Who collects PST on online orders in BC? Marketplace facilitators, the 10,000 dollar line and your fees

If a delivery or ordering platform takes orders for your restaurant and collects payment from the guest, a special set of PST rules applies to the sale, and to the fees the platform charges you. Most owners hear about them only when a statement shows a new PST line. The rules are in the Ministry of Finance's Bulletin PST 142, revised in March 2025.

What is an online marketplace facilitator?

A business that does all of these: it contracts with online marketplace sellers, operates an online platform such as a website or app to facilitate the retail sale of goods, software or services between sellers and online buyers, and collects the payment from the purchasers. If it hires someone else to collect payment from customers, it is still treated as collecting. A platform that only puts buyers and sellers in touch, and leaves payment to them, is not a facilitator. A restaurant that sells through such a platform is an online marketplace seller.

Who collects PST on the sale?

Generally, the seller is not required to collect PST on sales made through the marketplace. Instead, the facilitator who operates the platform must collect and remit it. This applies to taxable goods. Food is not what triggers it. What is taxable in a restaurant order is the kind of thing in the PST list: alcohol and soda beverages. The Ministry's definitions are about goods, software and taxable services in general, so the practical question for you is whether the order contained something taxable.

A facilitator does not have to register if it facilitates only non-taxable or exempt sales. That means a platform that only moves meals, which carry no PST, is not collecting PST on them.

What about the 10,000 dollar threshold?

A facilitator is not required to register if the gross value of retail sales of goods, software and taxable services it made or facilitated in the preceding 12 months was 10,000 dollars or less, or if it reasonably estimates that figure will be 10,000 dollars or less for the next 12 months. The bulletin does not say who collects PST on a taxable sale facilitated by an unregistered platform below that line. It says only that the seller may need to collect and remit on taxable sales it makes outside the marketplace, such as through its own website or location. If your platform is small, ask the Ministry in writing (CTBTaxQuestions@gov.bc.ca) how your soft drink and liquor sales through it should be handled, and keep the reply.

What is a marketplace service, and is it taxable?

PST applies at 7 percent to online marketplace services, which include listing, advertising or promotions, customer service, storage, fulfilling orders, collecting or facilitating payments and transferring them to the seller, and handling cancellations and returns. The Ministry's own example is a restaurant located in BC that sells its food to customers in BC through an online marketplace: the facilitator charges a fee to advertise the food on its website, and the restaurant must pay PST on that fee.

Since 1 July 2023 PST generally applies to these services whether the seller is selling taxable, exempt or non-taxable goods. So the commission and advertising lines on your platform statement can carry 7 percent PST even though your meals do not.

What if the platform does not charge it?

You must self-assess. With a PST number, you do it on your next PST return. Without one, you file a Casual Remittance Return (FIN 405) on or before the last day of the month after you bought the service.

Are you still liable for tax the platform missed?

The bulletin says a seller remains jointly and severally liable for any PST or MRDT not collected and remitted by the facilitator for the seller's sales. That is a reason to read your platform agreement and keep your own sales records.

Sales outside the platform

If you take orders on your own website or at your counter, those are your sales. Where they include taxable goods, you may need to register and collect PST yourself. See registering for GST and PST.

What to do this month

1. Read the PST lines on your last three platform statements.
2. Ask the platform whether it is registered as a facilitator.
3. Find out if any of your orders include liquor or soft drinks.
4. Self-assess any fee that was not taxed.
5. Keep a record of the Ministry's answers.

On the fee cap that applies to the large platforms, read BC's delivery app fee cap. On the PST you pay on equipment, see PST on what your restaurant buys.

More in the Canadian guides for food businesses.