ERP and accounting software for Quebec: GST, QST, Bill 96

Quebec compliance in one view

A business located in Quebec charges 5% GST and 9.975% QST on taxable sales, files both on one combined electronic return with Revenu Québec, deducts Quebec payroll contributions and remits them to Revenu Québec, and must issue its invoices in French. It matters because Quebec is the one province where sales tax, payroll and language each follow rules the rest of Canada does not.

Revenu Québec is the key relationship. It administers the QST and, for Quebec-based businesses, the federal GST and HST as well, together with Quebec income tax, Quebec payroll deductions and the corporation income tax return. The CRA still collects federal income tax and Employment Insurance premiums, so most Quebec employers deal with both agencies every month. The Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail, CNESST, sets workplace insurance premiums, and the Office québécois de la langue française supervises the Charter of the French Language.

For the national picture, including the other twelve jurisdictions, place-of-supply rules, IFRS and ASPE, and the T2 calendar, see our Canada page. This page covers what is specific to Quebec.

• Sales taxes: GST 5% and QST 9.975%, both administered by Revenu Québec
• Return: one combined GST/HST and QST return, filed electronically
• Payroll: QPP, QPIP and Quebec income tax to Revenu Québec; federal tax and EI to the CRA
• Language: Charter of the French Language, as amended in 2022 by Bill 96

GST and QST: how the two taxes are calculated

Revenu Québec describes two ways a till or billing system may calculate the taxes. In the two-step method, the system calculates 5% GST on the selling price and 9.975% QST on the same selling price. In the one-step method, it applies a combined 14.975% to the selling price. The rate may be rounded to 9.97% or 14.97% only if the system cannot handle three decimals, and none of the 9.97%, 14.97% or 14.975% figures may appear on the document attesting to the sale.

A worked example shows the arithmetic. A Montreal supplier invoices 1,000 dollars of taxable services. GST is 1,000 x 5% = 50.00 dollars. QST is 1,000 x 9.975% = 99.75 dollars. The invoice total is 1,149.75 dollars, and 1,000 x 14.975% gives the same 149.75 dollars of combined tax, which is why the one-step method is permitted. Fractions of half a cent or more round up to the next cent, and tax may be calculated on the total of several items before rounding.

Registration mirrors the federal rules. A business is a small supplier while its worldwide taxable supplies, with those of its associates, do not exceed 30,000 dollars in a calendar quarter or over the four preceding quarters. A business that registers for the QST must also register for GST/HST and stay registered for at least one year. Taxi businesses, retail tobacco vendors, vendors of new tyres and vendors of road vehicles must register for the QST regardless of their sales. Tax collected is held in trust for the government.

• Two-step: GST 5% and QST 9.975%, each on the selling price
• One-step: 14.975% combined, never printed on the customer's document
• On 1,000 dollars: GST 50.00, QST 99.75, total 1,149.75
• QST is not charged on GST

Filing the combined GST/HST and QST return

Because both taxes are administered by Revenu Québec, a Quebec-based registrant files one combined GST/HST and QST return for each reporting period, known on paper as form FPZ-500, even when nothing is payable. For reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024, every GST and QST registrant except charities must file electronically, through My Account for businesses, the GST/HST and QST Returns express service, or a financial institution's online service that files and pays in one transaction. Since autumn 2025, businesses registered for My Account receive most of their Revenu Québec correspondence online.

Net tax is calculated separately for each tax. Revenu Québec's own guidance is to keep two columns in the sales book, one for GST and one for QST billed, and two columns in the purchase book for the GST and QST that give rise to input tax credits (ITCs) and input tax refunds (ITRs). Tax billed but not yet collected still counts. If the difference is positive it is remitted; if negative it is refunded.

Two practical consequences follow for the ledger. GST and QST must be posted to separate accounts, or at least separately identifiable lines, because they are netted separately on the return. And a business with branches or divisions can apply on form FP-2010-V to file separate returns per branch, which only works if the ledger can report tax by branch.

