Free download · no email required
CSV: every Quebec-relevant Xero rate, account-class validity and what to use it for.
Download the tax-rate list (CSV)Quebec’s tax system asks the least improvisation of any Canadian province once its two facts are absorbed: the QST is a real value-added tax that comes back to registrants, and Revenu Quebec administers both it and the GST through one return. This reference covers the Xero rate set that expresses those facts, what ships, what you add, and where each rate is valid.
The seeded pair, 14.975% that mostly vanishes
QC - GST/QST on Purchases and QC - GST/QST on Sales arrive with every Canadian Xero organisation: 5% GST plus 9.975% QST, side by side on the same base since Quebec de-cascaded the calculation. For a registered business the purchase side nets out, input tax credit for the federal half, input tax refund for the provincial one, which is why Quebec cost accounting is gentler than BC’s despite the bigger headline number. The sales side collects both for remittance to Revenu Quebec.
The other provinces’ pairs sit alongside for cross-border lines: the Ontario client’s 13%, the Alberta delivery’s 5%, each already named and rated.
The four rates you add
Xero seeds no GST-only rate and no zeros, so a working Quebec org adds four custom rates under Tax settings:
- GST on Purchases (5%): the honesty rate. Suppliers elsewhere in Canada without QST registration bill GST alone, and this rate records their invoices as they are, leaving any QST self-assessment as a visible, deliberate step rather than a fabricated 14.975%.
- Zero Rated (0%): groceries, exports, international transport; recoveries intact under both taxes.
- Exempt (0%): financial services, insurance, residential rent; no recoveries on related costs.
- Out of Scope (0%): payroll, permits, donations, transfers.
Validity, and the two-registration habit
Rate validity follows the standard pattern: purchases rates exclude revenue accounts, sales rates exclude expenses and equity, custom zeros travel everywhere; the CSV renders the full grid. The habit that is genuinely Quebec’s own sits on invoices rather than rates: both registration numbers, GST and QST, belong on everything you issue, because your customers’ ITCs and ITRs cite them and Revenu Quebec expects them.
Nova Scotia’s 2025 rate change remains the standing reminder that provincial rates move; a January review of any hand-copied rates costs minutes.
A supplier’s-eye view of the list
Reading incoming bills against the rate list is the fastest training there is. The Montreal wholesaler bills 14.975%: the seeded pair, both components recoverable. The Toronto consultant bills 5%: the custom GST-only rate. The California SaaS bills nothing, or bills tax under a simplified regime: out of scope, or a prompt to send your numbers. The insurance broker bills premium plus Quebec’s own premium tax: exempt rate, tax-inclusive cost. Four suppliers, four codings, no ambiguity once the list is set up.
One reporting note earns its keep at filing time: the combined return wants the federal and provincial components separately, and Xero’s tax reports break the seeded pair into its GST and QST parts as long as lines were coded with the pair rather than with hand-built substitutes. That is the quiet argument for using the seeded rate everywhere it applies and reserving the customs for the cases they were built for; improvised 14.975% rates report as one blob and hand month-end a decomposition exercise.
Tax rates cannot be CSV-imported, so this reference plus ten minutes of setup is the whole job, and the matching Quebec chart of accounts for Xero assumes it is done. At document volume the decisions repeat endlessly. Hubdoc captures the stream. ExpenseFlow reads each bill, distinguishes combined-tax from GST-only suppliers, applies the recovery exceptions, and posts correctly coded entries into Xero. Dext keeps the recurring vendors ruled. The QuickBooks side of the same system is covered in the Quebec QuickBooks sales tax codes.