Open a quote from us and you’ll find a price, and right underneath it two small words: plus HST. It’s a fair question: why isn’t the number on the website the number on the invoice? So here’s the plain explanation of what HST is, what a BN is, and why an honest quote in Ontario shows the tax on its own line instead of quietly folding it into the price.
This is general information about how tax shows up on a lawn quote. It isn’t tax advice, and we’re not accountants. For your own situation, the Canada Revenue Agency is the source, not us.
The short version
In Ontario, HST is 13%. It applies to services, not just to things you can carry out of a store. Mowing a lawn is a service. So is clearing a driveway, aerating, spreading mulch and hauling junk away. Every one of those gets 13% added at the bottom of the bill.
Our website prices are all pre HST. When you see a weekly Compact-tier mow at $49.99, that’s our price for the work. The tax goes on top, as its own line, and it goes to the government rather than to us.
What HST actually is
HST stands for Harmonized Sales Tax. Harmonized means two taxes were combined into one. In Ontario the 13% is made up of a 5% federal part and an 8% provincial part, collected together so that businesses file once instead of twice and you see one number instead of two.
It lands on labour too. Tax like this is easy to think of as something for products only. In Ontario it isn’t. A registered business mowing your lawn charges HST on that mow the same way a store charges it on a bag of grass seed.
The business doesn’t keep it. We collect it, hold it, and hand it over to the CRA on a schedule. It passes through the company without ever being income. That single fact is the reason we insist on showing it separately, and we’ll come back to it.
What a BN is, in one paragraph
A BN is a Business Number. It’s the identifier the CRA assigns to a business, with a suffix on the end that says which account the number is being used for. The suffix that matters here is the HST account. A business with one is registered to collect HST, which means it’s required to charge it, required to remit it, and required to put its registration number on your invoice so you can verify the charge is real.
Registration isn’t optional above a revenue threshold that the CRA sets. Below it, a very small operator can choose to stay unregistered and legitimately not charge tax. Above it, charging HST is the law, not a business decision.
KW Lawn Mowing is registered. Ask us for our HST registration number any time, before you book or after, and we’ll give it to you. If you ever want to check that a number on any contractor’s invoice is a real registered account, the CRA runs a free public registry search for exactly that purpose.
Why we show it on its own line
Three reasons, and none of them are about accounting.
So you can compare quotes properly. Say we quote $62 plus HST for a biweekly Compact-tier mow and another crew quotes a bigger sounding round number with tax already buried inside it. The second one can easily look like the pricier option. It might not be, because $62 plus 13% is $70.06 and you have no way of knowing what the other crew’s pre tax price was. When tax is hidden inside a number, comparing two quotes turns into a guessing game.
Because it isn’t our money. Rolling the tax into one big number makes it look like we charged you 13% more. We’d rather the line sit there, visible, saying exactly what it is and who it goes to.
Because the invoice has to carry it anyway. A proper Ontario invoice shows the work, the price, the tax charged and the registration number behind it. Showing you the same structure at quote time means the invoice holds no surprises. The quote and the bill say the same thing.
What it looks like on real numbers
Here are real prices from our list with the arithmetic done. The left column is our price. The right two columns are nothing more than 13% worked out and added.
| What you booked | Our price | HST 13% | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly mow, Compact lawn | $49.99 | $6.50 | $56.49 |
| Biweekly mow, Compact lawn | $62.00 | $8.06 | $70.06 |
| Core aeration, Medium lawn | $399.00 | $51.87 | $450.87 |
| Organic fertilizer, one application | $150.00 | $19.50 | $169.50 |
| Snow season (Winter Plan Standard), 2 car driveway | $997.36 | $129.66 | $1,127.02 |
Every price in that table comes from our published list and is pre HST. The full list of what we charge is on the pricing page, and the winter side is broken down on snow removal.
If you want the shortcut for your own quote: multiply by 1.13. That’s the total, every time, on every service we sell.
Two details worth knowing
Ask about a discount and the tax together. If a discount applies to your job, the tax line is still 13% of what you’re actually charged, and we write both numbers down before you pay. Winter Plan Standard pricing is on snow removal, Complete and Priority have their own pricing on Winter plans, and the seniors and community discount is written out in our policies.
A quote that never mentions tax is a question, not a bargain. It might mean the operator is genuinely below the registration threshold, which is legal and fine. It might mean tax is going to appear later and the conversation was left for the invoice. You can’t tell from the quote alone, so ask. One question, asked before the work starts, settles it.
Questions we get about this
Is HST really charged on lawn mowing?
Yes. In Ontario, HST applies to services, and lawn care is a service. Any registered business mowing your lawn is required to charge it.
Why doesn’t the website just show the price with tax included?
So the numbers can be compared against other quotes without doing mental arithmetic, and so it’s obvious which part of the bill is ours and which part is the government’s. Our prices are pre HST everywhere on the site, and we say plus HST everywhere they appear.
Do I pay HST on a Winter Plan too?
Yes. A Winter Plan is a service bought in advance, so the 13% applies the same way. A 2 car driveway season (Winter Plan Standard) is $997.36 plus HST. The sizes and what unlimited means are explained on the snow removal page.
Can I see the HST number?
Ask us for our HST registration number any time, before you book or after, and we’ll give it to you.
Is any of this tax advice?
No. This is how tax shows up on a lawn quote, written by a lawn crew. For anything about your own taxes, talk to an accountant or go to the CRA directly.
We work Kitchener and Waterloo, with Mannheim at the edge. Chemical-free lawn care, because pink is the new green. If you want a quote with the price, the tax and the work all written down before anyone starts, call 226-336-2077 or get a quote. You can also browse everything we sell or read the FAQ.
