Quick method GST/HST: Ontario services remit 8.8%, GST provinces 3.6%

Quick method remittance rates by province

Your client still charges the normal 5% GST or HST on every sale. What changes is the remittance: multiply the period's eligible sales, including the GST/HST, by a fixed rate, and keep the rest in place of ITCs on most expenses canada.ca. The rate depends on where the permanent establishment is and whether the business mostly resells goods or provides services. These are the RC4058 rates as of October 2026, for sales taxed at the home province's rate.

Sales into another province use a different rate. For an Ontario services business, sales taxed at 5% GST remit at 1.8%, at 14% HST at 9.6%, and at 15% HST at 10.4%. An Ontario reseller remits 0% on 5% GST sales and takes a 2.8% credit on them, 5.3% on 14% sales and 6.1% on 15% sales canada.ca. If 90% or more of the eligible sales made through a permanent establishment fall in one group of provinces, that group's rate covers everything.

Nova Scotia moved to the 14% column for periods starting April 1, 2025, when its HST fell from 15%. Returns for earlier periods still use the 15% column. Quebec businesses generally deal with Revenu Québec for the GST, so check its rules before using these rates there.

Who can use it, and who is barred

Annual worldwide taxable supplies, including zero rated supplies and those of associates, must be $400,000 or less including the GST/HST canada.ca. The test looks at the last five fiscal quarters: your client qualifies if either the first four or the last four of them total $400,000 or less. Financial services, sales of real property, sales of capital assets and goodwill on the sale of a business stay out of the total. A small supplier deciding whether to register at all should look at the GST registration threshold first.

The business also needs a permanent establishment in Canada and must have run continuously for the 365 days before the first quick method period. A new registrant can elect if it reasonably expects $400,000 or less, with associates, in its first full year.

RC4058 bars these from the regular quick method canada.ca:

• Anyone providing bookkeeping, financial consulting, tax consulting or tax return preparation
• Lawyers, accountants and actuaries practising as such
• Listed financial institutions
• Charities, qualifying non profit organizations, municipalities and other public service bodies (some can use a separate special quick method)

So a CPA firm or a bookkeeping practice can never use it. A management or IT consultant is not on the list, so they qualify on the revenue test like any other service business. The lower goods for resale rates need one more test: goods bought for resale, including tax, must cost at least 40% of the prior year's taxable sales including tax. A convenience store passes; a repair shop that sells some parts usually does not.

Electing with Form GST74: deadlines and the one year lock in

Elect through My Business Account, Represent a Client, or Form GST74, Election and Revocation of an Election to Use the Quick Method of Accounting canada.ca. The election must start on the first day of a reporting period.

Once in, your client stays in for at least one year before revoking, and after a revocation must wait another year before electing again canada.ca. The deadlines are tied to return due dates, so check the GST/HST filing deadline for the period you want it to start.

Worked example: an Ontario photographer with $150,000 of fees

Your client is an Ontario photographer, an annual filer, billing $150,000 of fees before HST to Ontario clients. They spend $20,000 a year on taxable operating costs and buy a $4,000 camera. RC4058 lists photographers as a services business, so the 8.8% rate applies.

The quick method saves this client $2,284. The camera ITC goes on line 106 under both methods, because capital property is outside the quick method. The 1% credit is claimed on line 107.

What stays outside the quick method calculation

ITCs are still claimable on purchases of real property, capital assets such as computers and vehicles, and improvements to either canada.ca. Tax that became payable before the election took effect can also still be claimed, inside the normal time limit.

On the sales side, zero rated supplies, exempt supplies and supplies made outside Canada don't go into line 101, so no rate applies to them. Sales of capital property or real property are not eligible supplies: your client remits the full GST/HST charged on them, added at line 103.

The 1% credit applies to the first $30,000 of eligible sales, including tax, in each fiscal year, so it is worth at most $300. The election must be in effect at the start of the fiscal year, and any unused part does not carry forward. Monthly and quarterly filers use it period by period until the $30,000 is reached.

When it beats the regular method, and the income tax side

For the Ontario photographer, the quick method lets them keep $19,500 minus $14,916 plus the $300 credit, so $4,884, in place of ITCs on operating costs. The regular method wins only if those ITCs pass $4,884, which means more than about $37,600 of taxable operating costs before HST, roughly 25% of fees. Capital purchases don't move this line, because they earn ITCs either way.

So the quick method suits service businesses with low taxable expenses: designers, IT consultants, photographers, tradespeople whose clients buy the materials. It suits a business with high taxable costs less well, and one whose sales are mostly zero rated worse still, because those sales carry no tax to keep while the ITCs on its expenses are lost. Run both methods on last year's numbers before filing the GST74.

The tax your client keeps is income. On the T2125, the HST collected on eligible fees minus the quick method remittance on them ($19,500 minus $14,916, so $4,584 here) is added to gross fees, and the $300 credit goes on line 8230 as other income canada.ca. The CRA treats input tax credits as government assistance, which is why the amount kept in their place is taxed.