Skip to main content
All CollectionsAuthor HelpSelling and Royalties
I'm Canadian, and my accountant is telling me to be concerned about GST. Should I be?
I'm Canadian, and my accountant is telling me to be concerned about GST. Should I be?

Short answer: NO. You're receiving royalty income from a publisher as an author, not running an online store and remitting tax yourself.

Peter Armstrong avatar
Written by Peter Armstrong
Updated over a year ago
I'm Canadian, and my accountant is telling me to be concerned about GST. Should I be?

We get this every so often from authors whose accountants are so focused on the details that the accountants miss the big picture.

Here's the version for EU authors concerned about VAT:

  1. We're a publisher.

  2. We sell books via our online store and via Amazon.

  3. We pay royalties to our authors.

  4. The authors are responsible for declaring the income and being taxed correctly, etc.

That list may look obvious, and like I'm being rude, since you already know that. But the important point is what is not on the list: anything about GST or VAT.

For our storefront sales, collecting and remitting tax is our job, not yours. For Amazon sales, it's Amazon's, not yours.

Your accountant would presumably not tell you contact Amazon with the information you provided, since it wouldn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for us either :)

So, in terms of your accountant's question: you're receiving royalty income from a publisher as an author, not running an online store and collecting and remitting tax yourself. Just declare your royalty income and pay your income taxes accordingly.

This is part of the value of using Leanpub, instead of running your own store -- many aspects of running a business are inherently annoying and expensive :)


If you have any feedback or questions about this article, please email the Leanpub team about it at hello@leanpub.com!

If you have any questions or thoughts on writing and self-publishing with Leanpub, please join our global community of authors in our Authors Forum here!

Are you interested in self-publishing, and creating your first Leanpub book? Here are some quick tutorials for our most popular writing modes: http://help.leanpub.com/en/articles/3088382-quick-walkthroughs-for-getting-started-on-a-leanpub-book

Are you looking for great deals on Leanpub ebooks, ebook bundles, and courses? Sign up for our Weekly and Monthly newsletter sales here!

To learn about amazing new books and authors, subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/leanpub

You can also follow Leanpub in lots of other places!

Did this answer your question?