New tax changes regarding Netflix and other streaming services have now come into effect in British Columbia.
Last month, the provincial government announced that digital services such as Netflix will be required to collect PST starting April 1st.
The tax measure, which was announced last year, was originally intended to go into effect on July 1st, 2020 but was delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“All sellers of digital software and telecommunication services will be required to collect PST on sales to B.C. customers if they have B.C. revenues of more than $10,000,” the government outlined in a news release last month.
Netflix has sent an email to residents in B.C. notifying them that they will be charged for PST in April as a result of the changes. Spotify sent a similar email to premium users notifying them that they will have to pay the same tax.
It’s worth noting that streaming services like Crave, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video already collect PST, as they have a brick-and-mortar presence in Canada.
The province now joins Saskatchewan and Quebec, which already have tax measures in place to collect provincial sales tax from digital companies.