Garage door service business operations: Canada GST/HST/QST

What to take away

Why the service address sets the tax rate

A customer in Ontario pays HST even if your van came in from Manitoba. A customer in Alberta pays GST only even if your shop is in Ontario. The tax follows the place of supply, and for a garage door call the place of supply is the address on the work order.

You are repairing or installing a door at a building. The customer receives the service there. The rate of that province or territory applies; the place-of-supply rules sit in sections 142.1 and 142.2 of the Excise Tax Act, and the CRA explains them in plain language for businesses.

Narrow exceptions exist. If a customer picks up a part at your counter and installs it, the supply may sit at your shop. If you sell a door by phone and ship it, the place of supply for the goods can differ from the place of supply for the install.

Keep it defensible rather than clever. Write the service address on the invoice, note the rate you applied, and move on.

A van working several provinces sees this weekly. Monday in Alberta, Tuesday in Saskatchewan, Wednesday in Manitoba: three GST-only invoices. Thursday across into Ontario, and that one is HST.

Charging the wrong rate is not a rounding slip. You owe the difference to the CRA and may have to credit the customer. For how the tax line feeds a flat-rate quote, see our garage door service pricing guide.

Splitting parts and labour on the invoice

Labour is the service: the trip, the diagnosis, the removal of the old part, the install, the balance and the cycle test.

Both are taxable once you are registered, and in most provinces both carry the same rate. The split earns its place in your records, not in the rate. It is how you track cost and margin per line and how you build an input tax credit claim.

A spring replacement in Ontario, priced as an example with your own figures substituted:

That structure travels. Swap the tax line for the rate where the work happened, and the parts and labour split stays put.

The five lines to run on every invoice:

Put the same structure in your garage door service quote template so the customer sees the split before you book. A clean quote becomes a clean invoice.

When you buy that spring or opener, you generally pay GST/HST to the supplier. Registered, you claim it back as an input tax credit. Unregistered, it is a cost you absorb.

GST only, HST, or GST plus QST

Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba charge the 5% federal goods and services tax. So do Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Alberta has no provincial sales tax, but British Columbia and Saskatchewan each have a provincial sales tax (PST) and Manitoba has the retail sales tax (RST). Those provincial taxes generally reach the goods rather than the service call, so parts and materials you sell can carry more than GST; check the province's rule before you price parts.

Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador charge HST, one harmonized line that folds the federal and provincial portions together.

Quebec charges GST plus QST on two separate lines, and that gets its own section below.

Rates change. Check the CRA's GST/HST calculator and rate list before you print a new template rather than trusting a rate you memorized.

Nova Scotia shows why the check matters: the CRA says that on April 1, 2025 the Government of Nova Scotia decreased the provincial portion of the HST, so confirm the current Nova Scotia rate with the CRA before you use that row.

A one-province business can set a default rate and be right almost every time. A business that crosses a border cannot, because the rate is per invoice, not per business.

New to the registrations that sit alongside tax? The licensing and compliance guide covers how they stack.

Invoicing Quebec customers from an out-of-province van

Quebec does not use HST. It charges the federal GST and a separate provincial tax, the QST, which Revenu Quebec administers. The QST stacks on top of the GST rather than replacing it, so a Quebec invoice carries GST 5% and QST 9.975% on two lines.

If the place of supply is Quebec, you charge both, whether you are based in Sherbrooke or driving in from Cornwall, Ontario.

An out-of-province van doing Quebec work should confirm its QST registration obligation and filing requirements directly with Revenu Quebec, which sets those thresholds and rules separately from the CRA.

A Quebec spring replacement, again with illustrative figures:

Both lines are expected. A Quebec business customer needs them to claim its own input tax credits and QST refunds.

Charge HST to a Quebec customer by mistake and you have collected the wrong tax. The fix is a credit note, a corrected invoice and a call to your accountant. Set your software to pick the rate from the service address instead.

Quebec also has its own consumer protection rules and its own workplace safety body, CNESST. Tax is one registration among several for a van crossing that border. Our guide to getting a garage door service business ready to open legally covers the rest.

Registering with the CRA for GST and HST

Registration is what lets you charge GST/HST and claim input tax credits, and it stops being optional once taxable supplies pass the small-supplier threshold. See the FAQ below for the threshold amount and test.

