Free download · no email required
CSV: every Ontario QuickBooks code with its rate and when to use it.
Download the code list (CSV)QuickBooks Online compresses Ontario’s GST/HST coding into a short list of codes, and getting them right is most of the sales tax battle. This reference covers what each Ontario code does, the input-tax-credit consequences behind the two zero-looking codes, and how the other provinces enter the picture, with the whole thing in a CSV you can keep beside the bookkeeping.
The four codes an Ontario file lives on
- HST ON (13%): the harmonized rate on taxable sales to Ontario buyers and on most Ontario business purchases. One combined line, never split into federal and provincial parts on an invoice, and generally fully creditable on the purchase side.
- Z (zero-rated, 0%): taxable supplies that carry a zero rate, such as exports, basic groceries, and international transportation. The zero is a rate, not an absence: the supply stays inside the GST/HST system and related ITCs survive.
- E (exempt): supplies outside the charge, like interest and bank fees, insurance, and long-term residential rent. Costs that relate to making exempt supplies do not generate ITCs.
- Out of scope: not a supply at all. Wages, source deductions, drawings, donations, most government fees, and transfers between accounts.
If Z versus E feels academic, look at it from the return’s point of view: code an exempt cost as Z and you have silently claimed a credit you were not entitled to; code a zero-rated sale as E and you have surrendered credits you were owed. The letters are small; the difference is an audit finding.
Ontario specifics worth pinning
Two local quirks catch new bookkeepers. First, insurance premiums are exempt from GST/HST but Ontario levies its own 8% retail sales tax on most of them, so the premium’s tax line is real money with no credit attached; it just becomes part of the expense. Second, meals and entertainment carry full 13% HST on the receipt while only half is claimable for most businesses, which is why the matching chart of accounts gives the category its own account and note.
Other provinces, same file
Place of supply decides the code, so an Ontario company regularly needs non-Ontario codes: GST at 5% for sales delivered to Alberta or the territories, the BC set when a purchase lands in Vancouver, HST variants for the Atlantic provinces at their rates. QuickBooks keeps every provincial code in a built-in list; you switch one on the first time it is needed and it becomes part of the file’s vocabulary. The download includes the common ones with their current rates so the first out-of-province invoice does not stall.
One habit prevents most misuse: when in doubt, open the transaction’s tax summary before saving and confirm the collected or claimable amount looks like the receipt in your hand. The codes are shortcuts for arithmetic; the receipt is the truth they must match.
Using the list well
- Turn on sales tax before anything else; the codes cannot be picked until they exist.
- Set the account defaults from the Ontario QuickBooks chart of accounts, then treat this list as the exception guide.
- When a line looks tax-free, decide Z versus E versus Out of scope deliberately; the ITC consequences differ each way.
- Revisit rates when the CRA changes something (Nova Scotia’s HST dropped to 14% in 2025; province rates do move).
Coding accuracy decays fastest at volume, when dozens of receipts arrive weekly. Dext holds supplier rules steady. ExpenseFlow reads each document, chooses between HST ON, Z, E, and Out of scope for the actual supply, applies the buyer’s-province rate when it differs, and posts the result into QuickBooks. Hubdoc keeps the paper trail matched to the entries.
The same decisions in Xero use different rate names and one extra setup step; that side is covered in the Ontario Xero tax rates reference.