How to Calculate Sales Tax in Canada (With Examples)

Adding sales tax takes one multiplication. You need two things: the price before tax and your province’s combined rate.

The formulas

• Tax = price × rate
• Total = price × (1 + rate)

Write the rate as a decimal: 13% is 0.13, 5% is 0.05 and Quebec’s 14.975% is 0.14975.

Multiply by this number in each province

Province or territory	Rate	Multiply the price by
Alberta, NWT, Nunavut, Yukon	5%	1.05
Saskatchewan	11%	1.11
British Columbia, Manitoba	12%	1.12
Ontario	13%	1.13
Nova Scotia	14%	1.14
Quebec	14.975%	1.14975
New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I.	15%	1.15

Worked examples

Ontario, $250 jacket: $250 × 0.13 = $32.50 HST. Total $282.50.

British Columbia, $250 jacket: GST $250 × 0.05 = $12.50; PST $250 × 0.07 = $17.50. Total $280.00. Both taxes use the $250 price — PST is not charged on the GST.

Quebec, $49.99 item: GST $49.99 × 0.05 = $2.4995 → $2.50; QST $49.99 × 0.09975 = $4.9865 → $4.99. Total $57.48.

Rounding

Tax is rounded to the nearest cent: half a cent or more rounds up, less than half a cent rounds down. When several items are taxed at the same rate, a store can add them up first and round the tax once, which is why a receipt can differ by a cent from adding up the tax on each item.

When the full rate doesn’t apply

Some purchases have less tax or none:

• Zero-rated goods such as basic groceries and prescription drugs have no GST/HST.
• Point-of-sale rebates in HST provinces remove the provincial part on some items — for example children’s clothing and books in Ontario — so only 5% is charged.
• In PST provinces, some items are PST-exempt but still have GST.

The calculator’s Itemize mode lets you mark each item as fully taxed, federal part only, or not taxed.

Going the other way

If you know the total and want the price before tax, divide instead of multiplying — see how to calculate tax backwards.