POS system for Nova Scotia businesses

Nova Scotia sales tax at a glance

Nova Scotia charges HST at 14%: the 5% federal part plus a 9% provincial part, which came down from 10% on April 1, 2025. HST is one tax, filed with the Canada Revenue Agency. If your till was set up before that date, check that it now charges 14% on sales after the change.

Basic groceries are zero-rated, and Nova Scotia rebates the provincial part of HST on some items, for example children's clothing and footwear and printed books, so they are charged 5%. The conditions matter, so check the CRA and Nova Scotia guidance for your products, and confirm current rates as of 2026.

Setting up HST in SeroPOS

In the back office go to Settings, then Tax Rates, and add HST at 14%. Add a 0% rate for zero-rated and exempt items, and give it a clear name such as "Zero-rated". In the SeroPOS app the same list is under Admin, then Taxes, where you can set HST as the default so new products pick it up.

Because HST is a single tax, you don't need a tax group. Assign HST or 0% to each product, or fill the tax column in a spreadsheet and import the catalogue in one go. Products priced tax-in can be marked "price includes tax", and SeroPOS works the HST back out on the receipt and in reports.

• HST 14%: most taxable sales
• 0%: zero-rated groceries and exempt items
• HST rebated 5%: items that qualify for Nova Scotia's provincial rebate

When the rate changes

In SeroPOS each product points at a tax rate record rather than holding its own copy of the percentage. When a rate changes, edit the HST rate under Settings, then Tax Rates, and every product using it charges the new rate from the next sale. There is no need to touch the catalogue product by product.

Past sales keep the tax they were charged, so your Tax Report for an earlier period still matches what customers paid. If you make the change on the effective date, run the Tax Report for the periods on either side to confirm the split. Tills sync the change from the server in the background, so let them sync before you open.

Card terminals that talk to the till

In Nova Scotia most customers pay by Interac debit or tap, so the card terminal matters as much as the till. SeroPOS works with Moneris Go terminals and with Global Payments, either through Global Pay Cloud, which needs no cable or IP address, or with SeroPOS running on the Global Payments T650P handheld itself through Terminal Plus.

Each till can have its own terminal, set under Card Terminal for This Till, so a front counter and a bar charge on separate devices. Tips entered on the terminal print on the receipt, partial approvals ask for the balance on another card or in cash, and Close Batch prints a day-end summary from the till.

Already have a merchant account? Keep it if your processor is supported. If you want to compare costs, send us a recent statement and we'll quote a rate. Card processing is arranged separately from your SeroPOS plan. Tell us your monthly card volume and the terminals you use today, and we can say which setup fits your counter before you commit.

Tax reports and QuickBooks Canada

The Tax Report in the back office shows output tax on sales, input tax on purchases and tax on expenses, with an overall figure and the invoices behind each number, filtered by location and date range. The Daily Sales Report adds a tax summary for remittance, and it can be downloaded as a PDF or emailed at day end.

On the Pro plan SeroPOS sends sales, payments, customers and items to QuickBooks. QuickBooks Desktop, Canadian edition 2021 or later (Pro, Premier or Enterprise on Windows), connects through the Web Connector, and SeroPOS can build the HST tax items, groups and codes there for you, matched by rate rather than by name. QuickBooks Online for Canadian companies is supported too, with each SeroPOS rate mapped to a QuickBooks tax code.