Starting December 14, 2024, through February 15, 2025, the Government of Canada is implementing a GST/HST relief measure on qualifying items. Here's everything you need to know to prepare your business.
Understanding the GST/HST break
This relief measure temporarily exempts specific items from GST/HST charges.
What does this mean for businesses? You must ensure that qualifying items are sold without GST/HST starting December 14, 2024.
What are qualifying items? Refer to the official government list of eligible goods and services.
Prepare your business
To implement this tax change smoothly, follow these key steps:
1. Update Your POS System
Contact your POS provider: Confirm tax rate updates for qualifying products.
Sync with Deliverect: Sync your products after updating.
If you operate multiple locations, verify updates for each to ensure consistency.
2. Manual updates in Deliverect (if required)
Update your tax rate manually if your POS doesn't automatically sync them to Deliverect, you'll need to update them manually.
This applies to the following POS systems among others:
Auphan
Cluster
DMA
Givex
NCR
PixelPoint
RES 3700
Silverware
Square
TouchBistro
How to update
Go to the Locations section in Deliverect’s sidebar.
Select the POS Settings button for your location.
Update the applicable tax fields and save the changes.
Sync your POS products to apply the updated tax rate to your items.
Additional considerations
Your POS may support allowing a rounding difference. An amount by which your channel/Deliverect order total and POS total can differ, before the order will be failed due to too great a variance. This setting in Deliverect is called “Maximum rounding difference” and is available under POS Settings for the following POS:
Auphan
Givex
NCR
Pixelpoint
Silverware
Ensure you review updates for accuracy before December 14, 2024.
3. Delivery platform updates
For third-party delivery platforms:
Automatic updates: Check if delivery channels will automatically adjust taxes.
Manual updates: For platforms that don’t sync automatically, schedule a menu push or update for midnight on December 14, 2024.
Important: To prevent conflicts, make sure all manual tax rate overrides in your Deliverect menus or products are removed before the relief period starts. Select the blue revert arrow to reset them.
Verify your platform settings after updates to ensure all menus reflect the tax exemption correctly.
What if I sell alcohol?
If your location sells alcohol, a few additional steps are required in preparation for the GST/HST relief period. Below are some of the guidelines we've received from major channels.
DoorDash
DoorDash has confirmed tax rates and exemptions will be automatically set for merchants, with no additional configuration needed.
SkipTheDishes
SkipTheDishes has informed us that:
All tax-exempt alcohol items must contain "holiday tax exempt" in the item description.
Items without this description will be taxed at normal GST/HST tax rates.
Review the Government of Canada's guidelines on which items qualify for tax exemption.
Uber Eats and most other delivery channels
Based on the information we've received:
No additional alcohol-specific steps are needed for tax-exempt items beyond the menu-wide tax changes you've already implemented.
If your POS sets tax rates at the location level in Deliverect, you'll need to make product-level edits for non-exempt items.
Review the Government of Canada's guidelines on which items qualify for tax exemption.
Configure your non-exempt items in Deliverect
Step 1. Go to Menus in the sidebar.
Step 2. Select each non-exempt item.
Step 3. Enter the applicable tax rate.
Step 4. Repeat for all applicable products.
This information may change. We recommend contacting your delivery partners directly for the current guidelines and requirements.
Prepare for the end of the relief period
The GST/HST relief period ends on February 15, 2025. To prepare:
Revert your POS system, Deliverect settings, and delivery platform menus to the standard GST/HST rates.
Test all systems to confirm the updates are correctly applied.
Tip: Set calendar reminders to avoid delays in reverting to the standard tax rate.
Need help?
Our customer support team is here to help you with implementing these changes. Contact us with any questions about the GST/HST relief period or system updates.