA fulfillment and storage fees
• Advertising spend
• Software subscriptions
• Professional services

Voluntary registration requires maintaining your registration for a minimum of one year. If your eligible expenses are significant, voluntary registration can meaningfully reduce your effective tax cost.

How Amazon’s Marketplace Facilitator Rules Work

This is where most sellers get confused.

If you are not GST/HST registered: Amazon acts as the deemed supplier on qualifying domestic transactions. It collects and remits GST/HST directly to the CRA on your behalf. The tax does not appear in your payouts.

If you are GST/HST registered: You are responsible for collecting, reporting, and remitting GST/HST. Amazon may still collect the tax at checkout, but the amounts are included in your settlements. You must remit to the CRA. The tax collected is not your revenue.

The critical error here: registered sellers who treat tax-inclusive settlements as revenue are overstating income and understating their remittance obligation.

Provincial Tax Rules

GST/HST rates and administration vary by province.

HST provinces (Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador): Combined federal-provincial rates apply. A single registration with the CRA covers all HST provinces.

PST/RST provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba): Amazon handles provincial tax collection separately. Your GST registration covers the federal portion only.

Quebec: Administered by Revenu Quebec under a separate QST regime. Quebec has its own registration requirements distinct from the CRA.

No PST provinces (Alberta, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon): GST at 5% applies. No provincial sales tax.

Filing Obligations for Registered Sellers

Once registered, you are required to file GST/HST returns on a schedule based on your revenue level: annual (under CAD $1.5M), quarterly (CAD $1.5M–$6M), or monthly (over CAD $6M). The CRA may also assign a reporting period.

As of 2024, electronic filing is required for most registrants.

Input Tax Credits are claimed on your return. Keep documentation for all eligible expenses.

Reconciliation: Seller Central does not produce a single report that shows your complete GST/HST position. You must reconstruct it using multiple reports, including the Date Range Report, the Transaction View, and the VAT transactions report if applicable. The reconciliation process takes time to do correctly.

Common Compliance Mistakes

Crossing the threshold without registering. You now owe tax that was never collected from customers. It comes out of your margins.

Treating tax-inclusive payouts as revenue. Once registered, the GST/HST component of a payout is a liability, not income. Recording it as revenue inflates income and creates a remittance shortfall. The mechanics of how tax collected flows through a payout are covered in How to Read a Shopify Payouts Report — the same principle applies to Amazon settlements.

Adding your GST/HST number to Seller Central without updating your accounting system. The accounting configuration change is as important as the registration itself. If your software is not set up to separate tax from revenue, you will have the wrong numbers.

How to Register

Registration is done through the CRA’s Business Registration Online (BRO) portal. Phone registration was discontinued on November 3, 2025.

You will need:

• Business name and address
• Business activity description
• Fiscal year-end date
• Revenue estimate

Registration produces a GST/HST account number in the format 123456789 RT0001. Enter this number in your Amazon Seller Central VAT Information page and update your accounting software configuration at the same time.

Scope of This Guide

This guide covers GST/HST obligations for Canadian sellers on Amazon.ca. It does not cover:

• U.S. sales tax for Amazon.com sales
• GST/HST on goods imported into Canada
• Quebec QST obligations in detail
• North America Remote Fulfillment (NARF) tax treatment

For GST/HST specifics, the authoritative source is the Canada Revenue Agency.