Shopify Tax Canada fees and setup: Shopify Tax vs Manual Tax

The May 13, 2026 change for new Canadian stores

Shopify’s Canadian tax reference says Basic Tax is no longer available for new stores opened on or after May 13, 2026. A new store selling in or to Canada can use Shopify Tax or manual tax settings. An existing store that already uses Basic Tax can continue using it, so two merchants can see different choices in the admin without either account necessarily being misconfigured.

This is a platform-service change, not a new tax law and not an automatic GST/HST registration. The merchant still needs to determine where it is registered or required to register, then configure the applicable registrations and product categories correctly.

How Shopify Tax pricing works in Canada

Shopify currently says Shopify Tax is available without calculation fees until a store reaches $100,000 CAD in global sales. The threshold applies separately to each store. After the threshold, Starter, Basic, Grow, and Advanced stores are charged 0.25% on Canadian orders calculated with Shopify Tax; Shopify Plus stores are charged 0.15%.

The fee is capped at $0.99 CAD per order and Shopify describes the fee base as the total transaction amount, including taxes and shipping. Fees apply to sales in provinces where tax collection is enabled. The calculator models these published rules, but your Shopify invoice and admin remain authoritative.

• Confirm whether the specific store has reached $100,000 CAD in global sales.
• Use the complete affected order total, including shipping and tax.
• Select the Shopify Plus or non-Plus rate correctly.
• Exclude orders for provinces where tax collection is not enabled when estimating the calculation fee.

Shopify Tax versus Manual Tax

Shopify Tax adds automated product-category calculations, liability monitoring, and Canadian tax reporting features. Manual Tax lets a merchant configure and maintain rates without the Shopify Tax calculation fee, but the merchant accepts more responsibility for rate settings, overrides, product treatment, and ongoing changes.

The fee comparison should include operational risk rather than only the monthly number. A low-volume store with simple taxable apparel may evaluate manual settings differently from a multi-province catalog containing exemptions or special product categories. Neither option replaces professional advice on registration, place of supply, or filing.

A POD-specific setup checklist

POD orders combine a storefront sale, a supplier invoice, production routing, shipping, and sometimes a cross-border import. Configure the customer-facing sale based on your registrations and the supply facts; do not assume the supplier’s tax treatment automatically determines what the storefront should charge.

Before launch, compare a test order to the expected provincial rate, verify whether shipping is taxed, confirm the product category, and reconcile the Shopify tax report to order exports and supplier invoices. Re-test after changing fulfillment locations or adding a new product class.

• Record GST/HST, PST, RST, and QST registration numbers in the correct Shopify regions.
• Classify representative apparel, drinkware, wall-art, and shipping charges correctly.
• Test Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and an Atlantic-province checkout.
• Keep platform-collected tax separate from supplier-invoice tax and eligible input-tax-credit records.
• Review the Shopify Tax invoice line after crossing the platform’s sales threshold.