Under the Quick Method you still charge full GST/HST, but you remit a lower flat rate and keep the difference instead of claiming credits on your expenses. For service freelancers with low expenses it's often free money — but some professions aren't allowed to elect it, and getting the rate wrong is the classic AI-chatbot mistake. This uses the published rates.
Service freelancers whose GST-bearing expenses are small relative to revenue — consultants, designers, developers, writers. The break-even is where your expense credits equal the spread the Quick Method lets you keep; the calculator above finds it for your numbers. Sell mostly goods you purchase for resale? The goods rates are much lower — pick "goods" above.
Check you're actually registered first — the registration calculator computes the $30,000 rule exactly. And if you owe more than $3,000 in GST/HST for the year, quarterly instalments can apply to your GST account too — the instalment calculator covers the income-tax side.
The remittance rate depends on two things at once: where your business is located AND where each supply is made — a 4×4 grid of rates that changed for Nova Scotia in April 2025. Language models routinely quote a stale or mismatched cell. Every rate here comes from the current CRA publication, and our engine re-verifies them automatically.
Yes, but only after the election has been in effect at least one year — and after revoking you must wait a year before electing again. Run the numbers before you elect, not after.
No. Zero-rated and out-of-Canada sales are excluded from the Quick Method calculation (you remit essentially nothing on them), and they don't earn the 1% credit — but they do count toward the $400,000 eligibility ceiling.
Including GST/HST, and it includes your associates' revenues and zero-rated sales. Excluded: financial services, sales of real property, capital assets, and goodwill.