GST, or goods and services tax, is a sales tax which is charged on most goods and services sold in Canada. The GST belongs to the Canadian Government. Business are collecting GST on behalf of CRA and must forward the GST to CRA on monthly / quarterly / annually basis.

The GST Registry lets you validate the GST number of a business, which helps to ensure that claims submitted for input tax credits only include GST/HST charged by suppliers who are registered for GST/HST. You can also use the GST/HST Registry to verify GST/HST registration for other purposes. Any business which is registered to collect GST/HST will be able to recover any GST/HST paid on purchases made in the course of their commercial activities, by claiming "input tax credits" when filing their GST returns.

No, only businesses have to register with GST, though some exemption rules apply.

The following individuals must pay taxes in Canada:

• Canadian residents - person who is a resident of Canada is subject to Canadian income tax on their world wide income.
• Non-residents - person who is not a resident of Canada for any part of the year, and visits Canada for less than 183 days in a year, will pay Canadian income tax only on income earned from Canadian sources.  

EI stands for Employment Insurance.

Employers deduct EI premiums from the salary or wages of their employees and remit these amounts to the CRA. If an employee becomes unemployed, sick, pregnant, cares for a newborn or adopted child, or must care for a family member who is seriously ill with a significant risk of death, he or she may be entitled to EI benefits. Self-employed people are usually not insured under the Employment Insurance Act.

Employment Insurance premium rates

CPP stands for Canada Pension Plan.

The CPP is an insurance program designed to provide you with income for your retirement. In general, if you work in Canada or are self-employed and you are 18 to 70 years old, you become a contributor and must pay into the CPP. If you are an employee, your employer must match your contribution to the plan. The CPP can also provide you with income if you become disabled and benefits may also be paid to your family when you die.

Canada Pension Plan premium rates

Income tax is an annual tax collected from individuals and businesses. The amount of income tax that an individual must pay is based on the amount of his or her taxable income (money earned minus allowed deductions) for the tax year.

Income tax is collected in various ways:

• For employee an employer will deduct income tax from his pay and sent it to the CRA. This is called a source deduction because the deduction was made at the source of the income by person employer. Employers must also deduct Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions and Employment Insurance (EI) premiums from their employees' gross pay. Employers then send these deductions to the CRA.
• Self-employed (Sole-proprietors) will be remitting monthly/quarterly installments.

There are nine public holidays in Ontario:

• New Year's Day
• Family Day
• Good Friday
• Victoria Day
• Canada Day
• Labour Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

ETS stands for the Employment Standards Act, 2000, which sets out the minimum standards that employers and employees must follow.

Ontario and Federal Tax rates 2008