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CSV with the default and other valid Xero tax codes per account. Import file and rate list below.
Download chart of accounts (CSV)Also available
British Columbia runs the bookkeeping gauntlet twice on every purchase: a federal 5% GST that comes back as an input tax credit, and a provincial 7% PST that does not come back at all. Coding a BC ledger is therefore not about one rate but about which of two very different taxes touches each line. This Xero chart of accounts answers that question per account, with the split already built in.
Two taxes, opposite fates
The mental model that makes BC coding click: GST is a flow-through, PST is a price increase. A $1,000 desk invoiced at 12% costs the business $1,070, not $1,000, because the $50 GST returns and the $70 PST is capitalized or expensed with the desk. Xero’s seeded BC - GST/PST on Purchases rate encodes exactly that, recovering only the GST component. Accounts for goods, software, telecom, and repairs default to it.
Services live differently. Consulting, accounting, marketing, commercial rent: GST only, 5%, fully creditable. Those accounts default to a custom GST-only rate, because Xero seeds no such rate for BC, which brings us to setup.
Five custom rates before you import
Under the Tax menu, Tax settings, Tax rates, create: GST on Purchases (5%), GST on Sales (5%), Zero Rated (0%), Exempt (0%), and Out of Scope (0%). The first two carry the GST-only world (most services, resale inventory, PST-exempt goods); the three zeros carry groceries and exports, financial services and insurance, and the non-supplies. Ten minutes of setup, and every Tax Code in the import file will resolve.
Where the money hides in a BC chart
- Cost of goods sold defaults to GST-only, because the resale exemption is the province’s one great gift: quote your PST number and inventory for resale arrives PST-free.
- Software subscriptions and telephone and internet default to the 12% pair; BC taxes software and telecom services, and only the GST half returns.
- Legal and professional fees defaults to GST-only with the 12% alternative flagged, because legal services carry PST while accounting and consulting do not.
- Meals and entertainment defaults to GST-only (restaurant food is PST-exempt in BC), with the federal 50% ITC limit noted.
- PST payable exists as its own liability account, since PST files to Victoria on its own return, not to the CRA.
- The constants hold: exempt bank fees and insurance, out-of-scope payroll, drawings, and permits.
Import and run
- Create the five custom rates, then import via Accounting, Chart of accounts, Import.
- Check the preview: 12% on the goods accounts, 5% on the services accounts is the signature of a correct BC import.
- Hand the readable CSV to whoever codes; the goods-versus-services distinction is the whole training course.
- Reconcile the PST payable account to the provincial return each period, separately from the GST cycle.
The 7% deserves a seat in planning, not just in coding. Businesses that budget from pre-tax supplier prices in BC run structurally optimistic: the software stack, the office hardware, and every physical consumable land 7% heavier than the quote, permanently. Pricing models, overhead budgets, and equipment lease-versus-buy decisions should all carry PST-inclusive numbers, and this chart makes that easy because the cost accounts already hold the tax where it economically belongs, in the cost.
Every supplier invoice in BC is a small classification exam, goods or service, both taxes or one. Hubdoc captures and files the evidence. ExpenseFlow reads each bill, decides whether the line is 12% or 5% or neither, keeps the resale exemption and PST-as-cost rules straight, and posts coded entries into Xero against these accounts. Dext locks recurring suppliers to rules so the answers stay consistent.
Numbering is gapped and conventional (1000s assets through 6000s expenses). On QuickBooks? Take the BC chart of accounts for QuickBooks; the full rate story is in the BC Xero tax rates reference.