[Daycare] Questions to ask: GST, HST, and PST, Oh My!

Welcome back to my blog, lovely readers. This post continues the segment on "What to ask a potential daycare provider" started last week. As this has proven a much more complicated subject than I first though when I started to research, I will be adding more posts as to not infodump you all.



Do you charge GST/HST ?





Watch out for this one. If they do, your DCP may be inexperienced, lacking homework, or trying to take you for a spin.

In British Columbia, any daycare provider that is "self-employed" may not charge GST, PST, or HST on charges for daycare service. "Self-employed" is defined as someone who controls:

1. the number of hours they work (Sets time the daycare will be open);
2. the premises and materials you use (cares out of their own home); and
3. the way you perform your daycare duties. 

The Canadian Revenue Agency website states:

"If you provide care and supervision in your home to children 14 years of age or under for periods of usually less than 24 hours per day, the daycare service you provide is exempt from GST/HST. This means that you cannot add this tax to the amount you charge the parents of the children in your care and you cannot register for GST/HST.  <emphasis my own>

What they CAN do, if "Self-employed", is deduct business costs off their income. Day care providers who are not self-employed, such as nannies, may not. The only tax that comes off that money is income tax, at the end of the year, on the business owner's return.

TL:DR:   Daycare or Home Care Providers should not be charging you any tax at all.