Enter a price, pick the province or territory where you’re buying, and the calculator adds the sales tax and shows each tax line separately: the GST and the provincial sales tax where they’re charged separately, or a single HST line. Switch to Extract tax from total to work backwards from a receipt total instead; the reverse sales tax calculator page explains that calculation step by step.
The rate in each province, and which system it uses, is on the sales tax by province page.
How to calculate sales tax yourself
The tax is the pre-tax price multiplied by the combined rate, and the total is the price multiplied by 1 plus the rate:
Total = Price ร (1 + rate)
A $250 purchase in Ontario, for example, carries $32.50 in HST, for a total of $282.50. In a province with two separate taxes, work out each one on the same pre-tax price and add them: the same $250 in British Columbia carries $12.50 in GST and $17.50 in PST. Neither tax is charged on the other; Quebec stopped calculating its QST on the GST-inclusive price on January 1, 2013.
Totals at common prices
What the same price costs after tax in a few provinces, computed from the current rates:
| Purchase price | Alberta (5%) | Saskatchewan (11%) | British Columbia (12%) | Ontario (13%) | Nova Scotia (14%) | Quebec (14.975%) | New Brunswick (15%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50 | $52.50 | $55.50 | $56.00 | $56.50 | $57.00 | $57.49 | $57.50 |
| $100 | $105.00 | $111.00 | $112.00 | $113.00 | $114.00 | $114.98 | $115.00 |
| $500 | $525.00 | $555.00 | $560.00 | $565.00 | $570.00 | $574.88 | $575.00 |
| $1,000 | $1,050.00 | $1,110.00 | $1,120.00 | $1,130.00 | $1,140.00 | $1,149.75 | $1,150.00 |
| $5,000 | $5,250.00 | $5,550.00 | $5,600.00 | $5,650.00 | $5,700.00 | $5,748.75 | $5,750.00 |
For purchases worth tens of thousands of dollars, such as a vehicle, some provinces apply special rules on top of these rates; see car sales tax by province.
Getting an accurate result
- Leave out zero-rated and exempt items. Basic groceries and prescription drugs carry no GST/HST, so a grocery receipt is usually only partly taxed. The sales tax by province page lists what isn’t taxed.
- Check provincial exemptions. A provincial sales tax may exempt things the GST taxes. Children’s clothing, for example, is exempt from BC’s PST but not from Saskatchewan’s.
- Use the province where you receive the item. For goods shipped to you, the rate is the one where the goods are delivered, not where the seller is.
- Expect a cent or two of rounding. Stores round each tax line, so a receipt can differ slightly from a single calculation on the total.
If you’re a business working out what to remit rather than what to pay, use the GST/HST calculator for business owners, which handles input tax credits and the Quick Method.
Related calculators
- Reverse Sales Tax Calculator: find the pre-tax amount from an after-tax total
- GST/HST Calculator for Business Owners: estimate GST/HST remittance
- Income Tax Calculator: calculate federal and provincial income tax
- Land Transfer Tax Calculator: calculate property purchase taxes by province