VANCOUVER — About a month before streaming services must start collecting federal sales tax in Canada, Netflix is recruiting for a corporate tax manager in the country. It’s the company’s first posting for its new Canadian office—and a sign of how the company is responding to the federal government’s digital-tax plans.

The new hire will “anchor the tax function” in the company’s Toronto office, according to a job listing posted last week. They will report to the director of tax for Americas at Netflix’s headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif. Their primary responsibilities will include “monitoring relevant changes in tax legislation, and assisting the director in driving operational changes as required,” and “researching complex tax issues and preparing technical documentation to support the company’s tax positions.”

The posting comes about a month ahead of an important date for Netflix and other streaming services. On July 1, foreign firms selling Canadians digital products and services must start collecting and remitting the federal sales tax, according to the fall economic statement from November 2020. The change, imposed after Canadian firms argued they were otherwise forced to compete on an uneven playing field, is expected to bring in $396 million in the 2021–22 fiscal year and $792 million by 2025–26.

“We will begin collecting and remitting sales tax on all Canadian subscriber revenues in July 2021, as we have previously in Quebec, Saskatchewan and British Columbia,” a Netflix spokesperson wrote in response to questions from The Logic. The company did not make anyone available for an interview.

The company sent out an email to subscribers Tuesday informing them of the impending addition of the tax to their bills. “Due to a recent change in Canada’s tax law, the Federal GST/HST will start to apply to your Netflix membership cost” starting in July, it said.

Quebec was the first province to decide to impose a tax on “intangible movable property and services,” which came into effect on Jan. 1, 2019. Among the hundreds of entities that registered with Quebec to collect and pay the 9.975 per cent QST were all the members of FAANG: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. Saskatchewan followed suit with a six per cent PST, starting the same day. British Columbia made its change effective April 1 this year.

Netflix, for the most part, has stayed mum on initiating taxation of its Canadian consumers. In 2019, before the federal tax change was finalized, the company said it would comply with government regulation around taxation. The company’s earnings calls with analysts are devoid of questions and commentary on taxation. Someone last spoke the word “tax” on one of these calls in October 2020, according to PitchBook, and before that, in April 2017. Neither time was about imposing Canadian sales taxes.

The posting does indicate taxation has become top of mind for the company in Canada, though. When Netflix first announced its new Canadian corporate office in February, the priority was clearly content. Netflix wanted to build on its local success of “Anne with an E” and “Blown Away” by “opening an office and hiring a dedicated content executive to work directly with the Canadian creative community,” wrote Ted Sarandos, co-CEO and chief content officer, in a blog post making the announcement. Just over a month later, it revealed that Toronto would house its new office and reiterated its first hiring priority was still for the content gig, with a job posting expected in June and others to follow.

In correspondence with The Logic, the Netflix spokesperson did not dispute those facts. “The content executive job is actively being worked on,” their statement said. The June posting “is one piece of recruiting.”

In addition to those two jobs, the company plans to hire between eight and 13 more employees for the Toronto office, the spokesperson said, including marketing and publicity positions. Netflix plans to open an interim location “in the next few months,” but “this will be dependent on health and safety guidelines from the province and the city in light of COVID-19.”