Whenever you set up and register a business in Canada, there is a good chance that you’ll also need to register for a GST number. There are certain caveats and exemptions to this — like for small businesses that earn less than $30,000 in Canadian receipts each year — but this is a general rule of thumb. This applies to “online businesses” like that of a freelance writer, as well as traditional brick-and-mortar businesses like a convenience store.

Collecting and remitting GST is reasonably straightforward if all of your customers are Canadian and this is especially true if all of your customers come from the same jurisdiction as you. This helps to simplify the provincial tax picture as well. However, if you have an online business, there is a good chance that you also have international customers, particularly those from the United States. How do you handle taxes with these individuals?

In short, the simplest way to deal with GST when it comes to non-Canadian customers is to still have a field for GST on your invoice, but to put the GST rate as 0% (or to state somehow that this customer is exempt). You can also put your GST registration number on your invoice as well. This way, you have an absolute record of everything and you won’t have to wonder why invoice A lacks a GST field, whereas invoice B charges the full GST amount.

This may or may not be necessary for eBay stores, but it is something that you may want to consider. They do say that you should mind your P’s and Q’s, and this is one way to do that.