Vancouver Small Business Taxes: GST + 7% PST, BC Corporate Rates and Catching Up
Vancouver businesses file 5% GST with the CRA and 7% PST with BC, pay an 11% small business rate and BC EHT. What's due and how to catch up.
In Vancouver you collect two separate sales taxes, 5% GST filed with the CRA and 7% PST filed with the BC Ministry of Finance. A CCPC pays 11% combined on its first $500,000 of active business income (9% federal + 2% BC), and BC corporate tax is filed on the federal T2. Most Vancouver catch-up files we see are behind on PST as well as GST, because the PST is easy to forget.
We're based downtown at 1199 West Pender, so this is our home market.
The BC rules that trip people up
- PST isn't only on goods. In BC it also applies to software, many related services (like repairs to goods), legal services and telecommunications (gov.bc.ca, PST). A Vancouver SaaS or agency business can owe PST on things it buys, and sometimes on what it sells.
- Separate PST registration and returns are handled through eTaxBC, not the CRA.
- Employer Health Tax. BC employers with payroll above the exemption threshold ($1M from 2024) pay EHT (gov.bc.ca, EHT). Fast-growing teams cross it without noticing.
- BC annual report. Filed with BC Registries every year. Companies that go years without filing can be struck off.
| Rate | |
|---|---|
| GST | 5% (CRA) |
| PST | 7% (BC) |
| Small business corporate | 11% combined |
| General corporate | 27% combined (15% + 12%) |
Example (hypothetical): a Vancouver e-commerce brand
A Mount Pleasant apparel brand grew from $180k to $1.6M on Shopify. It registered for GST but never for PST, and its books stopped in 2023 when the founder's part-time bookkeeper left. The catch-up: register for PST and work out the PST owed on past BC sales, rebuild the books from Shopify payouts and bank data, file GST and T2s oldest first, and look at VDP for both the CRA and BC before anything is filed. BC's own penalty rules for late PST are different from the CRA's, so they're handled separately. More in our BC PST late filing guide.
Is it too late to fix?
Almost never. What matters is order and speed. Read is it too late to catch up.
Local help
Sansar is a Vancouver accountant and Vancouver bookkeeper for growing businesses. One all-inclusive flat rate covers the books, GST, PST, T2 and CRA correspondence, backed by our 100% Happiness Guarantee. Turnaround is guaranteed within 1 month once your documents are in, and 1–2 months is typical for multi-year catch-up. See catch-up bookkeeping.
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FAQ
What sales taxes does a Vancouver business charge? Usually 5% GST plus 7% PST on taxable goods and services. GST goes to the CRA and PST to the BC government on separate returns.
Do I need to register for PST in BC? Generally yes, if you sell or lease taxable goods or provide taxable services in BC in the ordinary course of business, unless a small-seller exception applies.
What is BC's small business tax rate? 2% provincial on a CCPC's first $500,000 of active business income, 11% combined with the federal 9%.
Does BC charge employer health tax? Yes, on BC payroll above the exemption threshold. The threshold has been $1 million since 2024.
Can PST and GST catch-up be done together? Yes. Both come from the same rebuilt books, but they're filed with different governments and each has its own penalty and disclosure rules.
Written by Gurdeep Sangha, founder of Sansar Solutions, a Vancouver-based bookkeeping and tax firm serving small businesses across Canada (mainly Ontario, Alberta and BC). Sansar is not a CPA firm; Notice to Reader and review engagements go through partner CPAs. This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice for your situation. Last reviewed: October 2026.