Money

Sources

Every authority behind the figures on this site, grouped by what it supports, with the date a person last checked each one.

Each date below is the day somebody opened that page and checked that figure against it. It is never backfilled and never carried forward from a previous year. The most recent check across the whole dataset was August 18, 2026. How each figure is used is set out in the methodology.

Mortgage rules

Down payments, insurance and the qualifying rate

  1. How much you need for a down payment · Financial Consumer Agency of Canada · checked
    • Minimum down payment tiers
    • The $500,000 and $1.5 million thresholds
  2. Mortgage loan insurance premiums · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · checked
    • Premium rates by loan-to-value band
    • The higher rate on a non-traditional down payment
    • Provinces that charge sales tax on the premium
  3. CMHC Purchase: mortgage loan insurance for homeownership · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · checked
    • Maximum insured price below $1,500,000
    • Minimum equity of 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the remainder
    • Standard 25-year maximum amortization
    • The qualifying rate applied to insured mortgages
  4. CMHC Home Start · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · checked
    • 30-year insured amortization
    • First-time buyer or newly built eligibility
    • High-ratio only: available above 80% loan to value
  5. CMHC Revises Homeowner Mortgage Loan Insurance Premiums · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · checked
    • The 20 basis point surcharge on a 30-year insured amortization
  6. Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages · Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions · checked
    • The qualifying rate: the greater of the contract rate plus 2% and 5.25%
    • The exemption for uninsured straight switches at renewal
  7. Boldest mortgage reforms in decades come into force today · Department of Finance Canada · checked
    • The insured price cap rising from $1 million to $1.5 million on 15 December 2024
    • 30-year amortizations for first-time buyers and buyers of new builds

Debt service ratios

Gross and total debt service

  1. Calculating GDS / TDS · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · checked
    • Gross debt service maximum of 39%
    • Total debt service maximum of 44%
    • Half of condominium fees counted in both ratios
    • What counts as another debt obligation
  2. CMHC Purchase: mortgage loan insurance for homeownership · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · checked
    • Maximum insured price below $1,500,000
    • Minimum equity of 5% of the first $500,000 and 10% of the remainder
    • Standard 25-year maximum amortization
    • The qualifying rate applied to insured mortgages

Provinces and territories

Alberta

  1. Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule · Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, Government of Alberta · checked
    • Transfer registration fee
    • Mortgage registration fee
  2. Alberta's tax advantage · Government of Alberta · checked
    • Alberta levies no land transfer tax

British Columbia

  1. Property transfer tax · Province of British Columbia · checked
    • Transfer tax brackets
    • First-time buyer and newly built exemptions

Manitoba

  1. Land Transfer Tax · Manitoba Finance · checked
    • Land transfer tax brackets
    • The buyer pays on registration
  2. Land Titles Fees, effective January 4, 2026 · Teranet Manitoba · checked
    • Transfer registration fee of $137 electronic
    • Mortgage registration fee of $137 electronic
  3. Bulletin No. 061: The Retail Sales Tax Act, Insurance · Manitoba Finance · checked
    • Mortgage insurance exempt from retail sales tax for contracts effective after 30 June 2020

New Brunswick

  1. Real Property Transfer Tax Act, R.S.N.B. c. R-2.1 · Province of New Brunswick · checked
    • The 1% rate on the greater of consideration and assessed value
    • The buyer pays before registration
    • Exempt classes of instrument

Newfoundland and Labrador

  1. Schedule of Fees Prescribed by the Minister of Government Services, Registry of Deeds · Commercial Registrations Division, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador · checked
    • Conveyance registration fee of $100 plus 40 cents per additional $100
    • Mortgage registration on the same schedule
    • The $5,000 cap on a mortgage registration

Northwest Territories

  1. Land Titles Office Schedule of Fees, updated September 1, 2025 · Land Titles Office, Department of Justice, Government of the Northwest Territories · checked
    • Transfer fee of $2.00 per $1,000 with a $100 minimum
    • The reduced rate above $1,000,000
    • Mortgage fee of $1.50 per $1,000 with an $80 minimum

Nova Scotia

  1. Municipal Deed Transfer Tax Rates, July 2026 · Service Nova Scotia · checked
    • Deed transfer tax is municipal
    • Rates run from 1.0% to 1.5%
    • Halifax Regional Municipality charges 1.5%
  2. Nova Scotia Non-Resident Provincial Deed Transfer Tax Guidelines · Nova Scotia Department of Finance and Treasury Board · checked
    • The 10% non-resident rate
    • Residential property of three or fewer units
    • The residency exemption

