The Digital Services Tax Act (DSTA) entered
into force on June 28, 2024, pursuant to an Order in Council (OIC) of that date. The
DSTA was enacted by Parliament on June 20, 2024 as
part of Bill C-59.
Bill C-59 provided that the DSTA, along with its regulations and
other consequential amendments, would come into force on a date
fixed by order of the Governor in Council.
The OIC was issued on June 28, 2024, although it was not
publicly announced or posted to a website by the government until
July 3. (Orders in council are generally posted within three
business days, and are then published in the Royal
Gazette at a later date.)
Briefly, the digital services tax (DST) is a 3% tax on in-scope
revenue (generally, revenue from “online marketplace
services”, “online advertising services”,
“social media services”, and “user data”,
each as defined in the DSTA). The tax applies to individual
entities and consolidated groups earning more than €750
million of global revenue.
