Key words here: iTunes purchases.
When I read this, my initial reaction was “But Apple already charges tax on iTunes purchases.”
Wrong.
iTunes, like actual music you buy off the iTunes Store, has never had GST/HST or provincial tax. All App Store purchases have had the correct GST/HST and provincial taxes applied for quite some time, but not iTunes purchases. It was always weird that Apple Music subscriptions had no tax charged, while an app subscription like, say, Bear Notes, had GST and PST (in Manitoba). Now it will all be unified.
As Rene Ritchie notes, it’s all about residency.
It’s absolutely baffling to me that we’re only seeing tax applied to Apple Music subscriptions now, considering the onslaught of tax legislation introduced over the last four years. These types of subscriptions seem like extremely low hanging fruit for a government in need to of tax dollars. I recognize it was a decision made by Apple that requires these excise taxes to be collected, but my surprise comes from a government not willing to legislate a tax on these types of products.
I imagine it’s only a matter of time before someone points the finger at Netflix in Canada.