Tax rates reference

Athenty’s tax model is generic — you configure your own tax rates in Settings ▸ Accounting ▸ Tax Rates, so the app works for any province, territory, or international jurisdiction. This page is a reference to help you set those rates correctly: the current Canadian sales-tax rates with their sources, and how GST/HST is handled on disbursements.

Rates change — verify before you rely on them. Not tax advice.

Sales-tax rates and their effective dates change. Confirm the current rate and effective date with the CRA’s Charge and collect the GST/HST page, your provincial tax authority, and your accountant before relying on these figures. This reference is informational only — current as of mid-2026. Attorney-review-pending — the citations on this page await professional sign-off.

Current Canadian sales-tax rates

Jurisdiction	Type	GST	PST / QST	Combined	Effective	Source
Ontario	HST	5%	8%	13%	2010-07-01	CRA
Quebec	GST + QST	5%	9.975% QST	14.975%	2013-01-01	Revenu Québec
British Columbia	GST + PST	5%	7% PST	12%	2013-04-01	BC PST
Alberta	GST only	5%	—	5%	2008-01-01	CRA
Saskatchewan	GST + PST	5%	6% PST	11%	2017-03-23	Sask. PST
Manitoba	GST + RST	5%	7% RST	12%	2019-07-01	Manitoba RST
Nova Scotia	HST	5%	9%	14%	2025-04-01	CRA Notice 342
New Brunswick	HST	5%	10%	15%	2016-07-01	CRA
Prince Edward Island	HST	5%	10%	15%	2016-10-01	CRA
Newfoundland & Labrador	HST	5%	10%	15%	2016-07-01	CRA
Yukon	GST only	5%	—	5%	2008-01-01	CRA
Northwest Territories	GST only	5%	—	5%	2008-01-01	CRA
Nunavut	GST only	5%	—	5%	2008-01-01	CRA

Heads-up for BC firms — accounting services become PST-taxable 2026-10-01

Per BC Budget 2026, PST (7%) extends to accounting services (and certain other professional services) effective 2026-10-01. If you bill accounting services in BC, review your tax setup before that date. Source: BC Notice — providers of professional services.

The combined rates are CRA/authority-confirmed (mid-2026); the historic effective dates are well-established but should be spot-checked against the source at the date you rely on them.

Disbursements: hard vs soft costs, and “acting as agent”

Athenty models disbursements with two independent things — don’t conflate them:

1. Hard cost vs soft cost (the disbursement’s type):
   • Hard cost — money the firm actually pays out and recovers from the client (e.g. a courier charge, a filing fee, an expert’s invoice).
   • Soft cost — an expense the firm absorbs and recovers from the client as an estimate or the client’s proportional share of that expense (e.g. internal photocopying/printing). It may or may not be marked up — it can simply be a genuine estimate or allocation. The firm is recovering its own cost, so it’s billed and taxed like the firm’s other services.
2. Acting as agent (a separate option, on a hard/paid disbursement only) — whether the firm paid that third party as the client’s agent:
   • As agent — the client is the recipient of the supply (typical of court/registry fees and other government charges). The disbursement is outside the firm’s GST/HST: the firm claims no input tax credit and charges no tax on the pass-through — it recovers the exact amount paid.
   • As principal (not agent) — the firm is the recipient and re-supplies the cost to the client. The firm claims the GST/HST it paid as an input tax credit (ITC) and charges GST/HST to the client on the re-bill.

A soft cost is never an “agency” disbursement — agency only applies to a hard/paid cost (Athenty keeps the acting-as-agent flag meaningful only for paid disbursements). The soft/hard choice and the agency choice are set independently.

Authorities: Excise Tax Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. E-15, s. 169 (input tax credit entitlement); CRA GST/HST Policy Statement P-209R, “Lawyers’ disbursements” (the agent-vs-principal rule); CRA GST/HST Memoranda 8.1 / 8.3 / 8.4 / 9.4 (ITC eligibility, documentation, reimbursements).

Confirm with your accountant

Whether a paid disbursement is a true agency disbursement (no GST/HST passed through) or a re-supplied cost (GST/HST charged, ITC claimed) is fact-specific — it depends on the retainer terms and who is legally the recipient of the supply. Misclassification creates GST/HST exposure. Confirm the treatment for each disbursement type against CRA P-209R and current guidance.

Setting up your rates in Athenty

In Settings ▸ Accounting ▸ Tax Rates, add the rate(s) that apply to your firm — code, name, rate, jurisdiction, and the agency. Athenty applies them on fee invoices and disbursements; nothing here is province-specific until you configure it. Use the table above as your starting point, and keep your rates current as the authorities change them.