Quick method calculator
Enter a year of sales and the GST/HST you paid. See what you would remit on the quick method beside the regular method, using CRA's remittance rates for your province and type of business.
One year at one remittance rate, rounded to the cent: the quick method's remittance is rounded up and its credits down, so the figure is never below CRA's. The regular method figure takes the tax inside your sales at the rate you chose. Your return rounds sales to the dollar.
What to know
- On the quick method you still charge GST/HST at the normal rate, but you remit a set percentage of your tax-included sales instead of tracking the tax on each purchase. You give up the ITCs on operating expenses and inventory. You still claim ITCs on capital purchases such as computers and vehicles.
- You get a credit of on the first of tax-included eligible sales in each fiscal year, if the election is in effect at the start of that fiscal year (or on the day you registered).
- Who can use it: your tax-included worldwide taxable sales, with your associates', are not more than in either the first four or the last four of your last five fiscal quarters. You must have been in business for the past 365 days (new registrants have their own test) and have a permanent establishment in Canada. Leave out financial services, real property, capital assets and goodwill when you add up sales.
- Who cannot: businesses that provide bookkeeping, financial consulting, tax consulting or tax return preparation; legal, accounting or actuarial practices; listed financial institutions; charities; public institutions; non-profits with at least 40% government funding; municipalities; public colleges, school authorities and universities; and hospital authorities, facility operators and external suppliers.
- The lower "goods for resale" rates apply when the tax-included cost of goods you bought for resale, or to make goods for sale, was at least 40% of your tax-included taxable sales in your previous fiscal year. Leave out basic groceries. Everyone else uses the services rates.
- If less than 90% of your eligible sales in a reporting period are in HST provinces or in GST-only provinces, you use more than one rate. Even with 90% or more in HST provinces, sales spread across provinces with different HST rates can still need more than one rate. This calculator does not cover those cases; RC4058 shows how.
- How to elect: in My Business Account (or Represent a Client), or on Form GST74. It starts on the first day of a reporting period. A monthly or quarterly filer elects by the due date of the return for the first period on the quick method. An annual filer elects by the first day of the second fiscal quarter of the year it starts. A new registrant whose first return covers less than a full fiscal year elects by that return's due date.
- How long you stay: you can revoke the election only after it has been in effect for at least one year, and after revoking you wait at least one year before electing again. It ends on its own if your sales go over .
- Quebec: Revenu Québec, not CRA, administers the GST/HST in Quebec, and the QST quick method is Revenu Québec's own, with its own rates. This calculator does not cover a permanent establishment in Quebec.
- Whether the quick method suits you is your choice, or your accountant's. This page only puts the two figures side by side.
- For how ITCs work on the regular method, see is the GST I pay on supplies an expense.
Rates in this calculator
Find your column from where your permanent establishment is, then the row for where your sales are taxed.
| Permanent establishment | Column |
|---|
Goods for resale
Services and everything else
Rates checked . Rates change by legislation, so confirm against the official source before you file.
Related tools
Official sources
- Canada Revenue Agency: RC4058, Quick Method of Accounting for GST/HST
- Revenu Québec: the quick method for GST and QST
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