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CSV with the default and other valid QuickBooks sales tax codes per account. Import file and code list below.
Download chart of accounts (CSV)Also available
This chart of accounts gives an Ontario company a clean QuickBooks Online setup where every account is mapped to the sales tax code its transactions should normally carry: HST ON for the taxable 13% lines, Z where the zero rate applies, E for exempt costs, and Out of scope for the money that never touches the GST/HST system.
Two files with two different jobs
QuickBooks imports accounts without tax settings, so the pair of downloads splits the work. The import CSV carries number, name, type, and detail type in the exact column layout QuickBooks expects, and creates the account list in one pass. The readable CSV is the coding sheet: default code per account, the legitimate alternatives, and a note explaining the treatment. Print it, pin it, or paste it into your client onboarding doc.
Ontario coding in QuickBooks terms
QuickBooks Online Canada provisions Ontario’s codes automatically once sales tax is on, so nothing here needs to be built by hand:
- HST ON (13%) is the workhorse on both sides: sales to Ontario buyers and most business purchases, where the full HST comes back as an input tax credit.
- Z (zero-rated) covers basic groceries, exports, and international transportation. Zero tax on the line, ITCs preserved.
- E (exempt) is for bank charges and interest, insurance premiums, and residential rent. No tax charged, and no credit on related costs. Note that insurance in Ontario usually shows the province’s separate 8% RST on the premium; that amount is simply part of the cost.
- Out of scope takes wages, source deductions, owner drawings, government permit fees, and transfers between your own accounts.
Two Ontario-flavoured account notes deserve a call-out. The meals and entertainment account keeps HST ON as its code, but only half of that HST is claimable for most businesses, so the readable file flags the 50% adjustment. And the club memberships account exists precisely because dining, recreation, and sporting club dues give you no credit at all even though the invoice shows HST.
Interprovincial lines are normal, not edge cases
GST/HST is charged by the place of supply. Ship goods to Vancouver and the sale is not an HST ON line; consult for a Montreal client and it is not one either. QuickBooks keeps a built-in list of every province’s codes; you enable, say, GST for an Alberta sale the first time it comes up, and it stays available. The chart’s “other codes” column tells whoever does the books which accounts see this regularly (sales, travel, and inventory purchases most of all).
Setting it up
- Turn on sales tax in QuickBooks (Taxes, then Sales tax) so the Ontario codes exist.
- Import the CSV through Settings, then Import data, then Chart of accounts, and match the four columns.
- Work from the readable file when coding: default code first, alternatives when the transaction genuinely differs.
- Review a month of coded lines before the first GST/HST filing to confirm the pattern stuck.
The steady-state problem is that every bill and receipt needs the right code on the right account, every time. Dext learns supplier-level rules so repeat vendors stay consistent. ExpenseFlow reads the document itself, works out the correct Canadian treatment including zero-rated, exempt, and buyer’s-province cases, and posts the coded transaction into QuickBooks for you. Hubdoc files the paperwork and remembers prior coding.
Account numbers follow the familiar ranges (1000s assets through 6000s expenses) with room between neighbours, so adding an account never means renumbering.
Running Xero instead? Take the Ontario chart of accounts for Xero. The code list behind this page lives in the Ontario QuickBooks sales tax codes reference.