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GST in Quebec is 5%, the same rate as most of Canada, and Quebec adds its own 9.975% sales tax (QST) on top. On a $1,000 sale that’s $50.00 of GST and $99.75 of QST, for a total of $1,149.75.
Who collects GST in Quebec?
Revenu Québec does, not the CRA. Under an agreement between Ottawa and Quebec, Revenu Québec runs the GST for businesses in the province, following the federal rules. So a Quebec business, whether it sells furniture across a counter or invoices clients from a home office, files one combined return with one agency and reports both taxes there.
We couldn’t load Revenu Québec’s own page directly (it refused our request), so those two points rest on a search summary of its text. Confirm them on the site before you build a filing routine around them.
How do GST and QST fit together?
They’re calculated side by side. QST is worked out on the price before GST, so you never pay QST on the GST.
| Item | Rate | On $1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| GST | 5% | $50.00 |
| QST | 9.975% | $99.75 |
| Both together | 14.975% | $149.75 |
| Total price | $1,149.75 |
The easy mistake is to add 5% and then take 9.975% of the higher figure. That would give $104.74 of QST, about $5 too much on every thousand dollars.
A smaller one to try in your head: a $200 repair bill in Trois-Rivières. GST is $10.00, QST is $19.95, and you pay $229.95. A quick rule of thumb is to add 15% and be a hair under, which is close enough for budgeting at the garage.
What if you only have the total?
Reverse it. A receipt of $1,149.75 breaks down to a $1,000 price, $50.00 GST and $99.75 QST. The GST and QST calculator adds or removes both taxes in one go, and the reverse tax calculator handles the tax-included side if you’d rather work from a total.
Say a supplier’s invoice shows only $2,299.50. Working backwards gives a $2,000 price, $100.00 of GST and $199.50 of QST. Bookkeepers do this all day. It’s also where a wrong divisor costs real money, because dividing by 1.05 or 1.1 instead of 1.14975 leaves you a few dollars off on every invoice, and those few dollars add up across a year of billing.
Rounding is a small annoyance. On a $45.50 item the calculator gives $2.28 of GST and $4.54 of QST, so you pay $52.32. Each tax is rounded to the cent by itself, and a till may do it a little differently.
Is everything taxed the same way?
No.
Some things aren’t. The CRA’s page on charging and collecting the GST/HST says basic groceries are zero-rated, and Quebec follows the same federal rules for GST. Whether QST also applies to a given item is set by Quebec, and we didn’t verify the QST list, so check Revenu Québec for anything unusual.
Some supplies are exempt instead of zero-rated. The difference matters to a seller: with zero-rating you still claim input tax credits, with exemption you generally don’t. We haven’t gone through the exempt list here.
What should a Quebec business check?
The CRA’s rule for small suppliers is $30,000 of taxable sales across four consecutive calendar quarters. Ask Revenu Québec whether the same limit applies to both GST and QST for you, because we only confirmed the federal page.
Does Quebec cost more? Yes, a little. Then there’s pricing. Compare prices honestly with other provinces. A $1,000 job costs $1,050 in Alberta, $1,130 in Ontario and $1,149.75 in Quebec. The GST and HST calculator lets you run the same figure for any province, which helps when you sell across borders and don’t want to guess.
Do you pay QST on a price that already includes tax?
Only if the tax really is missing. Many Quebec shop prices on shelves are shown before tax, so the till adds 14.975% at the end. If a quote says “taxes included” you divide instead, as above. Ask which one you’re looking at. A $2,000 figure means you pay $2,299.50 if tax is added on top, but it means a job worth only $1,739.51 before tax if the tax is already inside. That’s a gap of hundreds of bucks.
The sources behind this page
The 5% GST rate, zero-rated groceries and the small supplier threshold come from the Canada Revenue Agency. The 9.975% QST, the “before GST” calculation and Revenu Québec‘s role come from Revenu Québec’s pages on the basic rules and on calculating the taxes, read in September 2026 through a summary.
Frequently asked questions
What is the GST rate in Quebec?
5%, the same as the federal rate elsewhere. Quebec also charges QST at 9.975%.
Is QST charged on top of GST?
No. QST is calculated on the price before GST, so the two are independent.
Who do I pay GST to in Quebec?
Revenu Québec administers the GST in the province on behalf of the federal government.
What's the total tax on $100 in Quebec?
$14.98 on most goods, so the total is $114.98 after rounding.
Are groceries taxed?
Basic groceries are zero-rated for GST across Canada, per the CRA. Check Revenu Québec for QST on a specific item.
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