Canadian tax
Four things come out of a Canadian paycheque and they follow four different rulebooks. This is the map: which calculator answers what, how much the province changes the answer, and where every number came from.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz QuinteroSources checked September 1, 2026Federal and provincial rates read off canada.ca on 2026-09-02What actually comes out of a Canadian paycheque
Four separate things, and they follow four different sets of rules. Federal income tax, on a schedule that is the same everywhere in the country. Provincial income tax, on a schedule that is not — 13 of them, with different rates, different thresholds and, in Ontario's case, a surtax on its own tax. CPP, which stops at a ceiling. And EI, which stops at a lower one.
On $85,000 in Ontario that comes to $10,437, $4,574, $4,230 and $1,123 — $20,781 in total, 24.45% of gross. A tool that quotes only the first of those four is not wrong exactly, but it is answering a question nobody asked.
Then there is everything that is not payroll: the land transfer tax on buying a house, GST or HST or PST or QST on almost everything you buy, and the deduction an RRSP or an FHSA buys you back. Each has its own page here because each is a genuinely different calculation, not a variant of the same one.
Every Canadian calculator here
What each one answers, so you can go straight to it:
Income tax calculator — Federal and provincial tax on a salary, with CPP and EI. The one to start from.
By province and territory — All 13 schedules, each on its own page with its own crossovers.
Land transfer tax — What a house purchase costs in tax — including the municipal layer Toronto adds on top of Ontario’s, at its new 2026 rates.
GST, HST, PST and QST — Thirteen different combinations, in both directions — and Nova Scotia at the 14% it moved to in 2025.
Reverse sales tax — From a receipt total back to the price before tax. You divide, you do not subtract.
Paycheque calculator — The same tax split by pay period — and the week your pay rises because CPP and EI hit their ceilings.
Tax refund — What you get back, or owe, against what has already been withheld.
RRSP — What a contribution really returns at your marginal rate — and what a withdrawal really costs, which is not what they withhold.
Property tax — Six cities, every levy on the bill shown separately — and the reason Ontario is still taxing you on a 2016 valuation.
Self-employed — Both halves of the CPP at 11.90% — and the deduction and credit that mean it does not cost double.
CPP and EI — Three ceilings at three different heights, and the tax relief on contributions almost no tool applies.
Bonus tax — The CRA method — and why "bonuses under $5,000 are taxed at 15%" is a misreading of the payroll guide.
Payroll deductions — Both sides of the payslip, including the 1.4× EI your employer pays and you never see.
Car tax — What buying a car costs in tax — and why in Ontario and Quebec the price you paid is not what you are taxed on.
Corporate tax — Both rates in all 13 — and the investment income that can wipe out the small business limit on profit it has nothing to do with.
Estate and inheritance — There is no inheritance tax in Canada. What dying costs is probate and the final return — and the second is usually twenty times the first.
Dividend tax — The one tax where you declare more than you received — and where an eligible dividend can cost nothing at all.
Donation tax credit — Two tiers, and most people donate in the wrong one — plus the two bits of paperwork that are worth real money.
Rental income — What a rental really costs in tax — and why claiming depreciation on it usually loses money.
Capital gains — Half a gain is taxable, so it costs half your marginal rate — the lightest-taxed income in Canada.
Tax brackets — The federal and provincial tables side by side, and why adding them gives the wrong rate.
One of those has a history worth knowing. Capital gains was deliberately absent for months, because the inclusion rate — the share of a gain that is taxable at all — was proposed at two thirds in 2024, deferred to January 2026, and then contradicted. Publishing either figure would have been a coin toss on the number that decides the whole answer. The CRA has now settled it in writing —*“it was later announced that this proposed increase was cancelled”*— so the calculator exists, at the one-half rate, and the page tells that story before it tells anything else.
