Do I need a GST/HST number if I have no office in Canada?
Possibly. The test is not whether you hold premises, employ staff or own a Canadian company. It is whether you are carrying on business in Canada, and what the nature of your supply is. A business with no physical presence at all can be required to register, and a business with a Canadian address may not be, depending on what it actually does here and for whom. Work through the facts that bear on the test — where contracts are concluded, who solicits the orders, where the goods or services are delivered, whether stock sits in Canada — before drawing a conclusion. The absence of an office is not an answer to the question.
Which province's rate do I charge a Canadian customer?
Whichever the place-of-supply rules point to for that particular supply, which is why registration is followed by a mapping exercise rather than the adoption of a single rate. The rules differ between goods and services and, within services, between types, and the answer can turn on the address you hold for the customer, the place of delivery, or where the service is performed. For a foreign supplier the practical consequence is that the billing system has to carry a rate for each province, a rule for choosing between them, and the evidence for the address it relied on. One rate applied across the country will be wrong somewhere.
Will a non-resident be asked to post security to register?
It is a real possibility and it belongs in the plan rather than in the surprise column. Where a business has no presence and no assets in Canada, the authority may require security as a condition of registration, which carries a cash cost and a timing cost while it is arranged. That prospect also bears on which registration route to take, because the routes do not carry the same conditions or the same access to input tax recovery. Raise the question at the modelling stage, alongside the Canadian cost base and the compliance burden, so the route is chosen on the whole picture rather than on the application form alone.
When does a foreign business have to start charging Canadian tax?
From the date the obligation was triggered, which is not the date the paperwork completes. Registration follows the facts: once the test is met, tax should be collected on supplies made from that point, and applying later does not move the start date. The exposures that follow are familiar — tax never charged to customers and hard to recover from them afterwards, plus interest running from the original due dates. Fix the trigger date first, in writing, then apply for registration with that date, then decide what to do about supplies already made. Working in the other order is how the cost ends up sitting with the vendor.
Does storing inventory in Canada mean I have to register?
It is one of the facts that pushes hardest towards yes, though it is not the whole test. Holding stock here, filling Canadian orders from it and dealing with returns are the sort of activities that look like carrying on business in Canada, and the nature of the supply then decides what has to be charged. There is a second consequence worth noting: goods entering the country attract tax at the border in their own right, and whether that is recoverable depends on the registration position and on who is shown as importer of record. Establish who imports, who holds title and where title passes before concluding anything.
Do I register if I sell to Canadian customers through a distributor?
Often not, and it turns on who is making the supply to the Canadian customer. If the distributor buys from you and resells on its own account, your supply is to the distributor and the Canadian collection obligation is the distributor's. If the distributor solicits orders in your name and you contract with the end customer, the supply is yours and the analysis changes with it. Read the distribution agreement against what the parties actually do, because the paperwork and the practice diverge more often than not, and it is the practice an authority will examine.
Which country do I pay tax to first?
Generally the source country — where the income arises — taxes first, often by withholding before you receive it. Your country of residence then taxes the same income and credits what the source country took. That order is why timing matters: a residence-country return filed before the source-country tax is settled has nothing to credit yet. Getting the sequence right is most of the work. See international tax planning.
Do Canada and the United States share tax information?
Yes, through more than one channel. The treaty has an exchange-of-information article that supports both routine and on-request exchange. Separately, an intergovernmental agreement has Canadian financial institutions identify US-reportable accounts and report them to the CRA, which passes them to the IRS, with the reverse flow for Canadian residents. Most other country pairs use the Common Reporting Standard for the same purpose. See FATCA reporting.
