Tipping, Tax, and What They Add

Two things are added to almost every price you see in Québec, and neither is on the label.

One: 14.975% in tax

GST 5% federal plus QST 9.975% provincial. They are not compounded — QST is charged on the sale price, not on the price-plus-GST — so the combined rate is a flat 14.975%.

$100 becomes $114.98.

Menu prices, tour prices, shop shelf prices: all before tax. This is standard across North America and it is the single most reliable way to surprise a visitor arriving from anywhere that quotes VAT-inclusive prices.

There is also a 3.5% tax on lodging per room-night in every tourist region except Nunavik, with GST and QST calculated on top of it.

Two: the gratuity

Tipping in Québec is voluntary in law. There is no legal obligation and no authority that sets a rate — but it is a firm social convention, and service staff are paid a lower legal minimum on the assumption that tips make up the difference.

On the rate, honest sources disagree, and we are not going to average them:

• Bonjour Québec, the provincial government’s own tourism site, says a tip “generally represents 10% to 15% of the total bill before taxes”.
• Everything reflecting current practice — consumer guides, payment terminals, the tours on this page — says 15–20%, with 20% increasingly the default and 25% for something exceptional.

Our read: the official figure is a legacy number that practice has moved past. Terminals now routinely present 15 / 18 / 20.

For a guided food tour, 15–20% of the tour price is the observed norm, and one of the tours on this shelf states in its own listing that it strongly suggests exactly that. On a $125 tour that is roughly $19–25 per person. It is not optional in social terms; it is optional in legal ones.

The rule that changed in May 2025

This is the useful part, and almost no visitor guide carries it.

Under Bill 72, in force since 7 May 2025, any merchant whose payment terminal suggests tip amounts must now meet three conditions:

Percentages must be calculated on the price before GST and QST. Not on the total.

Only the suggested amounts and a self-entry option may be shown. Nothing else.

They must be presented consistently, without inciting you toward one choice. Which rules out a pre-selected default, a visually highlighted button, and the little words beside the percentages — “Good”, “Great”, “Generous” — along with the emoji that used to accompany them.

On a $100 pre-tax bill, a 15% prompt now means $15.00, not $17.25. That is a 15% difference in what you hand over, on every transaction.

Most businesses are still doing it wrong

We would rather tell you this than imply the problem is solved.

Between July 2025 and February 2026 the regulator audited 185 businesses. Six were compliant. 179 were not, and each received a notice of remedial action. In the law’s first ten months it received over five hundred complaints, overwhelmingly against restaurants, bars and food businesses.

So treat the pre-tax rule as your entitlement rather than your expectation. Look at whether the percentage is being taken off the total with tax or without, and use the self-entry option if it looks wrong. It has to be there, and it has to be as visible as the presets.

One thing you may have read that is not true: that Québec has banned terminals from suggesting tips at all. It has not. The regulator’s own guidance explicitly permits suggested amounts — what it governs is how they are calculated and displayed.

What this means for a food tour specifically

The tour price on the booking site excludes the gratuity. Every tour on this shelf says so in its exclusions.

It does not exclude tax in the same way, because you paid it in your own currency through the booking platform — the tax question bites at the restaurants, bars and shops you visit on your own afterwards.

So the sum for a food tour is: the booking price, plus 15–20% for the guide, in cash or on the day. For two people on a $125 tour that is roughly $40–50 on top, and it is worth having small notes rather than discovering the question at the end.

A few rates that are not percentages

Bellhops around $1 a bag. Housekeeping $1–2 a day. Taxi round up, or 10–15%.

And a service charge printed on the menu — usually for groups of six or more — is not a tip. It is a contractual term you agreed to, and a further gratuity on top of it is not expected.

The one piece of good news

Tips legally belong to the employee who receives them in Québec. The employer may not keep any part of one.

So the money goes where you intend it to, which is more than can be said everywhere.