Provincial credits
Many recipients notice that their deposit is larger than the federal GST/HST credit alone, or that a provincial amount arrives on a different timetable. Both are normal. The CRA administers several provincial and territorial programs alongside the federal credit, and the payment dates page itself notes that GST/HST credit payments may include amounts for related provincial or territorial programs.
Amounts paid together with the federal credit
Some provincial credits are integrated with the federal payment: they are calculated from the same return, and they arrive in the same quarterly deposit, so your bank statement may show a single combined amount. The British Columbia climate action tax credit is the clearest example of this pattern: it was retitled from the low-income climate action tax credit without changing its administration, and its payments are integrated with the GST/HST credit. If you live in a province with an integrated credit and your deposit exceeds the federal figure on the how amounts work page, the difference is usually the provincial portion, and your CRA notice breaks the two apart.
Amounts on their own timetable
Other provincial programs run separately, even though the CRA administers them. The Ontario Trillium Benefit is the best-known case: it combines the Ontario energy and property tax credit, the Northern Ontario energy credit, and the Ontario sales tax credit, and it is paid monthly rather than quarterly. An Ontario recipient therefore sees two rhythms at once — a quarterly federal deposit and a monthly provincial one — and the two must not be confused with each other. If a monthly Ontario payment changes, the explanation lies in the Trillium rules, not in the GST/HST credit calculation.
Why the distinction matters
Three practical consequences follow. First, moving provinces changes your provincial entitlement even when your federal credit stays the same, because the provincial programs differ by province and some do not exist everywhere. Second, a recalculation letter may concern only one layer: the CRA can adjust the federal amount, a provincial amount, or both, and the notice says which. Third, eligibility for a provincial credit does not guarantee the federal credit, or the reverse: each program has its own income test and residency rules, even when the CRA administers them together. Always read the notice line by line rather than assuming a single figure covers everything.
Sales tax itself varies by province
The credit offsets sales tax, and the tax it offsets is not identical across Canada. The federal GST is 5% everywhere. In the HST provinces — Ontario and the Atlantic provinces — the provincial sales tax is combined with the GST into a single harmonized rate charged at the till. In other provinces, a separate provincial sales tax (or, in Quebec, the Quebec sales tax) applies alongside the GST. The credit itself is a federal amount and does not change with your province's sales tax rate; the provincial credits above are the mechanism that addresses provincial differences. That is also why a move from, say, Alberta to Ontario changes your tax at the till but does not change your federal credit formula — only the provincial layer, if any, moves.
What this site does not cover
Provincial credit amounts and thresholds change with provincial budgets and are outside this site's federal scope, so this page deliberately gives no provincial figures. For a provincial amount, check the CRA's page for that program or your province's finance ministry. The federal figures on this site are verified against CRA sources at build time; a provincial figure borrowed from a secondary site would not meet that standard, and an out-of-date provincial figure helps nobody.