If you sell on Amazon.ca from outside Canada, the most common question I get is some version of "do I even need to bother with Canadian sales tax, since Amazon collects it?" The honest answer is that registering is less about compliance box-ticking and more about your margins. Skip it and you are simply leaving a chunk of money in Ottawa.
The setup, quickly
GST is a 5 percent federal tax. Some provinces fold it into a higher combined HST, so the rate a customer pays depends on where the order ships. If you are not registered, Amazon collects that tax from the buyer and remits it directly to CRA. Once you register and configure Seller Central correctly, Amazon collects it and includes it in your disbursements instead.
Why a non-resident should register anyway
This is the margin story, and it is the whole point:
- You recover the 5 percent import GST. You are almost certainly paying GST when your goods cross into Canada. Registered, you claim it back on your GST/HST return. Unregistered, it is just a 5 percent cost you absorb on every shipment.
- You claim input tax credits on your Canadian expenses. The GST/HST on Canadian freight and warehousing, Amazon fees, prep centres, and certain Canadian software all comes back to you once you are registered.
- You stay onside with CRA. Amazon shares seller data with CRA, so being unregistered when you should be registered is not a quiet position to sit in.
Add the import GST recovery and the ITCs together and registration usually pays for itself many times over. It is one of the few compliance steps that actively makes you money.
One thing sellers constantly mix up
Your importer number and your GST number are not the same thing. The importer account (it ends in RM) lets you act as importer of record at the border. The GST/HST account (it ends in RT) lets you charge tax, file returns, and reclaim what you have paid. They live under the same Business Number but are separate registrations, and if you are importing and selling through Amazon.ca, you generally need both.
How filing usually looks
Most non-resident sellers file annually to keep the admin light, though CRA can move you to more frequent filing as your sales grow. Because non-residents cannot easily access CRA's online portals directly, this is the kind of thing where having a Canadian CPA act as your representative removes most of the friction.
We wrote the full step-by-step, from getting your Business Number to configuring Seller Central and filing your first return, on our firm's site: GST/HST for Amazon.ca Sellers: A Guide for Non-Residents.
We help non-resident sellers register, configure Amazon correctly, and recover what they are owed. The plain-English version goes out in the newsletter.