How can I establish a PST tax exemption in British Columbia?

Accounting & Taxes

Topic summary

A British Columbia merchant is unable to apply PST exemptions for approved clients through Shopify’s tax settings. All listed PST exemptions show as “N/A” and cannot be selected.

Attempted Solutions:

  • Initial suggestion to add tax exemptions through customer profiles (Customers → Tax exemptions section → Add tax exemption)
  • Merchant reports these options are not available in their dashboard setup; only a “manage” button appears with non-functional exemption options

Current Workaround:

  • Manually handling exemptions by collecting exemption certificates from clients
  • However, Shopify’s system does not allow manual PST adjustment on draft orders

Key Issue:
Merchants have no control over adjusting sales tax on the draft order page itself.

Potential Resolution:
One participant suggests exempting customers from PST directly in their profile account settings under the email address—a method mentioned in the initial response but apparently not accessible to the original poster.

Summarized with AI on November 22. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi there,

I am collecting PST in British Columbia and have some clients that are approved for PST exemption. However, when I try to go into the tax settings and use one of the PST exemptions listed, it says “N/A” for all of them, stating that its not applicable because I don’t collect tax in that region. Even though I collect both GST and PST on my British Columbia sales. Does anyone have any clues on how to fix this or a workaround?

Thanks!

Derek

2

Hello @mjsupplyco ,

It’s possible that the PST exemptions you see listed in your tax settings are not applicable to your specific situation or may not have been set up correctly in your store. To resolve this issue, you may need to manually set up the PST exemption for the specific clients who are approved for it. Here’s how:

  • Go to the customer’s profile by clicking on Customers and then searching for the customer’s name.
  • Click on the “Edit” button in the “Tax exemptions” section.
  • Select “Add tax exemption” and choose “British Columbia” as the region.
  • Choose the type of exemption that applies to your customer from the list of options provided.
  • If the exemption you need is not listed, choose “Other” and enter the details of the exemption in the “Description” field.
  • Click “Save”.

Hope this can help. Let me know if you have any further question.

Regards,

Jen

3

Hi Jen,

Thanks for offering some help. Unfortunately these options are not available on the way the dashboard is set up. In the customers profile, there is only a “manage” button under the tax settings section. And when that is clicked on, it offers a bunch of exemptions but they all have N/A next to them so they don’t work, even the ones that say British Columbia. Unfortunately there is no option to “add tax exemption” or option for an “other”.

Is this maybe available on another page, as I am not seeing any of these on the customer profile page.

Thank you for your time.

Derek

4

Hello again,

In this case, I think you should handle the PST exemption manually:

  • Ask your clients who are approved for PST exemption to provide you with their exemption certificate.
  • Review the certificate to ensure that it is valid and covers the items being purchased.
  • Manually adjust the taxes for the order based on the exemption certificate.
  • Provide an invoice or receipt to the client that reflects the adjusted taxes.
  • Keep a copy of the exemption certificate and any documentation related to the exempt sale for your records.

Let me know if there is any further information.

Have a nice day.

Jen

5

Hi there,
Yes I have done all of that with my client already. However, the Shopify
system does not allow me to manually adjust or exempt the PST.

Thanks

Derek

6

Unfortunately your response “Manually adjust the taxes for the order based on the exemption” is not possible on Shopify for draft orders.

Merchants have zero control over adjusting sales tax on the draft order page. But you can exempt the customer from PST under their profile account for that email address. Which was mention on the first reply from TrueProfit_Jen.

@mjsupplyco , it should work!