QUEBEC CITY – While the federal government still has not acted to implement a regime where digital operators, including the FAANGs of this world (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google), collect federal sales tax, the Quebec Government reports it has now, through the 559 operators of registrant suppliers from outside Québec, collected a total of $128 million since the implementation of the new regime in January 2019.
That sum should be higher because the deadline for paying the government has been extended, because of Covid-19, to June 30.
A year ago, in May 2019, after a quarter the sum was $15 million from 102 operators and in August, $38 million from 108 foreign digital companies.
Back in September, Revenu Québec indicated it would make efforts to include as many operators as possible and clearly they have done so. Of course, that cash comes out of the pockets of Quebecers paying that sales tax.
The only other province collecting sales tax collected by foreign digital companies is Saskatchewan, but that province has not yet released the revenue it earns from the sales tax it applied in 2019.
