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To find an accountant for your e-commerce business, look for someone who files GST/HST returns for online sellers every month, can explain how your sales platform reports income, and will quote a fee in writing. The CPA title is a reasonable starting point, but it says nothing about online retail. So ask about your kind of business directly.
What should an e-commerce accountant know?
Four things matter for an online shop. Sales tax comes first, because you collect it on every order and owe it to the CRA. Then the income side, where several sales channels and payment processors send you separate reports that rarely match your bank deposits. Inventory follows, since cost of goods is often your biggest deduction. Last is the choice between selling as yourself or through a corporation.
Ask a candidate how they’d reconcile a month of orders against payouts. A good answer is specific. A vague one, full of software names, tells you little.
When do you have to charge GST/HST?
Most businesses are small suppliers until they pass $30,000 in taxable sales. The CRA measures that over four consecutive calendar quarters. If a single quarter takes you over, you must charge tax on the sale that crossed the line. If you cross it over several quarters, you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after the quarter in which you passed $30,000.
You must register within 29 days of that day.
General Information for GST/HST Registrants (RC4022), canada.ca
Some sellers register before they have to. Whether that suits you is a decision to talk through with the accountant. How the rules treat sales to customers in other provinces or countries, or sales through a marketplace that collects tax for you, isn’t covered on this page. Ask about exactly those cases.
How much tax sits inside an order?
The rate depends on the province. On a $1,000 order for goods, the tax on top comes to these amounts, worked out by our GST/HST calculator.
| Province | Tax on $1,000 | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario (13% HST) | $130.00 | $1,130.00 |
| British Columbia (5% GST plus 7% PST) | $120.00 | $1,120.00 |
| Quebec (5% GST plus 9.975% QST) | $149.75 | $1,149.75 |
| Alberta (5% GST) | $50.00 | $1,050.00 |
Selling to a customer in Ontario while you sit in Alberta could change the rate on the invoice. That’s a good test question for your accountant. If a price already includes tax, the HST reverse calculator strips it out. The GST/PST calculator covers the western provinces, though it applies one combined rate to everything in BC, so it overstates tax on items that carry no PST.
Where do you look for one?
Start with the provincial CPA body’s public directory, which lets you confirm a person is a current member. Ontario’s body runs one, for example. Then ask other online sellers who they use and why. Ask them what they’d change. A recommendation from someone with a similar shop is worth more than a testimonial on a website.
We won’t name firms or rank them, and no official source lists what they charge. Get quotes from two or three and compare what each includes. Check whether bookkeeping, sales tax returns and the year-end tax return are one price or three.
Don’t be shy about size, either. A solo seller doing a few thousand dollars a month doesn’t need the same firm as a store shipping coast to coast with staff and a warehouse. Some accountants love small shops and some only want bigger ones. Ask whether you’d be a typical client for them, and whether the person on the call will do your work or hand it off.
What should you ask on the first call?
How many online sellers do you look after? Who prepares my sales tax returns? What do you need from me each month, and by when? What happens if my sales pass $30,000 mid-year? Can I see a sample of what you send a client? Then listen for plain answers. If the person can’t explain a term without jargon, that’s useful information too.
If your shop is a company, ask what it owes. The corporate tax calculator shows federal and provincial tax on active business income, so you can bring a number to that conversation.
What do you bring to the first meeting?
Sales reports from every channel, payout statements from your payment processor, your bank statements, a list of what you hold in stock at year end, and supplier invoices. Add your shipping and platform fee statements too, since those fees add up faster than most sellers expect, and a few bucks per order becomes a real number by December. Picture Chloe in Halifax, who sells hand-poured candles on two marketplaces and her own website. Her payouts never matched her deposits, because each platform netted off fees before paying her. Her accountant cleared it up in one sitting, once the statements were laid side by side.
Mistakes sellers make
Waiting to register until the notice arrives is one. Keeping personal and business money in the same account is another, and it makes every review slower and more expensive. Some sellers also trust a platform’s sales summary as a tax record. It’s a start, but the CRA expects you to keep your own records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
And picking on price alone rarely works out. The cheapest quote often leaves out the sales tax returns, which are the part you can’t get wrong.
Our sources
The small supplier threshold, the four quarter test and the filing rules come from the CRA‘s GST/HST pages, read in autumn 2026. The six year record rule comes from the CRA’s record keeping guide. Tax amounts come from the calculators on this site, which use 2026 rates. We aren’t a government service and we don’t speak for one.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an accountant for a small online shop?
Not always at the start. Once sales approach $30,000 in a year, or you add products, staff or a corporation, a review with an accountant usually pays for itself.
When do I have to register for GST/HST?
When you pass $30,000 in taxable sales over four consecutive calendar quarters. If one quarter alone takes you over, you must charge tax on the sale that crossed the line.
Does an accountant have to be a CPA?
The title isn't required to prepare a return, but it lets you check membership in a public register. Ask about experience with online sellers as well.
How long do I keep my sales records?
The CRA says six years from the end of the last tax year the records relate to, unless it gives permission to destroy them earlier.
What does an e-commerce accountant cost?
We couldn't confirm typical fees. Get written quotes and check whether sales tax returns and the year-end return are included.
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