If your British Columbia business sells through Amazon, Etsy, a regional platform, or any third-party online marketplace — or if you operate such a platform — your PST collection responsibilities change on July 1, 2022. Announced in BC Budget 2022, the new marketplace facilitator rules shift the duty to collect and remit PST onto the platform operator for sales made through it, and they newly tax certain services the platform charges its sellers. The result is genuinely good news for many small sellers and a meaningful new compliance burden for facilitators. The danger is the business that misreads which side of the line it sits on. This post sorts that out.
What the new rules do
Under the rules taking effect July 1, 2022, an online marketplace facilitator — broadly, an operator that lists third-party sellers' goods and services and facilitates the sale and payment — becomes responsible for collecting and remitting BC PST on the taxable sales made through its platform. The obligation covers taxable goods shipped from within Canada for delivery in BC, and extends to most taxable services, accommodation, and software supplied in the province.
Two consequences follow directly:
- Marketplace sellers are relieved of the obligation to collect and remit PST on the sales they make through a registered facilitator — regardless of whether the seller is itself registered for PST.
- Online marketplace services are now taxable. Many of the services a facilitator charges its sellers — listing, advertising, fulfilment-type services, payment handling — become subject to PST. So a seller who is relieved of collecting tax on sales may simultaneously start paying PST on the platform fees it is charged.
There is a registration threshold: a facilitator with at least $10,000 of relevant annual gross revenue is required to register and collect.
These BC changes sit alongside a broader trend you have likely already felt. In recent years, BC extended PST registration to many out-of-province and online sellers of goods, software, and telecommunication services delivered into the province, lowering the old "carrying on business in BC" bar for digital commerce. The July 1, 2022 marketplace rules are the next step in that arc: rather than chasing thousands of individual small sellers, the province places the collection duty on the platform that already sits at the centre of the transaction. Understanding that direction of travel helps you anticipate where your obligations are heading, not just where they are today.
Which side of the line are you on?
This is the question that determines everything. Work through it deliberately.
You are a marketplace seller if you list and sell your goods or services through a third-party platform that handles the transaction. From July 1, for sales through a registered facilitator, you no longer collect PST on those sales — the platform does. But watch two things: (1) sales you make through your own website or other direct channels are unchanged and remain your responsibility, and (2) you may now be charged PST on the platform's services to you.
You are a marketplace facilitator if you operate a platform that lists other sellers' offerings and facilitates the sale and payment. From July 1, you must register (if over the $10,000 threshold), configure your system to collect PST on qualifying BC sales, and remit it — across potentially thousands of third-party transactions.
You may be both — for example, a business that sells its own products on its site while also hosting other vendors. Each role carries its own obligations and must be handled separately.
A worked example: a hybrid BC seller-platform
Consider Salish Goods Co., a Burnaby business that sells its own homewares on Amazon and Etsy and runs a small curated website hosting a dozen independent BC artisans, taking a commission on each sale.
Scenario A — assume nothing changed. Salish keeps collecting and remitting PST on its Amazon and Etsy sales as before, and ignores its own platform's new role. Two errors result. First, for sales through the major registered facilitators, the platform now collects the PST — so Salish risks double-handling, reconciliation confusion, and potentially over-remitting on sales it no longer needs to tax. Second, and more seriously, its own curated site makes Salish a facilitator for the dozen artisans it hosts. By not registering or collecting on those third-party sales, Salish is now non-compliant on a duty it did not realize it had acquired.
Scenario B — map both roles and reconfigure. Salish separates the two streams. On its Amazon/Etsy sales, it confirms the facilitators are registered and collecting, and adjusts its own filings so it is not also remitting that PST. On its curated site, it registers as a facilitator, configures the cart to collect BC PST on the artisans' qualifying sales, and remits accordingly — relieving those twelve artisans of the obligation. It also books the PST it now pays on Amazon/Etsy service fees as a new input cost. The administrative work is real, but the exposure — collecting on the wrong stream, missing the facilitator duty entirely — is eliminated.
The lesson: the rules do not just change whether you collect; they can change your role, and a hybrid business can be a seller and a facilitator at the same time.
A short action list before July 1
- Classify each sales channel — own website, each marketplace, any platform you operate — as seller or facilitator.
- Confirm your marketplaces are registered so you know which sales the platform will collect on and stop remitting those yourself.
- Register as a facilitator if you host third-party sellers and exceed the $10,000 threshold, and configure tax collection in your cart.
- Update your accounting to capture PST now charged on marketplace service fees as an input cost.
- Reconcile carefully through the transition so no sale is taxed twice and none falls through the gap.
Watch the cash-flow and reconciliation mechanics
The change is not only about who collects — it changes the shape of your sales-tax cash flow and your month-end reconciliation, and both deserve attention. When a facilitator collects PST on your sales, that tax never passes through your bank account, so your own PST remittance shrinks for those channels. If you have been informally relying on collected-but-not-yet-remitted PST as a short-term cash buffer in your operating account — a more common habit than owners admit — that float partly disappears for marketplace sales. Plan for it rather than discover it.
Reconciliation is the other place the transition bites. Your bookkeeping must now distinguish, channel by channel, between sales where you collected PST and sales where the platform did. Mixing them produces a PST return that either over-remits (you pay tax the platform already remitted) or under-remits (you miss tax on a channel you still control). Set up your chart of accounts and your platform-payout mapping before July 1 so each stream is tagged from the first transaction. A clean split at the source is far cheaper than untangling a quarter's worth of blended sales when the return is due.
Frequently asked questions
I only sell my own products on Amazon — does this help me? Yes. For those sales through a registered facilitator, the platform handles PST collection and remittance from July 1, lifting that task from you. Your direct-channel sales are unchanged.
I run a small platform hosting other sellers — am I caught even if I'm tiny? If your relevant gross revenue reaches the $10,000 threshold, you are required to register and collect as a facilitator. Below it, check the rules carefully before assuming you are out.
Will I start paying more PST as a seller? Possibly — the rules make many marketplace services taxable, so the fees the platform charges you may now carry PST. That is a new input cost to budget for.
Key takeaways
- From July 1, 2022, online marketplace facilitators collect and remit BC PST on qualifying sales made through their platforms, relieving sellers of that duty on those sales.
- Many marketplace services charged to sellers become taxable — a seller may stop collecting on sales while starting to pay PST on platform fees.
- The registration threshold for facilitators is $10,000 of relevant annual gross revenue.
- First decide your role on each channel — seller, facilitator, or both — because a hybrid business can be both at once.
- Reconfigure tax collection, confirm your platforms are registered, and reconcile through the transition so nothing is taxed twice or missed.
In sales-tax compliance, the costly mistake is rarely the rate — it is misjudging whose job the collecting now is.
If you sell or operate across multiple online channels and want certainty on your post-July-1 PST obligations, RN Canada offers indirect-tax and fractional CFO support to BC businesses. Let us map your channels before the rules take effect.