How do I know in advance which Canadian sales tax is going to be charged for a product?

[philestore]

Hello!

I am a bit confused. When buying from a Canadian seller, sometimes I get charged no tax, sometimes GST only, sometimes GST + QST (I am in Québec). If I remember correctly, on my last purchase, it happened after I clicked "Confirm and pay". This can make a huge difference (between 0% and 15% of the total here in QC).

Is there a way I can know how much sales tax I am going to be charged before I click "Confirm and pay"? I've seen another tax question on the boards and someone answered that he looked at the guys' listings and they were set up to charge the taxes... However, I don't seem to find anywhere which indicates how much tax when looking at either a listing or at my shopping cart.

Thanks for help 😄

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

You should be able to see whether or not there is tax before you confirm and pay.  On my PC when I click on buy it now it brings me to the checkout page which shows the total that I will have to pay.  Or you should also be able to add the item to your cart and then see the total in checkout. Either way, you haven't committed to the purchase yet.

If you want to see if a seller charges tax you can click on the payments/shipping tab and under the handling time tab there will be another tab stating that Seller charges sales tax in multiple provinces.

 If you click on the part in blue, it will show you the tax that is being collected.  The way that I understand it is that if the seller is in Quebec and registered to collect tax, they will be required to collect both PST and GST.  If they are registered in another province, they will just collect GST.   However, I have definitely seen some tax rates that are incorrect.

[philestore]

I just did a bit of testing and you are correct! I think I must have clicked "Confirm and pay" too fast and not notice the taxes were already in the list of charges. The items I currently wanted to buy had no tax, so this is why I was affraid of clicking "Confirm and pay" and then see the taxes appear. I also found a seller who charges taxes and there was indeed a tab in the shipping section detailing the taxes. This tab is not there when looking at an item without tax. Thanks a lot for very detailed answer!

[reallynicestamps]

When you are buying from the USA, you will be charged duty on imports over $150Cdn, but sales taxes on any item over $40Cdn.

For overseas imports you will be charged both duty and sales taxes when the value is over $20Cdn.

The days of the untaxed internet are rapidly ending.

[portfelt]

Click on Shipping details and the seller should reveal if he charges sales tax.