Tax Accountant Burlington Ontario

Multiply the pre-tax price by the rate for the province of supply. On a $100 purchase in 2026 that is $13.00 in Ontario (13%), $14.00 in Nova Scotia (14%), and $15.00 in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador or Prince Edward Island (15%). In the non-participating provinces and the three territories only the 5% GST applies, so $5.00, plus any provincial sales tax billed separately.

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.

No single legal definition exists. The CRA does not publish a low-income line; instead each benefit and credit has its own income test, and payments such as the GST/HST credit, the Canada workers benefit and the Ontario Trillium Benefit phase out as family net income rises. Statistics Canada's low-income measures vary by household size and community. File a return even on very little income, because those benefits are calculated from the return.

Three different calculations go by that name. For sales tax, multiply the price by the harmonised rate that applies to the province of supply. For income tax, apply the federal brackets and then the Ontario brackets to taxable income and subtract your credits. For payroll, the CRA payroll deductions calculator handles income tax withholding along with CPP and EI for each pay period. Look up the rates and brackets published for the year you are calculating, since they change annually.

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.

Employment and business income earned on a reserve by a registered Indian is exempt from income tax, while income earned off reserve is taxed like anyone else's, and filing is still worth doing to receive benefits. For sales tax, goods and services bought on a reserve or delivered there can be relieved of GST/HST, and Ontario gives point-of-sale relief on the provincial part of its 13% HST for eligible off-reserve purchases shown with status identification.

CPP2 is a second contribution on higher earnings. For 2026 it is 4% from the employee and 4% from the employer on the slice of pensionable earnings between $74,600 and $85,000, so a maximum of $416 each. There is no basic exemption on that slice, and nothing is owed above $85,000. Payroll software applies it automatically once regular CPP contributions reach their ceiling.

Different deductions, not different rules. Withholding follows the TD1 forms you filed, so a colleague claiming more credits, tuition or a disability amount has less tax taken off. Other causes are a different province of employment, a second job where each employer applies the basic personal amount, taxable benefits added to your pay, a higher salary reaching the next bracket, and pay-period timing. CPP and EI also stop at their annual maximums, which higher earners reach sooner.

Filing a GST/HST return late while money is owing brings a penalty calculated from the balance owing and the number of months the return is overdue, plus interest compounded daily. Filing late with nothing owing normally carries no penalty, though a return the CRA formally demanded does. File even when you cannot pay: filing stops the late-filing side from growing while you arrange the balance or a payment plan.

Federal tax for 2026 starts at 14% on the lowest bracket and rises through 20.5%, 26% and 29% to 33% on the highest, and your province adds its own bracketed rate on top. Only the income above each threshold is taxed at that higher rate. The federal basic personal amount of $16,452 for 2026 shelters the first slice, tapering for high earners. Sales tax, CPP and EI are charged separately.

Property tax is municipal. Your city, town or rural municipality sets the annual rate and issues the bill, inside a framework the province sets: provinces create municipalities, run the assessment bodies that value properties, and add the education or school-support levy that appears on the same bill. The federal government has no role in property tax at all, so neither the CRA nor your income tax return is where a property tax dispute is settled. The municipality is.

Unpaid property tax attracts interest and penalties set by the municipality, and the arrears attach to the property rather than to you personally. A municipality can register a tax arrears certificate and, if the account stays unpaid long enough, sell the property through a tax sale. A lender holding your mortgage may pay the arrears and add them to the loan. Contact the municipality early, because most will agree to a payment arrangement.