Do barbers in Saskatchewan charge PST on haircuts?

No — Saskatchewan barbers do not charge PST on haircuts, because the province lists hair cutting, trimming and styling as personal services outside its 6% PST. The pomade, shampoo and razors sold at the same counter are taxable goods and do take 6% PST. The 5% federal GST applies to the cut and the product alike once the shop passes $30,000 in revenue or registers early. This post covers the PST-36 rule, a Saskatoon receipt, which PST number a shop gets, the GST test, tips, chair renters and the BarberFlow setup.

Is there PST on haircuts in Saskatchewan?

No. The Ministry of Finance's Information Bulletin PST-36, Personal Services (revised January 2022) states that charges for personal services are not subject to tax, naming hair cutting, trimming or styling and hair treatment. The same bulletin requires PST on the retail selling price of goods such as personal care products. The split is service versus goods, not barber versus retailer.

What a Saskatoon receipt looks like

A Saskatoon client books a $40 cut and walks out with a $24 bottle of beard oil. The shop is GST-registered.

Both taxes are worked out on the $24 price, not on each other — Bulletin PST-5 (revised July 2025) says PST applies to the selling price before GST. It also requires PST to appear as a separate amount on every receipt. A single 11% line is allowed only if the receipt spells out that it is 6% PST plus 5% GST.

Which PST number does a Saskatchewan shop need?

Exempt haircuts do not exempt the shop from registering. PST-5 says all businesses operating or making retail sales in Saskatchewan must be registered with a PST number, and the Ministry decides which kind from your application. PST-36 notes that most personal service providers receive a Registered Consumer Permit; those with a significant amount of retail sales receive a Vendor's Licence.

When does a Saskatchewan barber have to charge GST?

Saskatchewan has no say over GST — it is federal, and the CRA's page on when to register for and start charging the GST/HST sets one rule for every province. A shop stays a small supplier until its worldwide taxable revenue passes $30,000 over any four consecutive calendar quarters. Pass it inside a single quarter and GST applies from the sale that crossed the line; pass it across four quarters and small-supplier status ends at the end of the month after the quarter you crossed in. Either way the CRA gives 29 days from the effective date to register, and a new Regina shop doing $2,600 a month crosses in its twelfth month.

What counts toward the $30,000 in Saskatchewan?

• Haircuts, trims and shaves — yes. They are PST-exempt, not GST-exempt, so every cut counts.
• Retail product — yes, at the pre-tax selling price.
• Rent from chair renters — yes. Leasing commercial space is a taxable supply under GST/HST Memorandum 19-4-1, so a Saskatoon shop collecting $800 a month from each of two renters adds $19,200 a year to its count.
• Tips the client chooses to leave — no.
• A chair renter's own haircut revenue — no. It counts toward their threshold, not yours.

Are tips taxed in Saskatchewan?

Not when the client picks the amount. A tip left by choice is not subject to GST, according to the CRA's page on GST/HST in special cases, while a mandatory or suggested service charge added to the bill is taxable. Neither PST-36 nor PST-5 mentions tips, and the haircut itself sits outside PST, so the CRA's GST rule is the one that matters.

Chair renters handle their own GST and PST

A renter who pays a fixed fee, brings their own tools and books their own clients is normally self-employed, per the CRA's barbers and hairdressers guidance. They run their own $30,000 GST test and, as a business operating in Saskatchewan, need their own PST number whether or not they sell product. The same CRA page makes you, the shop owner, liable for both shares of the renter's EI premiums — see whether you pay EI for a chair renter. The rent they pay you is your revenue, and once registered you add 5% GST to each rent invoice.

How to configure GST and PST in BarberFlow

There is no Saskatchewan template yet, but the British Columbia one has the exact shape Saskatchewan needs: GST on everything, a provincial line on products only. Pick it, drop the PST rate to 6%, and Accounting records the GST and PST amounts on every payment, with a per-sale tax breakdown in the payments export.

The five mistakes Saskatchewan shops make most

1. Running 11% on every line. A POS set to a combined rate taxes the haircut with PST it does not owe. PST belongs on product lines only.
2. Skipping PST registration because cuts are exempt. PST-5 requires a PST number for every business operating in the province, retail or not.
3. Buying stock PST-free on a Registered Consumer Permit. Only a Vendor's Licence lets you buy resale goods without paying PST. The permit cannot.
4. Pulling licence-exempt stock into the chair untaxed. A vendor that uses PST-free retail product on clients has to self-assess PST on it.
5. Leaving cuts out of the GST count. PST-exempt is not GST-exempt. Every haircut counts toward the $30,000.

Quick checklist

• Register for a PST number through Saskatchewan eTax Services as soon as the shop is operating.
• Charge 6% PST on retail products only, shown as its own line — never on cuts, trims, styling or hair treatment.
• Track taxable revenue, haircuts included, across every rolling four-quarter window against the $30,000 GST line.
• Register for GST within 29 days of your effective date, or earlier if input tax credits justify it.
• Leave client-chosen tips untaxed and add GST to any service charge you put on the bill.
• Add 5% GST to chair rent once registered, and pay both shares of EI for each renter — their GST and PST are their own.
• Start from the British Columbia template under Settings → Locations in BarberFlow and set PST to 6%.

Running a shop in Winnipeg instead? The Manitoba RST guide covers the 2021 change that took haircuts out of RST. The BC PST guide shows the same split at 7%, the Alberta GST guide the one-tax version, and the Ontario HST guide the harmonized 13% line. Renting a chair? See the self-employed barber tax write-offs guide, or compare sales tax on haircuts in every province.