New Home GST/HST Rebate Calculator

What this calculator does

A new build is taxed and a resale home is not. GST applies at 5%, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces add a provincial component on top, and a set of rebates claws some of it back depending on the price, whether you are a first-time buyer, and whether you will live there.

It also settles the question that causes more confusion on a new-build purchase than anything else: whether the price you were quoted already includes the tax. Builders usually quote tax-included and net of a rebate they expect to be assigned to them. This page asks, works back to the true pre-tax price either way, and prices what getting the answer wrong would cost you.

This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. These are legislated rules that have moved before and will move again.

• The true pre-tax price behind whatever number the builder quoted
• Federal GST, the provincial component where there is one, and every rebate
• What you need in cash on closing day, against what comes back later
• The rental trap: no assignment, no first-time-buyer rebate, and a wait
• A refusal to guess at an assignment sale, which needs a lawyer

Tax-included or not: the question worth five minutes

Most builders quote a single price with the tax built in and the rebate already netted out, on the assumption you will assign that rebate to them at closing. Some quote before tax. The two are wildly different numbers wearing the same clothes.

On the default figures here — $820,000 in Ontario for a first-time buyer — reading the quote the wrong way changes what you need at closing by about $41,600. That is not a rounding difference; it is the sort of gap that ends a purchase on closing day.

Your agreement of purchase and sale states which it is. Not the brochure, not what was said in the sales office. If you cannot find it, your lawyer can in about a minute.

• A tax-included, rebate-assigned quote is what you actually pay at closing
• A pre-tax quote means the tax is added on top of what you were shown
• The difference on an $820,000 purchase is roughly $41,600
• The agreement of purchase and sale is the authority, not the sales office
• The page prices the mistake so it is worth going to check

Why most new builds get nothing federally

The standard federal new housing rebate returns 36% of the GST, in full below $350,000 pre-tax and tapering to nothing by $450,000. Those thresholds have not been indexed in a very long time, which means that in most Canadian markets the rebate everybody has heard of pays exactly zero.

The provincial rebate in Ontario behaves differently: 75% of the provincial 8%, capped at $24,000. Because it is a dollar cap rather than a price cutoff, it is flat at $24,000 for any home above about $400,000 pre-tax — so an expensive new build still gets it in full.

The first-time-buyer new-build rebate is the one that actually reaches modern prices: the whole GST returned up to $1,000,000 pre-tax, tapering to nothing at $1,500,000. It is also the most recent measure on this page and the one most likely to have changed since this was written, so confirm it is still in force before you put it in an offer.

• Federal rebate: 36% of the GST, gone entirely by $450,000 pre-tax
• Those thresholds have not moved with the market in many years
• Ontario provincial: 75% of the provincial portion, capped at $24,000
• The cap makes it flat above roughly $400,000, so expensive builds still get it
• First-time-buyer measure: the whole GST to $1M, nil by $1.5M — verify it still stands

Buying to rent changes everything

An owner-occupier can have the rebate assigned to the builder, so it comes off the price and the closing figure is the tax-included number. A rental cannot. You fund the entire tax on closing day and apply afterwards, once there is a tenant, through the New Residential Rental Property Rebate.

That is a cash-flow problem rather than a cost problem — the money does come back — but it comes back weeks or months later, and it has to be found first. On an $820,000 purchase that is tens of thousands of dollars tied up between closing and the refund.

The part most often got wrong: the first-time-buyer new-build rebate does not apply to a rental at all. It is for a home you will live in. A first-time buyer purchasing a $700,000 Ontario rental gets $24,000 back, not $59,000 — and a calculator that credits the larger figure is promising a refund of $35,000 that will never arrive. This page does not.

• A rental rebate cannot be assigned — you fund the whole tax at closing
• The refund arrives after you apply with proof of tenancy, not at closing
• The first-time-buyer measure does not apply to a rental, whoever is buying
• On a $700,000 Ontario rental that is a $35,000 difference in what comes back
• Plan closing cash around the gross tax, and treat the refund as later money

Assignments are a different question

If you are buying or selling a pre-construction contract rather than the home itself, the tax generally applies to the assignment premium, under rules that changed in 2022. Whether and how depends on what the original purchaser intended when they signed, whether the unit has been occupied, and the specific terms of the assignment.

Those are facts a calculator cannot see, and the amounts are large enough that a plausible-looking wrong answer is worse than no answer. So this page declines to produce one and tells you to take the agreement to a real estate lawyer and an accountant who handle assignments. The fee for that advice is small next to the tax being guessed at.

• Tax generally applies to the assignment premium, not the whole price
• The 2022 rules changed how, and the treatment is fact-specific
• Original intent and prior occupancy both matter
• This page refuses to estimate it rather than give a number that might be wrong
• Take the agreement to a lawyer and an accountant before signing

Using your results well

Check the tax-included question against your agreement before you trust anything else here. It is the input the whole page turns on, and it takes minutes to confirm.

If you are buying to rent, budget your closing-day cash around the gross tax figure and treat the rebate as money that arrives later. Plenty of investors have been caught assuming the net number was what they needed on the day.

And bring this to your lawyer alongside the builder’s HST statement of adjustments. That document is what the closing actually runs on. If it disagrees with this page, the statement is right and the difference is worth understanding before closing day rather than on it.

• Confirm the tax-included question in writing, from the agreement
• Budget rental closings around the gross tax, never the net
• Verify the first-time-buyer measure is current before relying on it
• Take an assignment to a lawyer rather than estimating it
• Reconcile this against the builder’s HST statement early