Where you live changes the answer by $6,324
Same $85,000 salary, same year, 13 jurisdictions. Cheapest first, total including CPP and EI:
1. Nunavut — $19,431
2. British Columbia — $20,607
3. Northwest Territories — $20,641
4. Ontario — $20,781
5. Yukon — $20,883
6. Alberta — $21,177
7. Saskatchewan — $22,972
8. Manitoba — $23,767
9. New Brunswick — $23,820
10. Newfoundland and Labrador — $24,233
11. Quebec — $24,687
12. Prince Edward Island — $24,856
13. Nova Scotia — $25,755
That order is specific to this salary and shuffles as income rises, because the provinces set their bands at different thresholds. There is no single "lowest tax province" answer, which is why each page works out its own crossover against Ontario rather than repeating a national ranking.
Quebec runs a different machine, and this calculator knows it
Quebec is the one province where "federal plus provincial" is not the whole story. It administers its own income tax through Revenu Québec rather than the CRA. It runs the QPP instead of the CPP, at a higher rate. It charges a QPIP premium that exists nowhere else. Its EI rate is lower than the rest of the country — precisely because QPIP already covers parental benefits. And its residents receive a 16.5% abatement on federal tax in return for the province collecting its own.
Four moving parts, all of them different, and getting any one wrong throws the figure out. Most calculators handle it by applying Quebec's brackets to the rest of Canada's payroll machinery, which produces a number that looks plausible and is not. On $85,000 the abatement alone is worth $1,713 — leave it out and you overstate the bill by that much.
Quebec has its own page with all four applied, and every figure read off Revenu Québec's own documents rather than inferred from the federal ones.
Where the Canadian numbers come from
Every rate on every Canadian page here was read off the document that sets it, with the date it was read attached. Not copied from another calculator, and not from a summary site.
CRA — Current year tax rates and income brackets (2026), federal and provincial — read 2026-09-02. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/tax-rates-brackets/current-year.html
CRA — T4127 Payroll Deductions Formulas, 123rd edition effective 1 July 2026 (British Columbia's 5.60% lowest rate, Newfoundland's $13,094 basic amount, PEI's new 20% bracket) — read 2026-09-08. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/payroll/t4127-payroll-deductions-formulas/t4127-jul/t4127-jul-payroll-deductions-formulas.html
Province of British Columbia — Personal income tax rates, 2026 tax year — read 2026-09-08. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/taxes/income-taxes/personal/tax-rates
CRA — T4127 Payroll Deductions Formulas, 122nd edition (basic personal amounts, Ontario surtax, CPP, EI) — read 2026-09-02. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/payroll/t4127-payroll-deductions-formulas/t4127-jan/t4127-jan-payroll-deductions-formulas-computer-programs.html
CRA — CPP contribution rates, maximums and exemptions — read 2026-09-02. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/payroll-deductions-contributions/canada-pension-plan-cpp/cpp-contribution-rates-maximums-exemptions.html
Revenu Québec — Income tax rates (2026) — read 2026-09-07. https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/citizens/income-tax-return/completing-your-income-tax-return/income-tax-rates/
Revenu Québec — Source Deductions Return TP-1015.3-V (2026-01), basic personal amount — read 2026-09-07. https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/online-services/forms-and-publications/current-details/tp-1015-3-v/
Revenu Québec — QPP maximum pensionable earnings and contribution rate; QPIP maximum insurable earnings and premium rate — read 2026-09-07. https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/businesses/source-deductions-and-employer-contributions/calculating-source-deductions-and-contributions/qpp-contributions/maximum-pensionable-earnings-and-contribution-rate/
CRA — EI premium rates and maximums, including the reduced Quebec rate; CPP2 rates and maximums — read 2026-09-07. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/payroll-deductions-contributions/employment-insurance-ei/ei-premium-rates-maximums.html
Department of Finance Canada — Quebec Abatement (16.5% of basic federal tax) — read 2026-09-07. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/programs/federal-transfers/quebec-abatement.html
Two of those are worth knowing about even if you never open them. The current-year rates page carries the bracket tables. The T4127 carries the parts that bracket tables leave out: the basic personal amount formulas, the Ontario surtax, and the CPP and EI figures — which is where most calculators quietly diverge from what the CRA actually publishes.
