Nova Scotia has issued the news release “Nova Scotia’s HST to Drop in 2025” to announce the province’s intention to decrease its harmonized sales tax (HST) rate by 1% to 14%, effective April 1, 2025. This HST rate has held steady at the current 15% rate for 14 years. The Nova Scotia HST rate is composed of a combination of the federal portion equal to 5% and a provincial portion, which will decrease to 9% from 10% when this rate change takes effect. Adding the federal and provincial portions together will lead you to the combined Nova Scotia HST Rate.
Few details concerning this HST decrease were included in the news release. We expect that the transitional rules governing this rate decrease will be released in the coming months. Based on previous HST rate changes, we expect the new HST rate of 14% to apply to any taxable supplies made in Nova Scotia on or after April 1, 2025. Ryan will issue a Tax Alert once the transitional rules for this rate reduction have been released.