What do I need to register after buying a business in Quebec?

No single filing covers a Quebec business purchase. The new owner deals with three bodies, each under its own rules: the Registraire des entreprises, which keeps the enterprise register, Revenu Québec, which runs the GST and QST files, and the CNESST, the workplace health, safety and labour-standards body. The sections below say what each body’s own pages state. Which of them applies depends on the facts, such as whether the business is registered and whether it has workers. This covers Quebec only. It is general information, and the broader steps of a purchase are in buying a business in Quebec.

The enterprise register and the 30-day update

When the Registraire registers an enterprise, it assigns a Quebec enterprise number (NEQ), which the enterprise uses to identify itself to the Registraire and to other government bodies. The Registraire’s pages say that a registered enterprise must update its information within 30 days of a change. Every registered enterprise must also file an annual update, whether or not anything changed. If the business you bought is registered, ask how the purchase changes what the register shows and who now files.

GST and QST registration

Revenu Québec says that, in general, a person must register in the GST and QST files if they carry on commercial activities in Quebec. Its page also refers to its small-supplier rules, which can change whether registration is required, and lists activities that require registration regardless of sales. Whether the seller’s registration carries over to you, or you need your own, is a question for Revenu Québec or an accountant. Read its page on the sale of a business before closing; it describes a joint election a seller and buyer can make, if the conditions it lists are met, so that GST and QST do not apply to the sale.

Reporting to the CNESST

The CNESST requires an employer to register if it hires at least one worker, full time or part time, and has an establishment in Quebec, or hires a self-employed worker whom the CNESST considers a worker. It also says that when a sale, merger or acquisition occurs, the employer must report the change to the CNESST. When you take over another employer’s activities, you could inherit its insurance file and its pay equity obligations. The CNESST adds that claims for amounts due under the Act respecting labour standards that were not settled before the change are not cancelled, and the former and new owners are solidarily liable for them; the former owner cannot be held liable for claims arising from events after the sale. Ask the seller for the insurance file and any pay equity records before closing.