Selling to Canada from France: the 3 ways to do it, compared

You can sell into Canada without setting anything up there. Sell from France through an agent, a distributor or your website, and your profits stay taxed in France, usually with no Canadian tax to charge. Things change once you put something in Canada: an office, staff, stock, or a representative who signs on your behalf. Then you have to register in the province, and often set up a Canadian company too.

What follows applies to businesses established in France (an SAS, an SARL or a sole trader) that want to sell goods or services to Canadian clients. If you’re the one moving to Canada to work for yourself, your immigration status comes first: start with the options for living in Canada.

Canada is a federation of ten provinces and three territories. Ottawa, the federal government, runs customs, GSTGoods and Services TaxThe 5% federal sales tax, charged across Canada: the equivalent of French VAT, but added on top of the displayed price. and part of corporate income tax; each province keeps its own business register and often its own sales tax. So there’s no national register like France’s RCS: you register province by province.

What are the three ways to sell into Canada?

Each comes with its own obligations. Mix them up and you either pay fees you didn’t need to, or find out too late that you were taxable in Canada.

1. Selling from France, with no Canadian entity

You invoice from your French company. Your Canadian clients find you online, at a trade show or through an intermediary. No registration, no Canadian tax on your profits, and usually no GSTGoods and Services TaxThe 5% federal sales tax, charged across Canada: the equivalent of French VAT, but added on top of the displayed price./HSTHarmonized Sales TaxA single tax that combines the GST and the provincial tax, used in Ontario and in the Atlantic provinces, among others. to charge.

2. Registering in a province

Your French company stays the same, but it does business in a province: an office, an employee, a warehouse. It has to register there as an extra-provincial corporation (in Quebec this is called immatriculation, and you get an NEQNuméro d’entreprise du Québec (Quebec enterprise number)The identification number of a business registered with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec: the equivalent of the French SIREN.), open sales tax accounts and, if it has a permanent establishment, pay Canadian tax on the profits of that branch.

3. Setting up a Canadian company

You incorporate a subsidiary, federally or in a province. It is a Canadian company in its own right, taxed in Canada, able to hire, sign and borrow in its own name. It too has to register in every province where it operates.

Can you sell from France without setting anything up in Canada?

Yes, and for a long time. Under the France–Canada tax treaty, a French company’s profits are only taxable in Canada if it has a permanent establishment there: a fixed place of business (an office, a workshop, a warehouse used for sales), or a person who habitually concludes contracts in its name. Without one, all of it is taxed in France.

This is where your choice of intermediary matters. A distributor that buys your products and resells them on its own account creates no permanent establishment: it’s your customer. Neither does an independent agent on commission who works for several brands. But a salaried sales rep, or an agent who works only for you and signs contracts on your behalf, can be enough to make you taxable in Canada.

On sales tax, a non-resident that isn’t carrying on business in Canada doesn’t have to register for GST/HSTSource: CRA, the federal tax that does the job of VAT (CRA guide RC4027). So your invoices to business clients go out without tax; the guide to invoicing a Canadian client from France lists what they must show. The exception is online sales of digital services or goods to consumers: above C$30,000 over 12 months, you have to register, as the guide to selling online in Canada explains.

If you sell goods, there’s still customs. Under CETA, the EU–Canada trade agreement (AECG in French), most goods of EU origin enter duty-free, as long as your invoice carries an origin declaration; without one, your client pays the normal duty, 6.5% on perfume, for example. The guide to exporting to Canada under CETA covers who imports, who pays GSTGoods and Services TaxThe 5% federal sales tax, charged across Canada: the equivalent of French VAT, but added on top of the displayed price. on arrival and how to word the declaration, with a worked example.

When do you have to register in a province?

As soon as your French company carries on business in a province: an address, an office, an employee, stock, regular on-site projects. Each province has its own law and its own fees, and Quebec is the strictest on deadlines.

• Quebec: a company incorporated outside Quebec that does business there must register with the Registraire des entreprises within 60 days of startingSource: Québec.ca. It gets a Quebec enterprise number (NEQNuméro d’entreprise du Québec (Quebec enterprise number)The identification number of a business registered with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec: the equivalent of the French SIREN.), Quebec’s answer to the French SIREN. If it has no address in Quebec, it appoints an attorney (fondé de pouvoir) to represent it locally.
• Ontario (home to Toronto): a company incorporated outside Canada gets an extra-provincial licence and appoints an agent for service in Ontario.
• British Columbia (Vancouver) and Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton): extra-provincial registration with the provincial registry, with a local representative to receive official documents; Alberta also asks for a NUANS name search report.

