Ontario Sales Tax Calculator

Ontario transitioned to the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) system on July 1, 2010, merging the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the provincial Retail Sales Tax (PST) into a single rate of 13%.

This 13% HST consists of:

• 5% Federal Portion: Collected on behalf of the Government of Canada.
• 8% Provincial Portion: Distributed to the Province of Ontario.

The entire tax is administered directly by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), allowing Ontario businesses to file a single unified tax return instead of reporting to both federal and provincial agencies.

Ontario provides an 8% provincial rebate directly at the register (point-of-sale) for qualifying items. For these goods, consumers are only charged the 5% federal portion of the HST:

• Books (including audiobooks and qualifying publications).
• Children's clothing, footwear, and baby car seats.
• Children's diapers and feminine hygiene products.
• Qualifying prepared food and beverages costing $4.00 CAD or less.

Retailers automatically calculate these rebates, and businesses must adjust their cash registers to charge only the 5% federal rate on these transactions.

Ontario business operators registered for HST must account for all sales tax collected. If you receive receipts showing only a tax-inclusive total, you must perform a reverse HST calculation to isolate the tax portion.

To extract the pre-tax base, divide the total paid by 1.13. The remainder is the HST paid, which you can claim as an Input Tax Credit (ITC) to lower your tax liability.