GST/HST Calculator (2026)

Four systems, thirteen rates

The federal goods and services tax is 5% everywhere. Five provinces have folded their own sales tax into it as the HST, collected by the CRA as one charge. Three keep a separate provincial sales tax, and Quebec has its own QST, collected by Revenu Québec. Alberta and the three territories add nothing.

The most recent change is Nova Scotia's. Its HST fell from 15% to 14% on April 1, 2025, when the province cut its own portion by one point. Every rate above was checked against the CRA's rate table and against the government that sets it.

Taking tax out of a total

The tempting shortcut is to multiply the receipt total by the rate, and it always overstates the tax. On a $113 Ontario receipt, 13% of the total is $14.69, but the price was $100 and the HST $13, because the tax was charged on the price, not on itself. The correct move is to divide: the total over one plus the rate gives the pre-tax price, and the tax is whatever is left.

Rounding adds a wrinkle the reverse mode shows rather than hides. Each tax is rounded to the cent, with a half cent going up, so at 13% one more cent of price adds a cent and a bit to the total, and some totals can't be produced by any price at all. When that happens the calculator gives the pre-tax price that comes closest and says how far off it is, which is usually a single cent.

Quebec charges two taxes on the same base

Quebec's QST is 9.975%, and like the GST it is worked out on the price before any tax, not on the price plus GST. So a $100 sale carries $5 of GST and $9.98 of QST, the second rounded up from $9.975. Revenu Québec lets a cash register apply a single combined rate of 14.975%, but the receipt still has to show the two taxes separately. Manitoba's retail sales tax and the PST in British Columbia and Saskatchewan are also charged on the pre-tax price.

Where the sale is made sets the rate

The rate follows the place of supply, not the seller's address. The CRA's own example is a British Columbia store that sells a mattress to a customer in Ontario and delivers it there: the sale is made in Ontario, so it carries 13% HST rather than British Columbia's GST and PST. It's why the calculator asks where the sale is made, not where the business is.

What the calculator assumes

• A fully taxable sale at the general rate. Zero-rated supplies such as basic groceries, prescription drugs and exports carry 0%, and exempt ones such as long-term residential rent, most medical and dental services, music lessons and most financial services carry no GST/HST at all.
• Provincial taxes are consumer sales taxes with their own rules. PST, RST and QST each have their own list of what's taxable, and it doesn't always match the federal one. Ontario also rebates its 8% portion of the HST at the till on some items.
• No input tax credits. A registered business claims back the GST/HST it pays on its own purchases. That changes what the business keeps, not what the customer is charged, and it isn't modelled here.

How sales tax interacts with pricing and profit is covered on the markup and profit margin calculators, both of which work on pre-tax amounts.