Since July 15, 2026, a specific list of grocery and hygiene products is zero-rated under the QST system: Quebec's 9.975% sales tax no longer applies to them. The measure, announced in May, is permanent and targets everyday items, according to Revenu Québec.
What loses the QST. The list is more precise than it looks, because it runs on thresholds:
- Frozen desserts in individual portions under 500 g or 500 ml: ice cream, frozen milk, sorbet, frozen yogurt.
- Sweetened baked goods in individual portions under 230 g, or sold in packages of fewer than 6 units: donuts, cookies, muffins, cakes, tarts.
- Desserts: dessert cream (pudding), flavoured gelatin, mousse.
- Prepared fruits and vegetables: fruit salads and platters, trays of cut and washed vegetables, including any dip that comes with them.
- Snacks: mixes of oat flakes or other cereals, seeds, nuts and dried fruit (trail-mix style), plus salted or seasoned nuts and seeds — provided sugar isn't a main ingredient of the seasoning.
- Toilet paper and facial tissues.
The catches. Three of them, and they cancel out the saving if you miss them. First, the federal GST still applies — only the provincial tax goes away, so the till doesn't drop to zero tax. Second, these foods stay taxable when sold in an establishment where all or substantially all food and beverage sales are taxable: in practice, most restaurants. Third, zero-rating applies neither to vending machines nor to catering contracts.
What it's actually worth. Let's be honest about the order of magnitude: Quebec estimates the saving at roughly $45 a year for a family with two children, CBC reports. This won't transform a budget — it's a targeted gesture, not a grocery-basket reform.
Don't get it confused. Plenty of basic foods already weren't taxed before July 15: meat, fish, cereals, fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, eggs, basic dairy, bakery sold in packs of 6 or more, large ice cream containers, juice in containers of 600 ml or more, baby food. If you see a post announcing "groceries are tax-free in Quebec," it's wrong: most of your basket didn't change status this week.
Good to know for newcomers. Quebec's logic on food taxation often surprises people: it isn't "food = no tax," it's a system of thresholds (portion, weight, number of units, place of sale). The same muffin is zero-rated at the grocery store and taxed at the café next door. The useful habit is simply to read your receipt: in Quebec, taxes are added at the register, never shown on the shelf label. For the complete official list and exact conditions, go to Revenu Québec rather than the summaries making the rounds.