The test is based on revenue, not profit. A one-van residential repair business may stay under it for a while; a crew doing new-home installs or commercial contracts crosses it faster.

Once you register, you charge tax on all taxable supplies from that point, not only the jobs that pushed you over.

Voluntary registration before the threshold is often right for a garage door business, because it lets you recover the GST/HST you pay on springs, openers and truck stock.

You register through the CRA on form RC1, receive a business number with a GST/HST account, and file the GST/HST return, form GST34, on a set cycle. Quebec is separate: the QST return is form FPZ-500, filed with Revenu Quebec. The CRA's file your GST/HST return page covers the mechanics.

Put the number on every invoice. A commercial customer who cannot see it may not be able to claim its own input tax credit, and that is a reason to call someone else.

Filing, remitting and claiming input tax credits on parts

Filing is where the tax you collected meets the tax you paid. Report the GST/HST you charged, subtract the input tax credits you can claim, remit the difference. Credits above what you collected come back as a refund.

Your reporting period is set when you register, based on revenue. Small businesses often file annually or quarterly, larger ones monthly, and you can ask the CRA to change the frequency. The GST/HST return is due one month after the end of the reporting period, or three months after the fiscal year-end for annual filers, and Quebec's QST return follows the same one-month cycle with Revenu Quebec.

Deadlines carry interest and penalties. Put the filing date in the calendar the day you register and treat it like a customer appointment.

Input tax credits are the line garage door owners leave on the table. Every spring, cable, roller, hinge, opener and remote bought for a taxable job carries GST/HST. A registered business recovers it.

There are limits. Purchases used for exempt supplies, and some personal-use items, do not qualify. Keep receipts matched to job numbers so the trail is followable.

A folder per month, the job number written on each supplier invoice, and a total at filing time is enough. Your bookkeeper can do the work, but the records have to exist first. For how equipment choices feed those costs, see our guide to garage door service equipment brands.

Move the tax you collect into a separate account. It was never working capital, and treating it as such is how contractors get caught short in a remittance month.

A multi-province routine that holds up

The routine starts on the work order: service address, province or territory, date. That is your evidence of place of supply, and the invoice should mirror it line for line.

Invoice wording stays plain. Service address, parts and labour, tax rate, tax amount, GST/HST number. Quebec jobs show QST on its own line.

Keep a rate sheet for the provinces you work in and confirm it against the CRA's guidance on charging and collecting the GST/HST whenever rates change, so no template goes stale.

Records to hold: work orders, invoices, supplier receipts, bank statements and filed returns, kept six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, which is the retention period the CRA's record-keeping rules require.

A worked example. A two-van crew based in Winnipeg runs four jobs in a week. Monday in Winnipeg, GST 5%. Tuesday in Regina, GST 5%. Wednesday in Thunder Bay, HST 13%. Thursday in Montreal, GST 5% plus QST 9.975%. Same crew, same parts, three tax treatments, all decided by the address on the work order.

That is the discipline. The place of supply sets the rate, the invoice shows the split, the records back it up. A garage door service business that holds to it can work across Canada without dreading a review.

Common questions

Do I charge tax on my shop address or the customer's address?

The customer's service address. The place of supply for a garage door call is where the work happens, so the rate of that province or territory applies to the invoice.

What is the small-supplier threshold for GST/HST?

Generally, if you provide taxable property and services in Canada and your total taxable revenues exceed $30,000 in any single calendar quarter or in four consecutive calendar quarters, you will have to register for the GST/HST, as BDC's GST/HST threshold guidance states.

Do I need a separate QST registration in Quebec?

Whether you need a separate QST registration depends on Revenu Quebec's rules for your situation. Confirm the registration threshold and application process directly with Revenu Quebec; QST registration and filing are separate from your CRA GST/HST account.

Can I claim back the GST/HST I pay on parts?

Yes, if you are registered and the parts go into taxable supplies. That is an input tax credit, claimed on your GST/HST return, and it is why voluntary registration often pays for a parts-heavy garage door business.

What happens if I charge the wrong rate?

You owe the correct tax to the CRA and may need to credit the customer. A credit note and a corrected invoice is the usual fix, so keep the original on file.