Groceries in Quebec split into two tax worlds. Basic food you cook or prepare at home is zero-rated, meaning no Goods and Services Tax (GST) and no Quebec Sales Tax (QST) are added at the register. Snack foods, soft drinks, alcohol, and anything ready to eat carry the full combined rate of 14.975%, which is 5% GST plus 9.975% QST.1Revenu Québec. Tables of GST and QST Rates Which side a product falls on often comes down to packaging size, serving count, or whether it’s sold hot.
What You Don’t Pay Tax On
Part III of Schedule VI to the federal Excise Tax Act zero-rates food and beverages for human consumption, and Quebec mirrors that treatment for QST.2Justice Laws Website. Excise Tax Act You pay the sticker price with nothing added.
The zero-rated aisle covers fresh vegetables and fruit, raw meat, poultry and fish, eggs, milk, butter, cheese, and grains or cereals meant for home preparation.3Canada Revenue Agency. Charge and Collect the GST/HST Sweeteners, seasonings, and cooking ingredients qualify when they’re marketed for preparing food.4Canada.ca. Basic Groceries Bags of coffee beans and loose-leaf tea for home brewing are zero-rated because they aren’t prepared for immediate drinking.5Revenu Québec. Basic Groceries Unflavoured milk is zero-rated whether served hot or cold, which makes it the only beverage with blanket protection.
A product generally has to be sold in a format typical for a household rather than for a quick snack. A two-litre tub of ice cream is zero-rated; a single-serve cup of the same ice cream is not. That packaging principle shows up again and again across categories.
What Always Carries the Full Tax
The Excise Tax Act excludes a long list of snack-type foods from the basic grocery category. These are taxable at 14.975% no matter the packaging or the store.6Canada Revenue Agency. Snack Foods
- Candy and confectionery: chocolate bars, candy floss, chewing gum, and fruit, nuts, or seeds coated in chocolate, sugar, honey, or artificial sweetener.
- Salty and savoury snacks: potato chips, corn chips, cheese puffs, bacon crisps, popcorn, and brittle pretzels.
- Salted nuts and seeds, including salted peanuts, sunflower seeds, and mixed nuts, plus nuts with flavoured coatings that include salt.
- Granola products, including granola bars and trail-mix-style granola, unless marketed primarily as breakfast cereal.
- Snack mixtures of cereals, nuts, seeds, and dried fruit.
- Single-serving frozen treats: ice cream bars, popsicles, frozen yogurt cups, and sherbet in individual portions.
Carbonated beverages are taxable regardless of size, container, or juice content. That covers soft drinks, sparkling water, carbonated mineral water, and carbonated juices.7Canada Revenue Agency. Beverages Fruit-flavoured drinks with less than 25% natural fruit juice are taxable in every format.8Revenu Québec. Single Servings of Pudding and Beverages Beer, wine, and spirits are specifically excluded from the basic grocery definition and carry both GST and QST on top of federal excise duties.2Justice Laws Website. Excise Tax Act
Rules Where Size or Quantity Changes the Answer
Baked Goods Sold in Fewer Than Six
Cakes, muffins, pies, cookies, doughnuts, brownies, and croissants with sweetened filling or coating are taxable when sold as single servings in quantities of fewer than six. Buy a box of six or more muffins and the purchase is zero-rated; grab a three-pack of the same muffins and you pay 14.975%.2Justice Laws Website. Excise Tax Act Plain bread products like bagels, English muffins, and croissants without sweetened filling are zero-rated regardless of quantity. The six-item threshold applies to baked goods only. Granola bars and chips stay taxable no matter how many are in the box.
Bottled Water
Still, non-carbonated, unflavoured water follows size rules of its own. A single bottle under 600 mL is taxable. A bottle of 600 mL or larger is zero-rated. A manufacturer’s multi-pack of two or more small bottles is zero-rated as a unit, but if a retailer breaks the case and sells those small bottles individually, each becomes taxable again. Water from a vending machine is taxable at any size.9Canada Revenue Agency. Application of the GST/HST to Sales of Water Flavoured or carbonated water is taxable at any size.
Restaurants, Takeout, and Hot Food
Food sold for immediate consumption is taxable at the full combined rate wherever you buy it: restaurants, fast-food counters, cafeterias, food trucks, and the hot bar at your grocery store all qualify. Heated food, pre-made sandwiches, sushi trays, and single servings of prepared salad are ready to eat and attract both GST and QST.10Revenu Québec. Groceries Eating in or taking it home doesn’t change the tax. Catering follows the same logic: if the food arrives in a state that needs no further cooking or preparation, it’s a taxable supply.
The 90% Rule
If 90% or more of an establishment’s food and beverage sales are taxable, everything the business sells becomes taxable, including items that would otherwise be zero-rated in a grocery store.11Canada Revenue Agency. Eating Establishments A coffee shop that sells a handful of packaged cookies alongside hundreds of lattes cannot treat those cookies as zero-rated. The only exceptions are products in a format that clearly prevents on-the-spot consumption, such as an uncooked frozen pizza or a one-litre tub of ice cream.12Revenu Québec. Food and Beverages Prepared or Sold for Immediate Consumption in Commercial Food-Service Establishments
Tips
Voluntary tips left at your discretion are not subject to GST or QST. Tips or service charges that appear on the bill, whether labelled mandatory or merely suggested, are taxable.13Revenu Québec. Tips and Service Charges An automatic 18% gratuity added for a large party gets taxed. A cash tip you leave on the table doesn’t.
Supplements and Meal Replacements
Vitamins, mineral supplements, protein powders, herbal supplements, and fibre products are not basic groceries. They’re fully taxable, even in the food aisle, and whether they come as pills, powders, gels, or liquids.14Canada Revenue Agency. Products Commonly Described as Dietary Supplements The CRA classifies them as therapeutic products rather than food.
Meal replacements and nutritional supplements are the exception. If a product is labelled as a “meal replacement” or “nutritional supplement” and meets the Food and Drugs Act requirements, it’s treated as a basic grocery and zero-rated.14Canada Revenue Agency. Products Commonly Described as Dietary Supplements Two products that look almost identical on the shelf can get different treatment, so the label matters.
Gift Cards
Buying a grocery or restaurant gift card doesn’t trigger any sales tax. Under section 181.2 of the Excise Tax Act, selling a gift certificate is deemed not to be a supply, and the card is treated as money when it’s used.15Canada.ca. Gift Certificates Tax applies only at redemption, and only to whatever taxable items the card pays for. Spend it on fresh produce and no tax is added. Spend it on a restaurant meal and the full 14.975% applies to the food total.