B.C. Confirms PST Will Apply to Bookkeeping — and Some Consulting — From October 1

British Columbia's Budget 2026 extended provincial sales tax to a set of professional services effective October 1, 2026. On September 2, the province updated its PST frequently asked questions to spell out something that had been ambiguous: accounting and bookkeeping services are taxable, and certain consulting and management services may also be caught as accounting services.

That last clause is worth reading twice. The scope is defined by what the work actually is, not by what the invoice is titled.

Who this touches at the household level

Most people do not buy engineering or architectural services. Bookkeeping and tax preparation are different — they turn up in ordinary household budgets, and in a lot of side-business and rental-property budgets:

Personal tax preparation by an accountant or tax professional.
Monthly or quarterly bookkeeping for a sole proprietorship, freelance practice or incorporated side business.
Payroll and record-keeping help if you employ a nanny, a caregiver or seasonal help.
Some financial or management consulting engagements, where the substance of the work is accounting.

On a $600 annual tax-prep bill, 7% PST is about $42. On $250 a month of bookkeeping, it is about $210 a year. Individually small; together with the other October 1 changes — PST arriving on residential landline phone service, basic cable TV, clothing repairs and yarn and fabric used for clothing — the cumulative effect on a B.C. household is real.

Timing and the transitional rule

The province also clarified on September 1 how straddling invoices work. If an invoice is issued before October 1, 2026, is payable on receipt, and covers services provided before December 1, 2026, then no PST applies even if the client does not pay until on or after October 1. In plain terms: an invoice dated and issued in September for work already done should not carry PST, regardless of when you settle it.

If you were planning to engage a bookkeeper or have a piece of accounting work done this autumn anyway, asking whether it can be invoiced in September is a legitimate question — not a scheme. Confirm the treatment with the provider, since they are the one who has to get the filing right.

Reflecting it in your projection

Find the professional-services lines in your expense list — tax prep, bookkeeping, any recurring consulting — and add 7% to each from October 2026 onward.
Do the same for your phone, cable and clothing-repair lines, which lose their exemptions on the same date.
If you run a small business or rental through your plan, note that providers of these newly taxable services must file and pay electronically — which usually means invoices arrive more promptly and more predictably than before. That is a cash-flow timing detail worth capturing.
Total the increases. Seeing them as one annual number rather than four small ones is the point of running a projection at all — and it tells you whether it is worth shopping the service or absorbing the change.

Source: Updates to sales taxes, Province of British Columbia (updated September 2, 2026).