British Columbia's PST on accounting services is paused, not repealed

Koby Smutylo is a business lawyer and mediator at Smutylo Law+ in Ottawa.

SOME B.C. government pages still describe October 1, 2026 as the day provincial sales tax began applying to accounting and bookkeeping services. It did not happen. On September 18, the Premier's Office announced that the expansion would be paused through a temporary regulation, with no new start date. The Premier linked any restart to the end of the trade war, and the Province estimated the pause would save businesses about $260 million in 2026-27.

The pause covers all five categories added by the Budget Measures Implementation Act, 2026: accounting and bookkeeping, architectural services, engineering and geoscience services (taxable on 30 per cent of the price, for an effective rate of 2.1 per cent), security and private investigation services, and non-residential real estate services.

What the pause does not do

The amendments to the Provincial Sales Tax Act remain on the books. The exemptions now come from regulation, and Cabinet can change a regulation without returning to the legislature. Watson Goepel and Miller Thomson both described the measure in late September as a postponement rather than a withdrawal.

Timing adds a further layer. The pause was announced on September 18. Four days later, the Premier asked for the legislature to be dissolved, and B.C. votes on October 24. Whoever forms government will decide whether the regulation stays.

Five things for firms and their clients

1. Do not add PST to invoices for these services. If PST was charged in error on work invoiced after October 1, either refund it to the client or remit it. Miller Thomson's reading is that PST collected must be remitted unless it has been refunded.

2. Cancel registrations made only for the expansion. The Province's guidance for accounting services, updated September 22, says that a business that registered for a PST account should cancel it through eTaxBC. Deal with any PST already collected first.

3. Check software settings. Practice-management and billing systems updated in September to add PST on October 1 may still be applying it. A recurring monthly bookkeeping invoice is the most likely place for the error to persist.

4. Draft engagement letters for a tax that may return. A multi-year fixed-fee engagement signed now could straddle a future start date. A clause allowing the firm to add any sales tax that becomes payable on the services, from the date it becomes payable, avoids absorbing seven per cent of the fee or renegotiating mid-engagement.

5. Expect the same questions from clients. Architects, engineering firms, security companies and commercial property managers face the same position. Many will ask their accountant before they ask anyone else. The answers are the same: no PST for now, cancel any registration made only for this, remit or refund anything charged in error, and allocate the risk of a restart in contracts.

What to watch

The regulation itself is the document to follow. If Cabinet amends or repeals it, the exemptions end on whatever date the new regulation sets, and firms may get little notice. Clients with fixed-price contracts running into 2027 are the ones most exposed if the tax returns.

Koby Smutylo is a business lawyer and principal of Smutylo Law+, with offices in Victoria, Vancouver, Ottawa and Markham. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Title image produced by ChatGPT. Author photo courtesy Smutylo Law+.