How Canadian taxes work in Cardinal

Canadian lodging taxes are more involved than a single sales tax. Cardinal handles the calculation and reporting for you - here's how it works.

The taxes Cardinal applies

Depending on your province, a stay can attract several taxes at once:

• GST - the federal Goods and Services Tax (5%).
• QST - Québec's provincial sales tax (9.975%), applied alongside GST.
• HST - the Harmonized Sales Tax in provinces that combine federal and provincial sales tax (for example, Ontario at 13%).
• Lodging tax - a tax on accommodation specifically, such as Québec's taxe sur l'hébergement. Travel-agency bookings use the flat per-night intermediary rate automatically.

How it's calculated

When you set your property's province in Property Settings, Cardinal applies the correct combination automatically on every reservation, with per-component rounding in integer cents so the folio always reconciles. You never maintain tax rates by hand.

Proforma vs. tax invoice

Before check-out, the folio is a proforma invoice - it shows the anticipated total and any advance deposit. At check-out it becomes a registered tax invoice with your GST/QST registration numbers and an invoice date. That keeps you compliant without any extra steps.

Reporting and remittance

At month end, open Analytics → Tax & ledger for a summary of every tax collected, broken out by component the way the CRA and Revenu Québec expect. Export it for your bookkeeper or attach it to your filing.

Lodging tax rules change from time to time. Cardinal updates the built-in rates when governments change them, so your filings stay accurate. Your data is stored in Canada, in line with PIPEDA and Québec's Loi 25.

A note on edge cases

Long stays, exempt guests, and complimentary rooms are handled with per-folio overrides. If you're unsure how a specific situation should be taxed, reach out - we're happy to walk through it.