Expert Tax Accountants in Brant

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.

Paper returns go to the CRA tax centre that serves your province or territory of residence, not to one national address. The correct address is printed in the paper return package and listed on canada.ca under mailing addresses for individual returns, and it differs for non-residents and for business returns. Filing electronically is much faster: for the 2025 tax year the CRA aims to issue a refund on an online return in about two weeks, against a considerably longer standard on paper.

Personal income tax deadlines are federal, so Ontario residents follow the same dates as everyone else: 30 April 2026 for the 2025 return and any balance owing, and 15 June 2026 to file if you are self-employed, with payment still due 30 April 2026. Property tax is a separate matter, set and billed by your municipality on its own instalment schedule, so check your city or town for those dates.

You can file a Canadian personal return at no cost using CRA-certified free tax software, which sends the return through NETFILE. Volunteer clinics run by community organisations also prepare simple returns free of charge for people with modest income. Paper filing costs only postage. Free software suits straightforward employment and pension income; self-employment, rental or foreign property usually needs a preparer. CRA online filing for 2025 returns opened 23 February 2026 and closes 29 January 2027.

Ontario's sales tax is 13% HST, the figure on almost every receipt. Income tax is layered: federal brackets for 2026 start at 14% and climb through 20.5%, 26% and 29% to 33%, with Ontario's own bracket rates and surtax added on top, so your combined marginal rate is higher than either government's alone. Corporations face an Ontario combined general rate of 26.5%, and a provincial small business rate of 3.2% that drops to 2.2% from 1 July 2026.

Yes. Tips and gratuities are taxable income in Ontario, whether they arrive through payroll, a card terminal, a tip pool or straight cash. Where your employer controls and distributes them, they are normally run through payroll with income tax, CPP and EI withheld. Tips paid to you directly are yours to report on your own return. Keep a running daily record, because unreported tips are a common focus of CRA review in hospitality.

A GST cheque is the GST/HST credit, a tax-free quarterly payment from the CRA that offsets sales tax for people with modest incomes. You do not apply for it: filing your T1 return is the application, and the CRA works out entitlement from your family net income, marital status and number of children. Payments arrive in July, October, January and April, by direct deposit or cheque. File every year even with no income, or the payments stop.

Payroll deductions are calculated as if your current pay rate continued all year, using the credits you claimed on the personal tax credits form you gave your employer. Deductions look low if you started mid-year, work part-time or irregular hours, over-claimed credits, or hold two jobs where each employer applies the basic personal amount and neither sees the other's pay. Income without withholding, such as self-employment or investments, adds to what you owe at filing.

Not alone. A municipal council sets the property tax rate when it votes the annual budget and levy, and the mayor holds one vote, though a few provinces give mayors added budget powers that council can still override. Your bill is the assessed value of the property multiplied by that rate, plus an education portion the province sets. Assessments come from a provincial assessment body, not from the mayor.

For 2026 an employer matches CPP at 5.95% on earnings between $3,500 and $74,600, up to $4,230.45 per employee, plus CPP2 at 4% on earnings between $74,600 and $85,000, up to $416. Employment Insurance costs 1.4 times the employee premium, which is 2.282% of insurable earnings up to $68,900, a maximum of $1,572.30. Provincial payroll or workers' compensation levies sit on top of that.

MAT stands for Municipal Accommodation Tax, a local levy some Canadian municipalities charge on short-term accommodation such as hotel stays and short-term rentals. The operator collects it and remits it to the city or its tourism partner, which is why it sits as a separate line beside GST or HST on your bill. Rates and what counts as covered accommodation are set municipality by municipality, so check that city's own accommodation tax page.

Medical expenses cannot be carried forward to a future year the way tuition or a capital loss can. What you can do is choose the period the claim covers, and that period does not have to match the calendar year, so expenses from late in the previous year can be grouped with this year's and clear the income-based threshold once instead of twice. Pick the period that captures the largest total, then claim all of it on one return.