16. In contrast, the QST is not collected at the border by Revenue Canada. Instead, as in the case of the retail
sales taxes in other provinces, the QST is supposed to be self-assessed on imports. Of course, as in the EU
transitional system, registered QST taxpayers (unlike registered firms in RST provinces) do not need to selfassess
if they are entitled to full credit. On the other hand, institutions like those mentioned in the previous
note do have to self-assess (in both Qu´ebec and the HST provinces) if they wish to claim the partial credits
to which they are entitled. But the QST, the HST, and the RST all suffer from the same compliance problem
with respect to interprovincial sales to final consumers and rely on the frail reed of self-assessment to cope
except for a few special cases such as motor vehicles. Unlike the other two forms of subnational sales taxation,
however, the HST has fewer problems with respect to consumer purchases across international borders since
it is collected along with the federal GST.
17. An interesting special case is that of imported motor vehicles, which are subject only to the GST (7 percent)
part of the HST when they cross the international border and are subject to the provincial share (8 percent)
only when registered in a province.
18. This is quite different than the situation with the income tax collection agreements, where the determination
of the base is entirely in federal hands and provinces must agree to accept this base if the federal government
is to collect their taxes which (unlike the HST) are imposed as a “tax-on-tax” rather than directly on the tax
base.