CRA publishes a new GST/HST memorandum on the provincial place-of-supply rules for services

CRA has published a new GST/HST memorandum on the place of supply rules for determining in which province a supply of a service is made for GST/HST purposes. Comments included:

• Regarding the application of the general rule in s. 13(1)(b) of the applicable Regulations - that if a supplier obtains more than one address of the recipient in the ordinary course of business, the applicable address for place of supply purposes is the one that is “most closely connected with the supply - CRA confirmed its position that the contracting address of the recipient, i.e., the address of the office of the recipient from which the supplier was hired, generally is the most closely connected address.
• For instance, in Example 11, where an Ontario law firm contracts with the Ontario head office of a corporation to provide a legal opinion to the corporation's British Columbia office and thereafter deals only with that B.C. office, its supply nonetheless is considered to be made in Ontario because that is the province of the contracting address.
• Regarding the special rule in s. 16 of such Regulations, regarding where a supply of a service is “in relation to” tangible personal property (TPP) situated in a province, CRA indicated (in Example 5) that where a Quebec law firm is hired by a P.E.I. company to provide tax advice regarding a supply of TPP situated in P.E.I., the s. 16 rule would not apply given the indirect relationship between the purpose of the service and the TPP – so that the address rule in s. 13 would instead apply.
• Regarding the rule in s. 13(2) of those Regulations, which may apply where the supplier does not receive an address of the recipient (e.g., it only receives an email address), so that generally reference instead is made to where the Canadian element of the services is “performed,” CRA provided an extensive discussion of its interpretation of the meaning of this term.
• For instance, it indicated that reference may be made to where all the relevant activities are performed (e.g., report writing), rather than just the delivery of the end service (the advice).
• It also noted that it may be relevant to consider not only where the task is physically performed by the personnel but also the sites of any equipment of the recipient if that equipment is accessed and used remotely by the supplier – although, that said, CRA did not provide any examples where the province of the supply of the service was other than where the people involved were predominantly performing their activities.

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of GST/HST Memorandum 3-3-6, Place of Supply in a Province – General Rules for Services, April 2026 under New Harmonized Value-added Tax System Regulations, s. 13(1)(a), s. 13(1)(b), s. 13(1)(c), s. 13(2), s. 16, s. 18.