Ontario HST: rate, registration and CRA filing

How HST works in Ontario vs other provinces

Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland & Labrador have all harmonised their provincial sales tax with the federal GST into a single Harmonised Sales Tax (HST) — but the combined rate varies (Ontario 13%, the four Atlantic provinces 15%). The CRA administers all HST collection on behalf of the provinces, so a multi-province Canadian seller files ONE return covering HST in every harmonised province they sell into. The CRA then redistributes the provincial portion to each province under federal-provincial revenue-sharing agreements.

By contrast, Quebec administers its own Quebec Sales Tax (QST) at 9.975% in parallel with the 5% federal GST — two separate registrations, two separate filings. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba run their own Provincial Sales Tax (PST) outside the GST system. Ontario's harmonised model is the simplest for multi-province sellers because everything flows through one CRA return.

Registration, place-of-supply rules, and input tax credits

Mandatory HST registration kicks in once your trailing 4 quarters of worldwide taxable supplies exceed CAD 30,000 (the small-supplier threshold). Below this you can voluntarily register to claim input tax credits (ITCs) on your business inputs. Place-of-supply rules determine whether a sale to a customer outside Ontario gets Ontario HST (13%) or the destination province's rate — for services, the 'usual place where the recipient resides' rule applies; for goods, the destination of physical delivery.

Input tax credits are the heart of GST/HST — every dollar of HST you pay on business inputs is claimable as a credit against HST you collected. If you collected $1,300 HST in Q1 and paid $400 on business inputs (rent, software, equipment), you remit $900 net. Mixing exempt supplies (most financial services, healthcare, residential rent) with taxable supplies reduces your ITC recovery proportionally under the Excise Tax Act Section 169.

Filing cadence and the GST/HST NETFILE system

Filing frequency is set by the CRA based on annual taxable supplies: annual filing if under CAD 1.5M (with quarterly installments if owing); quarterly if CAD 1.5M to CAD 6M; monthly if above CAD 6M. The CRA can also assign monthly filing on application even at lower thresholds, which speeds up ITC refunds. Returns are filed via GST/HST NETFILE (online) by the end of the month following the period — and annual filers have a June 15 personal-income deadline alignment.