Mandatory billing: restaurants, bars and paid passenger transport

Quebec runs a real-time transaction reporting regime, but only in the sectors Revenu Québec has targeted to fight tax evasion. It applies to operators of restaurant establishments, meaning bars, restaurants and businesses that provide catering, to those who ordinarily make supplies in or near a restaurant establishment where alcohol is served under a bar permit, and to remunerated passenger transportation such as taxis.

Operators subject to the measures must use a sales recording system (SRS) certified by Revenu Québec, configured with an authorization code, together with an internet connection and, where needed, a compatible printer. The certified SRS collects transaction data and sends it continuously and securely to the WEB-SRM, a cloud environment that validates each transaction and replies to the till. Every customer must receive a bill or credit note produced by the SRS within the prescribed time, and operators must be able to produce a user report and keep prescribed records.

Taxi business operators have had to use a second-generation certified SRS since 1 January 2026; systems certified before 1 January 2023 are first generation. If equipment breaks so that data cannot be sent or bills cannot be issued, the operator must notify Revenu Québec immediately and have it repaired as soon as possible. Revenu Québec publishes the list of certified systems, and nothing outside that list satisfies the rule.

The Charter of the French Language and Bill 96

The Charter of the French Language, as amended in 2022 by the law known as Bill 96, sets language rules that reach directly into a finance system. Section 57 requires invoices, receipts, acquittances and similar documents to be drawn up in French, and forbids sending them in another language unless the French version is available to the recipient on terms at least as favourable. Section 55 requires contracts pre-determined by one party, such as standard terms of sale, to be drawn up in French, with another language binding only if the parties expressly wish it after the French version has been provided.

Section 52.1 requires computer software to be available in French unless no French version exists, and allows other language versions only if the French version is offered on terms and with technical characteristics at least equivalent. Section 51 covers product inscriptions, instructions, warranty certificates, menus and wine lists. An enterprise that employs 25 people or more for six months must register with the Office québécois de la langue française and begin the francization process.

Enforcement is graduated. Failing to comply with an order of the Office exposes a business to a fine of 3,000 to 30,000 dollars under section 205, section 207 doubles the fines for a second offence and triples them for later ones, and under section 208.0.1 an offence that continues for more than one day is a separate offence for each day. For a finance team the practical test is simple: can the system issue the same invoice, credit note and statement in French as easily as in English?

• Section 57: invoices, receipts and similar documents in French
• Section 55: pre-determined contracts in French first
• Section 52.1: software available in French where a French version exists
• Section 139: registration with the Office from 25 employees
• Section 208.0.1: each day of a continuing offence counts separately

Quebec payroll: QPP, QPIP and employer contributions

For employees who report to a Quebec establishment, the employer deducts Quebec income tax, Quebec Pension Plan contributions and Quebec parental insurance premiums and remits them to Revenu Québec, while federal income tax and Employment Insurance go to the CRA. The EI rate for Quebec employees is reduced, 1.30% for 2026 against 1.63% elsewhere, because QPIP funds parental benefits. Quebec income tax rates for 2026 are 14%, 19%, 24% and 25.75%, with the first bracket ending at 54,345 dollars.

For 2026 the QPP base and first additional rate together are 6.30% each for employee and employer on earnings between the 3,500 dollar exemption and 74,600 dollars, and a second additional contribution of 4% applies to earnings between 74,600 and 85,000 dollars. QPIP premiums are 0.430% for the employee and 0.602% for the employer on insurable earnings up to 103,000 dollars.

Employer-only contributions come on top. The health services fund contribution is 1.65% for a total payroll of 1 million dollars or less (outside the primary, manufacturing and public sectors), rising on a sliding scale to 4.26% at 7.8 million dollars. So an employer with an 800,000 dollar payroll pays 800,000 x 1.65% = 13,200 dollars. The labour standards contribution is 0.06% of remuneration up to 103,000 dollars per employee. An employer whose total payroll exceeds 2 million dollars must spend at least 1% of payroll on eligible training or pay the shortfall to the Workforce Skills Development and Recognition Fund. CNESST workplace insurance premiums are paid through Revenu Québec with each source deduction remittance, and the annual Déclaration des salaires still goes to the CNESST.

