Economical Public Service Bodies Rebate for Canadian Businesses

Ontario HST is 13% for 2026: the 5% federal GST plus an 8% provincial component, unchanged since 1 July 2010, and the CRA collects all of it. A $100 taxable purchase therefore carries $13 of HST. The rate follows the place of supply, so an Ontario delivery takes 13% even if you invoice from another province. Basic groceries and prescription drugs are zero-rated; most long-term residential rent is exempt and carries no HST.

GST is 5% in British Columbia for 2026, the same federal rate that applies everywhere in Canada. BC is not a harmonised province, so that 5% GST is charged alongside a separate 7% provincial sales tax, giving 12% on most taxable purchases. The two taxes have different exemption lists, which is why some items show 5% only. GST-registered businesses can recover the GST they pay on business inputs.

Sales tax in Quebec totals 14.975% for 2026: the 5% federal GST plus 9.975% QST. The QST is charged on the pre-GST price, not on the GST-included amount, so a $100 purchase carries $5 GST and $9.98 QST, about $14.98 in total. Revenu Quebec administers both taxes rather than the CRA, so registration, returns and remittances go there, and a business selling into Quebec from another province may still have to register.

With direct deposit registered the refund is paid straight to the bank account on file, and about two weeks is the usual CRA standard for a 2025 return filed online. An out-of-date account is a common cause of delay, so update it in My Account before you file. A paper return runs on a considerably longer standard before any payment is issued at all.

Two different categories carry no tax. Zero-rated supplies are taxed at nil, including basic groceries, prescription drugs, medical devices and most agricultural products, and the seller can still claim input tax credits. Exempt supplies, such as most residential rent, health and dental care and financial services, carry no tax and no input tax credits. Small suppliers below the $30,000 threshold, unchanged for 2025 and 2026, also charge nothing until they register. The CRA lists both categories.

Federal income tax is the share of income tax that goes to the federal government, calculated on taxable income using federal brackets and then reduced by federal credits. Your province or territory levies its own income tax on the same income, which is why a paycheque outside Quebec shows one blended deduction rather than two. Employers estimate both when withholding. For your own figure, read the federal tax line on your assessed T1 rather than a rate table.

Sign in to CRA My Account for personal tax, or My Business Account for a corporation or GST/HST account, and open the statement of account: it shows the balance, interest charged and any instalments credited. The CRA's individual enquiries line gives the same figure once you pass identity verification. A representative you authorise with AUT-01 can also look it up. A notice of assessment only shows the balance as at its own date.

Uncooked rice from a grocery store is a basic grocery, so it is zero-rated and no GST/HST is charged. Tax applies once rice is sold as prepared food: a restaurant dish, a heated takeout meal, or single servings sold ready to eat, at 5% GST or the local HST rate. Rice-based snack products are taxable as well. The CRA's basic groceries guidance shows where the line between the two sits.

Employment income is your gross pay before deductions. Box 14 of your T4 shows the full amount your employer paid you, while income tax, CPP and EI withheld appear in separate boxes rather than being subtracted from it. You report the gross figure on your T1, and the tax withheld is then credited against the tax calculated on your return, which is why the same withholding appears again further down.

A personal return is the T1: identification pages, then pages that total income, subtract deductions to reach taxable income, apply federal and provincial credits, and finish with a balance owing or a refund. Behind it sit schedules and forms for specific items, such as a self-employment statement or a capital gains schedule, plus the slips supporting each figure. The notice of assessment the CRA issues afterwards is a separate document, not the return itself.

Most of these are not exempt. They are either zero-rated or covered by a point-of-sale rebate, which is a different thing. Basic groceries and unbottled water are zero-rated. Printed books carry GST, and Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island rebate the provincial part at the till, as Ontario also does for children's clothing. Firewood is taxable. Domestic freight is taxable and international freight is generally zero-rated.

Working income is what CRA counts as earned from working: employment income, net self-employment income, and certain taxable scholarship, grant or research amounts. It leaves out pensions, investment income, EI benefits and most other passive receipts. The figure matters for the Canada workers benefit, which requires working income above a floor before it pays anything and then reduces as family net income rises. Both the floor and the reduction thresholds change each year, and the current ones are on CRA's Canada workers benefit page.