Now one must consider not only the province where the service is provided, but also the place of purchase.

Determining the province in which a service is provided it key in determining whether to charge HST on services provided in participating provinces or GST on service provided in non-participating provinces. 

Effective February 25, 2010 there have been changes to the place of supply rules for services.  The HST rules had historically favoured the location of the service provider, however the new rules put the emphasis on the purchaser. 

There are several instances where there are specific place of supply rules for certain circumstances.  The following four general place of supply rules do not apply where there are specific place of supply rules.  The general rules summarized as follows: 

Rule 1: Where the supplier obtains a particular address of the recipient in the ordinary course of business, the service will have been regarded have been made in the province of the address of the recipient.

Rule 2: If Rule 1 doesn’t apply, the supply will be made in the province where the greatest portion of the service was provided.

Rule 3: If Rule 1 doesn’t apply and services are performed equally in participating provinces, the service is provided in the province with the highest HST rate

Rule 4: If Rule 1 doesn’t apply and the work it primarily performed in a non-participating province, GST will apply.

As noted earlier, there are several specific circumstances where these general rules do not apply.  Ensure that there are not specific circumstances before applying the general rules.