If your business sells or leases taxable goods or services in British Columbia, you generally cannot wait until year-end to think about PST — you need to be registered before your first taxable sale. This guide walks through exactly who must register, who is exempt as a small seller, the thresholds for out-of-province sellers, and the two ways to apply: eTaxBC and the paper FIN 418. For what PST actually taxes and at what rate, start with our BC PST explained guide; this guide picks up where that one leaves off and focuses only on getting registered correctly.
Who must register
You must register to collect PST if, in the ordinary course of business, you:
- Sell or lease taxable goods in BC (retail, wholesale with no resale certificate on file, or equipment leasing).
- Sell taxable services in BC, including legal services and, from October 1, 2026, the newly taxable professional services (accounting, non-residential real estate, and architecture/engineering/geoscience at the reduced 30%-of-fee base).
- Lease goods to customers in BC, even if you are located outside the province.
Registration is required before your first taxable sale or lease — you cannot register retroactively to cover sales you already made without a PST number. If you are unsure whether what you sell is taxable, confirm it before you register or decide not to, since BC can assess unremitted PST retroactively against sellers who guessed wrong.
The small seller exemption
BC exempts genuinely small operations from registering. You may qualify as a small seller if all of the following are generally true:
- Gross revenue from all your sales and leases was under $10,000 in the previous 12 months.
- You operate from your home or have no fixed place of business (a storefront, showroom or office generally disqualifies you).
- You have no more than two employees working in the business at any one time.
The exemption does not apply to sellers of vehicles, boats, aircraft, or software, and it does not apply to most services — so a home-based bookkeeper approaching the October 2026 PST expansion should not assume the small seller exemption covers them. If your situation is close to these thresholds, verify against the current criteria on gov.bc.ca before deciding not to register — the cost of being wrong falls on the seller, not the customer.
Out-of-province and non-resident sellers
BC PST is not limited to businesses physically located in the province. An out-of-province or non-resident seller — including many online retailers — must register once its taxable sales delivered into BC reach $10,000 or more over the preceding 12 months. This threshold exists specifically to capture remote sellers shipping goods or providing taxable services to BC customers without a local presence.
Two practical points:
- The $10,000 test looks backward over a rolling 12-month period, not a calendar year, so track it continuously rather than checking once a year.
- A seller below the threshold can still register voluntarily. Some businesses do this to simplify customer-facing pricing (collecting PST at checkout rather than leaving BC customers to self-assess) or because they expect to cross the threshold soon.
eTaxBC vs. the paper FIN 418
You have two ways to register:
| Method | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| eTaxBC (online) | Create an eTaxBC account and complete the PST registration application electronically | Most businesses — faster processing, immediate submission confirmation, same login used later for filing and paying |
| FIN 418 (paper form) | Complete "Application for Registration for Provincial Sales Tax" and mail or deliver it to the Ministry of Finance | Businesses that cannot access eTaxBC, or that need to attach supporting documents the online form doesn't accept |
eTaxBC is the recommended route for almost everyone. It is free, available any time, and BC typically issues your PST number faster than a mailed FIN 418. Once registered through eTaxBC, the same account is where you will later file returns and remit — see our companion guide on BC PST filing and remittance for what happens after you register.
What information you need before you start
Have the following ready so the application goes through in one pass:
- Legal business name and any operating or trade name.
- Business Number (BN) from the CRA, if you already have one (a GST/HST registration does not itself register you for PST — the two are separate accounts).
- Business structure — sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation, plus incorporation details if applicable.
- Mailing address and physical business address(es), including any BC locations.
- A description of what you sell, lease, or provide, so BC can confirm it is taxable and assign the right reporting category.
- An estimate of your annual taxable sales, used as a starting point for assigning your filing frequency (see the filing guide for how that assignment works).
- Your desired effective date of registration.
Choosing your effective date
You can generally register up to six months before your first taxable sale, which is useful if you know a launch date in advance and want your PST number and systems ready ahead of time. If you are already selling taxable goods or services and have not registered, apply immediately — BC does not backdate registration to reduce the exposure for unregistered taxable sales you have already made, and interest and penalties can apply to the gap.
For the October 1, 2026 professional services expansion specifically, affected firms that are not already PST-registered can apply from April 1, 2026 onward, giving up to six months to register, update invoicing systems, and train staff before the new taxability rules take effect on October 1.
What happens after you register
Once BC processes your application, you will receive:
- A PST registration number, which you must show on invoices and use in all correspondence with the ministry.
- A confirmation of your assigned filing frequency (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual), based on your estimated sales — see our BC PST filing and remittance guide for exactly how that works and what each return requires.
- Access to file and pay through eTaxBC going forward.
From that point, you are required to collect PST on every taxable sale, keep records supporting taxable and exempt transactions, retain any exemption certificates from customers, and file a return — including a nil return — every period, even one with no taxable sales.
How RN Canada helps
RN Canada is an accounting and advisory firm with a Vancouver, British Columbia office (head office in Edmonton, Alberta) that registers clients for BC PST, determines whether the small seller exemption genuinely applies, and sets up invoicing and bookkeeping systems to collect PST correctly from day one. With the October 1, 2026 expansion bringing accounting and other professional services into scope, we are helping affected firms register and prepare in advance rather than scrambling at the deadline. Our founder, Ozgur Duymaz, holds the CPA (Canada), ACCA (UK), and CMA (US) designations. See our tax return preparation service, the broader GST, HST, and PST guide for Canada, or use our sales tax calculator to estimate PST on a sale.
Frequently asked questions
Any business that sells or leases taxable goods, or sells taxable services, in the ordinary course of business in British Columbia must register to collect PST — before making the first taxable sale, unless it qualifies as a small seller. This includes BC-based retailers, lessors of goods, and (from October 1, 2026) firms selling the newly taxable professional services covered in our BC PST guide.
A small seller — generally a business with under $10,000 in gross revenue from all sales and leases in the prior 12 months, operating from a home or without a fixed retail premises, with no more than two employees at any time — is not required to register or collect PST. The exemption is narrow and does not apply to sellers of software, vehicles, or most services; check your situation against the current gov.bc.ca criteria before relying on it.
An out-of-province or non-resident seller must register once its sales of taxable goods or services delivered into BC reach $10,000 or more over the preceding 12 months. This captures many online and mail-order sellers with no physical BC presence. Sellers below the threshold can register voluntarily if they want to collect and remit PST rather than leave the obligation to BC customers.
Register online through eTaxBC where possible — it is faster, gives immediate confirmation of submission, and lets you manage filing and payment from the same login afterward. The paper FIN 418 (Application for Registration for Provincial Sales Tax) exists for businesses that cannot use eTaxBC, but it takes longer to process and still needs to be mailed or dropped off.
You need your legal business name and any operating (trade) name, your Business Number (BN) if you have one, mailing and business addresses, a description of what you sell or lease, an estimate of your annual taxable sales, your business structure (sole proprietor, partnership, corporation), and the date you want registration to take effect.
No. Registering for a BC PST number through eTaxBC or the FIN 418 is free. The obligation that follows registration — collecting PST on taxable sales, filing returns on your assigned schedule, and remitting the tax — is where the ongoing cost and compliance burden sits, not the registration itself.