Low-Cost Non-Resident GST/HST Return Filing for Canadian Businesses

Sales tax in Ontario is 13% HST for 2026, made up of the 5% federal GST and an 8% provincial share, and it has applied at that rate since 1 July 2010. There is no separate Ontario retail sales tax on top, and the CRA administers the whole 13%. Basic groceries and prescription drugs are zero-rated, so they carry nothing. Income tax is a separate calculation with its own federal and Ontario brackets.

Sales tax in British Columbia totals 12% for 2026: the 5% federal GST plus 7% provincial sales tax. Both are calculated on the pre-tax price, so they do not compound. PST has a wider list of exemptions than GST, so many receipts show only 5%, while a few items go the other way and carry a PST rate above the general 7%, liquor and passenger vehicles among them, so check the BC rate that applies to the item. Income tax is separate.

Canada runs three systems. The federal GST is 5% for 2026 and applies nationally. Five participating provinces fold a provincial share into one harmonised rate: 13% in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and 14% in Nova Scotia since 1 April 2025. Others add their own tax to the 5% GST, giving 12% in British Columbia and Manitoba, 11% in Saskatchewan and 14.975% in Quebec. Alberta and the territories charge 5% only.

GST/HST-exempt supplies include most residential rents, used residential housing, medical and dental services, child care, most educational courses, financial services and many charity or municipal services. No tax is charged, and the supplier cannot claim input tax credits on costs relating to them. Basic groceries, prescription drugs and exports are different: those are zero-rated, taxed at 0% with input tax credits still available. Check the CRA's GST/HST guide for the full lists.

Yes. Pay for casual, part-time or one-off work is taxable to the worker, however small the amount and whether or not a slip was issued. If the person is your employee, you generally withhold and remit source deductions and report the pay on a T4. If they are genuinely self-employed, they invoice you and report the income on a T2125. Worker status turns on control and independence, not on the word “casual”.

A tax holiday is a temporary period when a tax is suspended or reduced for a defined window and a defined list of goods, services or taxpayers. Canada's best-known recent example was a short federal break on GST/HST for certain groceries, children's items, restaurant meals and other listed goods, which has ended. Provinces and incentive programs sometimes use holidays too, often for new operations. Confirm any current relief on the CRA or provincial page before you stop charging tax.

Usually yes. A delivery charge added to a sale generally takes the same treatment as the goods being shipped, so shipping on taxable goods is taxable and shipping on zero-rated goods is not. The rate follows the province where the goods are delivered. Freight transportation bought from a carrier has its own rules and interprovincial or international legs can be zero-rated, so check the CRA's freight transportation guidance before billing tax on it.

Non-employment income is anything you earn outside a job: self-employment or freelance work, rent, interest, dividends, capital gains, pensions, and benefit or support payments. It usually arrives with no tax withheld, which is why a balance is often owing at filing time and why the CRA may later ask for instalments. Most of it still has to go on your T1, whether it came on a slip such as a T5 or T4A, or on no slip at all.

Interest runs on an unpaid balance from the day after the payment due date and compounds daily until the balance is cleared. The rate is a prescribed rate the CRA sets for each calendar quarter and tied to short-term government yields, so it moves through the year; the current figure is published on the CRA's prescribed interest rates page. Interest also applies to penalties once assessed, and it is not deductible. Any partial payment reduces the balance interest is charged on.

Gross income is everything you earn before anything comes off: employment pay before tax, CPP and EI are withheld, plus self-employment revenue, tips, interest, dividends, rental income and taxable benefits. On a pay stub it is the top line, not the amount deposited. For a return, add the income amounts from every slip you receive, such as T4, T4A and T5, together with income for which no slip was issued, including cash and casual work.

Basic groceries are zero-rated, meaning no GST or HST applies to staples such as bread, milk, eggs, produce, meat and unprepared ingredients. Tax applies once a food falls outside that category: candy, snack foods, carbonated and sweetened drinks, bakery items sold in small quantities, and anything prepared or heated for immediate eating. Provincial rules can add or remove tax on top of the federal treatment, so the province of supply matters.

File the return on time regardless. The late-filing penalty is charged for filing late, not for paying late, so filing protects you even when you can send nothing with it. Then contact the CRA to set up a payment arrangement based on what you can genuinely afford; interest continues to accrue, but collection action generally holds while you keep to the schedule. Form RC4288 asks for relief from penalties and interest where circumstances beyond your control caused the delay.