Getting on the register is only half the job. The other half is your sales tax accounts, which also depend on the province:

• Everywhere: a business number (BNBusiness NumberThe 9-digit number the federal government assigns to a business for its tax accounts.) from the CRACanada Revenue AgencyThe federal tax authority, the equivalent of France’s Direction générale des Finances publiques., which is free, with a GSTGoods and Services TaxThe 5% federal sales tax, charged across Canada: the equivalent of French VAT, but added on top of the displayed price./HSTHarmonized Sales TaxA single tax that combines the GST and the provincial tax, used in Ontario and in the Atlantic provinces, among others. account.
• In Quebec, on top of that: a QSTQuebec Sales TaxQuebec’s provincial sales tax, at 9.975%, charged on top of the GST. account with Revenu Québec, which runs that tax separately.
• In British Columbia and Manitoba, on top of that: a provincial sales tax (PSTProvincial Sales TaxA sales tax specific to some provinces, such as British Columbia, charged on top of the GST.) account, if your products are taxable there.

And if you register for GST/HST without a permanent establishment in Canada, the CRA can ask you to post security of at least C$5,000, unless your sales in Canada stay under C$100,000 a year and your net tax under C$3,000.

If you do have a permanent establishment, its profits are taxed in Canada like those of a local company, plus a branch tax that the treaty caps at 5% of the profits sent homeSource: French Senate. In France, those profits drop out of your corporate tax, which is territorial. It’s the lightest way to test an office, but your French company is directly liable for everything the branch does.

When is a Canadian company the better choice?

When Canada becomes a real market rather than a test: several employees on the ground, a warehouse, large corporate clients or public buyers who prefer a Canadian supplier, or the need to keep legal risk away from the parent company. A subsidiary is cheap to set up, C$200 federally, but it pays Canadian tax at the general rate, around 26.5% in Ontario or Quebec. The guide to incorporating in Canada, subsidiary or branch compares the two, with fees, steps and tax.

Which province should you start with?

The one where your customers are, not necessarily the one that speaks French. Each has its strong sectors:

• Ontario: home to nearly 4 in 10 Canadians. Toronto is the hub for finance, head offices and retail, which often makes it the first market for consumer goods.
• Quebec: about 2 in 10 Canadians, a French-speaking market where your documents work as they are. Montreal is strong in aerospace, video games, artificial intelligence and food processing.
• British Columbia: Vancouver is the gateway to Asia-Pacific, and the province is strong in forestry, film and clean tech.
• Alberta: energy, agriculture, and the lightest taxes in the country (no provincial sales tax, 8% provincial corporate tax).

If your catalogues, website and contracts only exist in French, test demand in Montreal first, before you pay to translate them; Toronto comes next, once you’re going after the mass market. For energy, forestry or Asia, look west instead.

Two rules that catch French sellers out: tax follows the buyer, and French is mandatory in Quebec

In France, VAT is 20% everywhere. In Canada, tax follows the buyer, not the seller: the same product sold for C$100 costs a client in Calgary C$105 and a client in Toronto C$113, because the province of delivery sets the rate. So keep your quotes before tax, and work out the tax on the invoice from the client’s address.

Then there’s Quebec, where French is mandatory. The Charter of the French Language requires it on products, packaging, instructions, catalogues, websites and standard-form contracts; English can sit alongside, but never dominate. Since June 1, 2025, generic or descriptive words in an English trademark (“Night Cream”, “Sparkling Water”) must also appear in French on the product, and fines run from C$3,000 to C$30,000 per offence for a business, doubled and then tripled for repeat offences. Your French labels already do half the work: all that’s left is adding English for the rest of the country.

Who can help you find your first clients?

Start where you would for Germany: to find a distributor, call the Team France Export sector adviser for your region. It’s the joint service of Business France, the chambers of commerce (CCI) and the French regions, and it has offices in Canada for market studies and trade shows. To meet French businesses already established there, the French Chamber of Commerce in Canada runs trade missions. And once you’re thinking of setting up, Investissement Québec International, Invest Ontario and Invest Alberta will meet you for free.

For an accountant and a lawyer, the guide to getting support for a Canadian expansion explains how to choose them. Before you sign your first contract, run your project through the Canada market entry checklist: it tells you which steps apply to you, and in what order.