HST in Ontario
One tax, one line, and one way to get it wrong
Ontario is the easiest province in the country to invoice in, right up until the job is on the other side of a border. Here is the rate, what it lands on, and when the number changes.
Ontario charges 13% HST on most work a contractor invoices. There is no separate provincial sales tax to add, so one line on the invoice covers both the federal and the provincial share. You charge it once you are registered, and the rate follows the place the job was done rather than where your business is based.
Rates on this page are read from the same table our GST/HST calculator uses, checked against the Canada Revenue Agency. It is a rate page, not tax advice.
What the one rate actually covers
HST in Ontario is the harmonized sales tax, a single 13% tax that replaced the old federal GST and the Ontario provincial sales tax. You charge the one rate and you show one tax line. The federal and provincial parts are never split out on a customer's invoice.
For a contractor that means one number on the quote and the same number on the invoice. You are not deciding whether a line is labour or materials, and you are not looking up a second rate for the provincial share.
The trap is thinking the rate belongs to you. It belongs to the job. Drive over the Quebec border on a Tuesday and the number on that invoice is different, even though nothing about your business changed.
- 01Your labour, at the same rate as everything else
- 02Materials and parts you supply
- 03Disposal, travel and call-out fees
- 04Deposits, once the work is taxable
- 05Nothing separate for a provincial tax
Why the number moves when the job does
Both of these are your work. Only one of them is an Ontario job.
- Work carried out in Ontario
- One HST line on the invoice
- The rate you quoted is the rate you charge
- Nothing else to add
- Work carried out in Quebec
- Federal GST at a different rate
- QST on top, with its own registration
- Two tax lines, not one
Four questions that decide the rate you charge
Run these in order before you write the number on a quote. Most rate mistakes are a wrong answer to the first one.
- 01
Where was the work actually done?
The place of supply sets the rate, not where your business is registered.
- 02
Goods, or work on a building?
Delivered goods and work on real property follow different rules.
- 03
Are you registered yet?
Under the small-supplier threshold you do not charge GST or HST at all.
- 04
Does a separate provincial tax apply?
Four provinces charge one alongside the 5% GST, on the same pre-tax amount.
When does a one-truck outfit have to charge tax at all?
You do not charge HST from your first job. Until your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four straight calendar quarters, the CRA treats you as a small supplier and charging is optional.
Most trades register before they have to. The reason is input tax credits: once you are registered you claim back the tax you paid on your tools, your materials, your fuel and your van. On a year where you buy a compressor and a trailer, that is real money sitting in the difference.
The catch is that registering is a one-way door for the paperwork. From that point on every invoice carries the tax and every quarter or year carries a return. It is worth doing on purpose rather than discovering you crossed the line eight months ago.
What has to be on the invoice
Your business number
Once you are registered the CRA wants it on anything you charge tax on. A customer claiming the tax back needs it too.
The rate that applies
Say it plainly. The customer should be able to see which rate was used without doing the arithmetic backwards.
The tax amount
On its own line, or a clear note that the total already includes it. One or the other, never neither.
One HST figure, not two
Do not break the tax into a federal part and a provincial part. Where HST applies you show the combined rate.
- 01
Your business number
Once you are registered the CRA wants it on anything you charge tax on. A customer claiming the tax back needs it too.
- 02
The rate that applies
Say it plainly. The customer should be able to see which rate was used without doing the arithmetic backwards.
- 03
The tax amount
On its own line, or a clear note that the total already includes it. One or the other, never neither.
- 04
One HST figure, not two
Do not break the tax into a federal part and a provincial part. Where HST applies you show the combined rate.
Working somewhere else this month?
The rate follows the job. If the work crosses a border, so does the number you charge.
Ontario HST, answered
Ontario charges 13% HST. That single rate covers both the federal and the provincial share, so there is nothing to add on top of it. It applies to most goods and services a contractor sells, including your labour and your materials on the same invoice.
No. Ontario folded its old provincial sales tax into the HST back in 2010, so the provincial part already sits inside the one rate. Adding anything separately would bill the customer for the same tax twice.
Once your taxable sales pass $30,000 across four straight calendar quarters you have to register and charge. Below that you can still register by choice, and plenty of trades do, because it lets them claim back the tax they paid on tools, materials and fuel.
You charge the Quebec rate, because the place the work happened decides it. A job in Quebec also brings QST into the picture, which is a separate tax with its own registration through Revenu Quebec.
Both. Ontario does not separate labour from materials the way the PST provinces do. Put your hours and your parts on the same invoice and the one rate applies across the whole taxable total.
The customer needs to see the rate that applies and the tax amount, plus your business number once you are registered. Show the tax on its own line, or say plainly that the total includes HST. Never split an HST into its federal and provincial halves.
Because the rate is not the hard part, the border is. StrikeHoney puts the right one on the quote, carries it onto the invoice, and keeps the tax report for when you file. A generic invoice app leaves you looking it up on every job that travels.
What to remember
Ontario is the simple case. One tax, one rate, one line, and nothing to add on top of it. What catches people out is a job over a border, because the rate belongs to the place the work happened and not to the truck it was driven from. Get that part right and Ontario paperwork is about as light as it gets.
Put the right rate on the next Ontario job
Come in as one of the Founding 30 for 90 days free, and quote at the door with the tax already worked out.