Those are only the income tax sources. The full sources table lists every Canadian parameter on this site — 99 of them — each with the document it was read from and the date. Municipal property tax rates come from 7 separate by-laws, the provincial dividend and donation credits from twenty-six tax forms, probate fees from eight courts and legislatures. There is no national register for any of it.
The methodology page carries the other half of that: the Canadian figures deliberately not published here, with the reason for each and what would close it. Ottawa's property tax rates are missing because Ottawa does not publish them. Capital gains was missing for weeks because the inclusion rate was contested, and the page that now exists says so before it says anything else. Corrections carries what we have got wrong, including the two Canadian mistakes that cost readers real money.
What these calculators do not do
Said plainly, because the alternative is letting someone find out at filing time.
— Quebec IS included, on its own machinery: Revenu Québec's brackets, QPP instead of CPP, QPIP on top, the reduced Quebec EI rate, and the 16.5% federal abatement applied to federal tax.
— Manitoba and Yukon ARE now included: their basic personal amounts are formula-based rather than fixed, and the formulas from the T4127 are applied rather than an approximation.
— CPP2, the second additional contribution charged on earnings between the year’s maximum pensionable earnings and the higher ceiling, IS modelled, and so is the tax relief on contributions: the base CPP and EI give a credit at the lowest rate, and the enhanced portion of the CPP plus all of CPP2 are deducted from taxable income. Both come from the T4127 (factors K2 and F5) and together they are worth up to $1,350 a year.
— The Ontario and British Columbia tax reductions are not applied. Both wipe out provincial tax entirely at low incomes and taper away as income rises — British Columbia raised its basic reduction to $690 for 2026 precisely to offset the rate increase in the same budget. Leaving them out overstates the provincial bill for lower earners and changes nothing higher up.
— The Canada employment amount, the age amount, spousal amounts and every other non-refundable credit beyond the basic personal amount and the contribution credits above are not applied, so the figure is still an upper bound.
The consistent direction of all of that: the figure shown is an upper bound. Applying only the basic personal amount and ignoring every other credit means your real bill is the same or lower, never higher. A calculator that errs the other way would be worse.
Where to go next
Questions
- How much tax will I pay in Canada?
- It depends on the province as much as the salary. On $85,000 the total ranges from $19,431 in Nunavut to $25,755 in Nova Scotia — a spread of $6,324 on identical income. The calculator gives your own figure.
- Which province has the lowest income tax?
- At $85,000, Nunavut. But the ranking changes with income, because the provinces set their bands at different thresholds — a province that is cheapest on a starting salary need not be cheapest on a senior one. Any answer without a salary attached to it is guesswork.
- Do these calculators include CPP and EI?
- Yes, and separately from income tax. On $85,000 in Ontario they are $4,230 and $1,123 — together more than the provincial income tax bill in several provinces, and routinely left out of tools that quote "tax" alone.
- Does this work for Quebec?
- Yes, and on Quebec's own machinery rather than the rest of Canada's with Quebec rates pasted in. The QPP instead of the CPP, the QPIP premium, the lower EI rate that exists because QPIP covers parental benefits, and the 16.50% federal abatement — all four applied, all four read off Revenu Québec's documents.
- Are these figures for 2026?
- Yes. Federal and provincial brackets from the CRA's current-year page and the payroll formulas from the T4127, 122nd edition, effective 1 January 2026 — both read on 2026-09-02, with the date published on every page that uses them.
- Is this an official CRA tool?
- No. It is an independent calculator built on the CRA's published documents, and it says which ones and when they were read. For anything binding, the CRA's own payroll deductions calculator and your notice of assessment are the authorities.