Canada DST FAQ

The Government of Canada has officially repealed the Digital Services Tax Act via Bill C-15, which is now law. As a result, the tax is no longer in effect.

Bill C-15 received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026, and the Digital Services Tax is now officially repealed. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has halted all collection and filing requirements.

The Canadian government chose to rescind the tax to advance broader trade negotiations with the United States.
You can find the official news release here.

On June 29, 2025, the Canadian Department of Finance announced a commitment to rescind the Digital Services Tax (DST) legislation. Consequently, Google ceased charging the 2.5% DST fee effective July 1, 2025. Now that the legislative repeal (via Bill C-15) has become law, Google is crediting back all DST fees charged to ads customers as quickly as possible.

The credits cover all Canada DST fees charged (between October 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025). Google stopped charging DST after June 30, 2025.

Credits began processing immediately after the legislative repeal (Bill C-15) became law on March 26, 2026. The timing was dependent on two main factors:

1. Official Legislative Change: Google had to wait until the Digital Services Tax was officially and legally repealed. Credits could not be issued before this happened.
2. Scale of Processing: This is a large-scale effort, involving millions of transactions across hundreds of thousands of accounts globally, requiring careful and precise execution.

We have started issuing credits. Here's how it works:

• Credit Adjustments: If you are receiving a Credit Adjustment, it will automatically appear as a credit line item on one of your future invoices, reducing the total amount due for that billing period. No action is required from you.

• Credit Memos: If you are receiving a Credit Memo, it will be available in the Google Payments Center. Credit Memos are like credit vouchers that you can apply to any of your open invoices. To get the benefit of the credit sooner, you can log in to the Google Payments Center and apply the memo to an outstanding invoice yourself.

Immediately, if you can apply the credit memos yourself via the Google Payments Center.

Please note that if you require the credit memo to be manually applied against specific outstanding past invoices by our team, that administrative process can take 4 to 12 weeks.

We understand waiting for credits can be frustrating. The timing was dependent on two main factors:

Official Legislative Change: Google had to wait until the Digital Services Tax was officially and legally repealed on March 26, 2026. Credits could not be issued before this happened.

Scale of Processing: Because this involves hundreds of thousands of accounts globally, we are building a secure, automated process to ensure every credit is issued accurately the moment the legislation is finalized.

We began applying credits immediately upon the law being repealed on March 26, 2026. Here's how they work:

• Credit Adjustments: If you are receiving a Credit Adjustment, it will automatically appear as a credit line item on one of your future invoices, reducing the total amount due for that billing period. No action is required from you.

• Credit Memos: If you are receiving a Credit Memo, it will be available in the Google Payments Center. Credit Memos are like credit vouchers that you can apply to any of your open invoices. To get the benefit of the credit sooner, you can log in to the Google Payments Centerand apply the memo to an outstanding invoice yourself.

The credits cover DST fees incurred across Google Ads, YouTube Reservation, and Display & Video 360 (DV360). These were the products that were in scope of the DST fee.

The method depends on your billing type:

• Google Ads Direct Terms & Prepay/Threshold Customers: You will receive an Account-Level Credit Adjustment. This will automatically reduce your outstanding balance or increase your prepaid balance. No action is required on your part.
• Google Ads Agencies/Resellers & DV360 Customers: You will receive an Account-Level Credit Memo. You must apply this credit to your open invoices via the Google Payments Center.

There will be one credit memo for each Payments billing account. Each credit memo will have the Ads billing account breakdown in the detailed section.

Credit adjustments will show up as negative line amounts in the customer’s Google Payments billing account. No action is required from customers; the credit will automatically offset charges on your future invoices.

Agencies and DV360 accounts receive Credit Memos to provide more flexibility in how funds are managed.

• Agencies/Resellers: We issue discrete Credit Memos to give you control over how you reconcile these funds with your specific end-clients.
• DV360: Due to platform system limitations, DV360 accounts cannot process negative invoice adjustments, so a Credit Memo is required.

For your convenience, the credit will be applied directly to your billing account, allowing you to use it immediately toward any current or future balances without further action. While cash refunds are available for inactive accounts, please note that this may require manual processing and internal bank verification, which often results in much longer wait times.
Account credits offer the fastest and most seamless way to access your funds.

You will still receive the credit. You can apply this credit toward future invoices or other outstanding balances on your account.

No. Google has proactively identified all billing accounts that were charged the DST and will process these credits once the law passes.

If an account remains inactive and no contact is made, unclaimed balances may eventually be remitted to the relevant government authority in accordance with local unclaimed property laws.
Please note that for security and privacy purposes, Google can only discuss account details or process refunds with verified account contacts.

Depending on the jurisdiction and product type, Google will issue credit adjustments or on account credit memos. For clients receiving a credit memo, there will be detailed memo lines with the advertiser name, ID, and DST refund amount for that advertiser.

The credit is issued to the billing account that incurred the charge. Agencies/Resellers are responsible for distributing credits to end-clients according to your own agreements and system calculations. Google cannot mediate between agencies/resellers and their former clients.

Google issues credits directly to the billing account that originally incurred the charges. If your billing is managed by an agency or reseller, they are responsible for distributing it to you based on your specific legal and financial agreements.
Google does not participate in or mediate these internal distributions.

Absolutely. You can apply credits to open invoices in Google Payments Center. You can apply multiple credits to one invoice at a time. Note the product, currency and entity of the invoice must match the same of the credit. Once you choose credits to be applied to an invoice, it will take up to an hour to process, and the invoice status will be updated based on the amount of credits applied.
For instructions on how to apply credits to open invoices, please browse through this article.

If the credit is not applied, the credit will remain open in our system. If an account remains inactive and no contact is made, unclaimed balances may eventually be remitted to the relevant government authority in accordance with local unclaimed property laws. Please note that for security and privacy purposes, Google can only discuss account details or process refunds with verified account contacts.

The amount on your official Credit Memo is the final, tax-inclusive figure. Discrepancies often occur because internal dashboards show estimated totals or use different exchange rates for local currencies.
If you find an error, you can dispute it directly via the Payments Center.
Alternatively, you can contact Google Ads or Display & Video 360  for support. Please include your account details and invoice numbers for investigation.

No. For a credit to be applied, the product type, currency, and legal entity must match exactly between the credit memo and the target invoice.

Yes. The Google Payments Center allows you to pay invoices fully or partially. You can choose to apply a specific amount of your credit and save the remaining balance for future invoices.

Not automatically. Accounts are generally not suspended solely for outstanding DST balances. However, you are expected to apply the issued credit immediately to clear those specific outstanding fees and reconcile your account.