What to take away
- If you are registered, you generally charge GST/HST on taxable digital sales made in Canada, at the rate for the buyer’s province in most cases.
- The CRA sorts electronic sales into intangible personal property or services, and a pre-recorded course and live coaching can land on different sides.
- Exempt education and zero-rated exports are narrow categories. Do not assume your course or your foreign buyer qualifies without checking.
Digital sales are generally taxable sales
The CRA describes electronic commerce as transactions limited to supplies of intangible personal property and services. If you are registered for GST/HST, you generally have to charge and collect the tax on all taxable supplies of property and services you make in Canada, other than zero-rated supplies. A download, a membership or an online class does not escape the tax because nothing is shipped.
Whether you must be registered at all is a separate question. A small supplier, generally someone who has not exceeded $30,000 in taxable revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters, is not required to register or charge. Creators often cross that line gradually because sales come from many small payments. Our GST/HST registration checker and guide on registration questions explain how to test your own totals.
Property or service? How the CRA sorts digital sales
The CRA’s e-commerce page places typical electronic supplies into categories. A downloadable product, such as software, an app, music, a game or any digital file, is intangible personal property. So is a subscription to a website that lets people download products, and so is a subscription to a database or an interactive website. In general, a supply is intangible personal property when you provide a right to use a product, when the product already exists or when it is made for a group of customers who receive rights to it.
A supply is generally a service when it involves specific work for a specific customer, there is human involvement and any rights given are incidental. Information provided electronically can be either, depending on those facts. The distinction matters because the place-of-supply rules differ for property and services, and so can the rate you charge.
Where an online course fits
The CRA’s e-commerce guidance does not give an example for online courses, so this is an application of its general tests rather than a ruling. A pre-recorded course that many students can access looks like intangible personal property, because it is an existing product and each student receives a right to view it. One-to-one coaching or live feedback on a student’s work looks more like a service, because it is specific work for a specific person.
Many courses are mixed: recorded lessons plus a community, office hours or graded assignments. The CRA says a supply may not fit neatly into any category and that you can request a decision if you are uncertain. For a meaningful revenue stream, ask an accountant to document how you characterize each offering, and keep that note with your records.
Which rate to charge your Canadian buyers
The rate depends on the place of supply. If the supply is made in a participating province, you charge that province’s HST. If it is made in a non-participating province, you charge 5% GST. Ontario is 13%, and Nova Scotia is 14% since April 1, 2025.
For intangible personal property, the CRA’s rules generally look first at where the Canadian rights can be used. When the rights are not mainly tied to one kind of province, a later test points to the buyer’s address, meaning the province of the address you obtain in the normal course of business, if the property can be used there. Without such an address, a different rule applies, based on the highest rate among provinces where it can be used. Smaller in-person sales have their own rule. In practice, collect a billing address at checkout and keep it with the order. Our article on charging GST/HST outside Ontario covers the broader rate rules, including services.
When education may be exempt
Some educational services are exempt, meaning no GST/HST is charged on them and the supplier generally cannot claim input tax credits for related purchases. The CRA lists, for example, instruction by a vocational school in courses leading to certificates, diplomas or licences that attest to competence in a trade or vocation, unless the supplier made an election on Form GST29. It also lists tutoring in a course that is approved for credit by a school authority or follows a curriculum it designated.
This is a short and specific list. A general skills course does not generally become exempt just because it is educational. If you think your course fits an exemption, get advice before relying on it, because exempt supplies generally do not carry input tax credits, and a business that makes only exempt supplies generally cannot register for GST/HST.
Buyers outside Canada
A supply of intangible personal property to a non-resident may still be treated as made in Canada, for example where the buyer can use it in Canada. But if the buyer is a non-resident who is not registered for GST/HST, the sale could be an export and be zero-rated, meaning taxed at 0%. The CRA says you must verify that the supply is eligible before zero-rating it, and points to its info sheet on exports of intangible property and its memoranda on residence status and on services and intellectual property.
A checkbox on your checkout page is unlikely to be enough on its own. Keep evidence of the buyer’s residence and status at the time of sale. Our article on charging GST/HST outside Ontario explains zero-rating more generally. Separate digital economy rules apply to non-resident businesses selling to Canadian consumers, and they are not the focus of this article.
Marketplaces, payment processors and invoicing
If you sell through a platform, check who is actually charging the tax. The CRA’s digital economy rules make certain platform operators responsible for GST/HST on sales by non-resident vendors who are not registered under the normal regime. A payment processor that only processes payments is excluded from the definition of platform operator, so a card processor is not collecting tax for you. Do not assume a tool is handling tax until you have confirmed its role in writing.
Whatever the channel, your customers must be told whether GST/HST is included, or be shown the amount or the rate. For HST, show the total HST rate rather than the federal and provincial parts. Set up separate tax codes for each rate, for zero-rated sales and for any exempt sales, so reports separate them cleanly.
Records, credits and what to bring
If you register, you may claim input tax credits on expenses that support your taxable sales, such as software, hosting, advertising, editing and equipment, with supporting documents. That is a reason some creators register voluntarily even below $30,000, but registration also commits you to charging tax and filing returns.
Before a conversation with an accountant, gather sales exports by customer and order date, the address captured at checkout, platform payout statements, a description of each offering and any documents on how you decided its tax status. If you may have missed charging tax in earlier months, read our article on what to do about forgotten GST/HST. Sora’s GST/HST service includes registration questions and return preparation.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources checked October 24, 2026. The examples are illustrative and provide general information. Discuss how the guidance applies to your circumstances with your accountant.
- General information for GST/HST registrantsCanada Revenue Agency
- When to register for and start charging GST/HSTCanada Revenue Agency
- Input tax creditsCanada Revenue Agency
- Charge and collect the GST/HSTCanada Revenue Agency
- GST/HST rates and place-of-supply rulesCanada Revenue Agency
- GST/HST: Imports and exportsCanada Revenue Agency
- GST/HST and e-commerceCanada Revenue Agency
- Cross-border digital products or services: GST/HST for digital-economy businessesCanada Revenue Agency
Rules and guidance can change. Use the current official source and confirm the treatment for your facts. To flag an error, contact Sora.