At year end, RL-1 slips and the RL-1 summary are due by the last day of February, 2 March 2026 for the 2025 year because 28 February fell on a Saturday, alongside the federal T4. More than five RL slips must be filed online.

Corporate tax and records in Quebec

Quebec collects its own corporation income tax. A corporation required to file the Quebec corporation income tax return, form CO-17, must send it to Revenu Québec within six months after the end of its taxation year, in addition to the federal T2 filed with the CRA. Deadlines that fall on a weekend or public holiday move to the next working day. The two returns start from the same financial statements, so a single closed ledger and a single set of tax adjustments save duplicated work.

Revenu Québec's record-keeping rule matches the federal one in length but is explicit about electronic records. Registers and supporting documents must be kept for six years after the last year they relate to, at the establishment, the residence or another location Revenu Québec has authorised. Records kept on an electronic medium must stay in intelligible form on that medium for the full six years, and the business must take the steps needed to ensure and maintain their integrity. A notice of objection or an appeal can extend the period.

Integrity is the operative word for a system choice. A ledger in which a posted entry can be silently overwritten does not maintain integrity; one that corrects by reversal and keeps a log of who changed what does.

Cities and regions: where the rules differ

Inside Quebec the rules are province-wide. A business in Montreal, Quebec City, Laval, Gatineau, Longueuil, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Lévis or Trois-Rivières charges the same GST and QST, files the same combined return and applies the same Charter of the French Language. There is no regional sales tax layer within the province.

The differences appear at the edges. Gatineau sits across the river from Ottawa, and payroll follows the establishment an employee reports to, so a Gatineau resident who reports to an Ottawa office is on Ontario rules with CPP, while an Ottawa resident who reports to a Gatineau office is on QPP and QPIP. A Montreal distributor that delivers goods to Toronto charges 13% Ontario HST, because the place of supply is the delivery address, yet still reports that HST on its combined return with Revenu Québec.

How Skyline Nexus ERP handles Quebec requirements

Skyline Nexus ERP is a cloud ERP with a double-entry general ledger under Fiscal Authority. Tax rates can be combined into a tax group of sub-taxes, so a Quebec sale can carry 5% GST and 9.975% QST as two separate tax lines. A Quebec business location gets its own invoice numbering scheme and invoice layout, and the trial balance, profit and loss and balance sheet can be filtered by location. The VAT Return screen prefills tax-exclusive sales and purchase bases and tax for a date range and location, which your bookkeeper transfers to the combined return in My Account for businesses. Because the ledger's VAT settings name one input and one output tax account, agree during set-up how GST and QST are kept separately identifiable for the combined return. Posted journals are corrected by reversal, periods can be locked, and an Accounting Audit Trail records who changed what with old and new values, which supports Revenu Québec's integrity requirement for electronic records.

On language, the interface language list includes French (Canada) and the Accounting module ships French (Canada) translation files, with any untranslated label shown in English. Chart of accounts names are held in two fields, English and Arabic. French-language document templates for Quebec invoices, credit notes and statements are part of the Canadian roll-out; tell us you operate in Quebec and we will confirm your go-live date for section 57 documents.

Two areas need a partner today. Mandatory billing can only be met with a system on Revenu Québec's list of certified sales recording systems, so a restaurant, bar or taxi business records its sales in a certified SRS and brings the daily sales into Skyline Nexus ERP through the Import Sales tool. Quebec payroll, meaning QPP, QPIP, the health services fund, CNESST payments and RL-1 slips, is part of the Canadian roll-out rather than live; until your go-live, run payroll in a Quebec-capable payroll service and post its journal to the ledger.

Rates, regimes and deadlines in this summary change, and many countries are actively legislating on e-invoicing. This is general information, not tax or legal advice — confirm the current position with the authority named above or with your tax adviser before you rely on it.