HST stands for Harmonized Sales Tax. When we purchase a taxable goods or services in Canada, we pay to the seller, the price for the goods and services plus the applicable GST/HST. The seller of the goods and services, collects the GST/HST form us and remit these to the Canada Revenue Agency. Hence HST is basically an indirect tax which paid by us but CRA collects this through the seller. HST has two component. One is GST (Goods and Services Tax) which is a federal sales tax and the provincial sales tax. Instead of charging separately, many provinces have joined the Federal government program which is a Harmonized Sales Tax program. So when you pay 13% HST in Ontario, 5% GST goes to the Federal Government and 8% sales tax goes to the funds of the Ontario government.
QST stands for Quebec Sales Tax. Quebec has signed the Harmonized Sales program of the Federal government and hence we pay GST and QST separately when we buy a taxable goods or services in the province of Quebec.
If you want to learn more about GST/HST, please click the link below or contact RKB Accounting.