Nunavut

  1. Consolidation of Land Titles Tariff of Fees Regulations, R-062-93 · Territorial Printer for Nunavut · checked
    • Transfer fee of $1.50 per $1,000 with a $60 minimum
    • The reduced rate above $1,000,000
    • Mortgage fee of $1.00 per $1,000 with a $40 minimum
  2. Regulation R-033-2022 amending the Land Titles Tariff of Fees Regulations · Territorial Printer for Nunavut · checked
    • The 2022 amendment replaces only the schedule items covering copies and searches, leaving transfers and mortgages unchanged

Ontario

  1. Calculating Land Transfer Tax · Ontario Ministry of Finance · checked
    • Provincial transfer tax brackets
    • The conditional 2.5% band
    • First-time buyer refund
  2. Retail Sales Tax: insurance and benefits plans · Government of Ontario · checked
    • Retail sales tax of 8% on taxable insurance premiums

Prince Edward Island

  1. Real Property Transfer Tax Act, R.S.P.E.I. 1988, Cap. R-5.1, consolidated to May 29, 2026 · Legislative Counsel Office, Government of Prince Edward Island · checked
    • The 1% rate
    • The $30,000 low-value exemption
    • The first-time buyer exemption and its conditions
    • The 183-day occupancy requirement
  2. Real Property Transfer Tax Act General Regulations · Legislative Counsel Office, Government of Prince Edward Island · checked
    • The prescribed maximum price for the first-time buyer exemption was revoked

Quebec

  1. Droits sur les mutations immobilieres · Gouvernement du Quebec, Ministere des Affaires municipales et de l'Habitation · checked
    • The 2026 statutory brackets
    • Annual indexation to the Quebec consumer price index
    • A municipality may charge more above $500,000, capped at 3% except in Montreal
  2. Mortgage loan insurance premiums · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · checked
    • Quebec is one of three provinces charging sales tax on the insurance premium

Saskatchewan

  1. Land Title Fees Table, effective May 4, 2024 · Saskatchewan Registry Services, operated by ISC · checked
    • Title transfer fee bands
    • 0.4% of value above $6,300
    • Mortgage discharge fee
  2. April 15, 2026 fee adjustment details · Saskatchewan Registry Services, operated by ISC · checked
    • Mortgage registration fees from 15 April 2026
    • The transfer fee is not among the adjusted fees, so 0.4% is unchanged
  3. Date extended, changes made to PST on insurance premiums · Government of Saskatchewan · checked
    • Provincial sales tax of 6% on insurance premiums

Municipalities

Toronto

  1. Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees · City of Toronto · checked
    • Municipal transfer tax brackets
    • First-time buyer rebate

Montreal

  1. Comment sont calcules les droits sur les mutations immobilieres · Ville de Montreal · checked
    • Montreal's 2026 transfer duty schedule
    • The comparative factor of 1.00 for 2026

Halifax Regional Municipality

  1. Municipal Deed Transfer Tax Rates, July 2026 · Service Nova Scotia · checked
    • Halifax Regional Municipality charges 1.5%

Sales tax

GST, HST and provincial sales tax

  1. GST/HST calculator and rates · Canada Revenue Agency · checked
    • GST and HST rates by province and territory

Income tax

Where a calculator estimates take-home pay it uses the tax engine and the transcribed federal, provincial and territorial rules maintained for Salary After Tax, which carries its own sources page for them. That engine is copied into this site rather than called across the network, and its own data invariants run here before anything ships.

What is not covered

Yukon

Yukon sets its Land Titles fees in the Land Titles Tariff of Fees Regulation, and every official route to that regulation refused access when this data was compiled. Rather than publish a fee schedule nobody here has read, Yukon is left out until it can be checked.

Two further gaps are worth naming. Quebec charges provincial sales tax on the mortgage default insurance premium, and its current rate could not be verified against Revenu Quebec directly, so no amount for it is included in a Quebec closing cost estimate and the page says so. Prince Edward Island is applied at one per cent throughout: a two per cent tier above one million dollars is widely reported but does not appear in the consolidated Act, so it is not applied.

Where estimates come from instead

Legal fees, title insurance, inspections, appraisals and real estate commission are not set by anyone and are not sourced here. They are market conventions, they are shown in a separate group from anything a government sets, each one states the basis for its default, and all of them are editable. If you have a quote, use yours.