Sources & Methodology
Every rule and rate behind CostToClose's closing-cost calculator, with its legal source and the date last checked. Land transfer tax, CMHC premiums, and more.
Every closing-cost figure the calculator shows is tagged one of two ways: Rule — set by a specific law, bylaw, or published schedule, shown as calculated — or Estimate — a typical market figure you can override with your own quote. This page lists every rule, its legal source, and the last time it was checked against that source. It does not list the Estimate rows (legal fees, title insurance, home inspection, appraisal, status certificate, tax adjustments) since those are explicitly typical figures, not government rates — see the calculator's own "See every line" breakdown for those.
Rules below last checked: September 2026. Rates, brackets, and thresholds change — sometimes with little notice — so treat every figure as a starting point to confirm with your lender, lawyer, or notary, not a final number.
Land transfer / property transfer tax, by province
| Province | How it's charged | First-time buyer rebate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | Percentage brackets, 0.5%–2.5% | Up to $4,000 | Ontario Land Transfer Tax Act |
| Toronto (on top of Ontario) | Its own bracket schedule, mirrors Ontario to $3M then 4.4%+ | Up to $4,475 (on top of Ontario's own cap) | City of Toronto Municipal Land Transfer Tax By-law |
| British Columbia | Percentage brackets, 1%–5% | Full exemption at $500,000 or less; between $500,000 and $835,000 the tax on that first $500,000 is exempt (capped at $8,000 today), with tax still owed on the amount above $500,000; that exemption phases out to zero by $860,000 | BC Property Transfer Tax Act; gov.bc.ca, Property Transfer Tax first-time home buyers' exemption |
| Alberta | No transfer tax — flat title + mortgage registration fees | N/A (no tax to rebate) | Alberta Land Titles Act fee schedule |
| Quebec | Percentage brackets, 0.5%–1.5% (Montreal has its own higher tiers to 4%) | None provincially | Act Respecting Duties on Transfers of Immovables (Quebec); Ville de Montréal welcome tax bylaw for Montreal |
| Manitoba | Percentage brackets, 0%–2% | None | Manitoba Tax Administration and Miscellaneous Taxes Act |
| Nova Scotia | Flat 1.5% (Halifax's rate; other municipalities can set their own) | None | Halifax Regional Municipality deed transfer tax by-law |
| Nova Scotia, non-resident buyers | Additional flat 10% of price | — | Nova Scotia Non-Resident Deed Transfer Tax Act |
| Ontario, non-resident buyers | Additional flat 25% of price, province-wide | — | Ontario Non-Resident Speculation Tax |
| British Columbia, non-resident buyers | Additional flat 20% of price, in designated areas | — | BC Additional Property Transfer Tax (foreign buyers) |
| Saskatchewan | No transfer tax — 0.4% title fee plus a flat-tiered mortgage registration fee ($200–$1,000 by mortgage size) | N/A | Information Services Corporation (Saskatchewan), land titles fee schedule |
| New Brunswick | Flat 1% | None | New Brunswick Real Property Transfer Tax Act |
| Prince Edward Island | Flat 1% (nil if the property is worth $30,000 or less) | Full exemption for qualified first-time buyers | PEI Real Property Transfer Tax Act |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | No transfer tax — flat registration fees on deed and mortgage | N/A | Newfoundland and Labrador Registration of Deeds Act |
| Yukon | No transfer tax — flat title + assurance fund fees | N/A | Yukon Land Titles Act fee schedule |
| Northwest Territories | No transfer tax — flat registration fees | N/A | Northwest Territories Land Titles Act fee schedule |
| Nunavut | No transfer tax — flat registration fees | N/A | Nunavut Land Titles Act fee schedule |
Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador's mortgage registration fees are charged on the insured mortgage amount — once a CMHC premium is added to the loan (see below), the fee is calculated on the larger, insured figure, not just what you borrowed against the purchase price.
Mortgage insurance (CMHC)
| Rule | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Premium rate, under 10% down | 4.00% of the loan | CMHC mortgage loan insurance premium schedule |
| Premium rate, 10–14.99% down | 3.10% | CMHC mortgage loan insurance premium schedule |
| Premium rate, 15–19.99% down | 2.80% | CMHC mortgage loan insurance premium schedule |
| Premium rate, 20%+ down | 0% — no insurance required | CMHC mortgage loan insurance premium schedule |
| Insured mortgage price cap | $1,500,000 — 20% down required above this regardless of the buyer | Federal mortgage insurance rules (OSFI / Dept. of Finance Canada) |
| 30-year amortization surcharge | +0.20% on the premium rate, first-time buyers and new builds only | Federal mortgage insurance rules (OSFI / Dept. of Finance Canada) |
| Legal minimum down payment | 5% to $500,000, 10% on the slice to $1.5M, 20% above that | Federal mortgage insurance rules (OSFI / Dept. of Finance Canada) |
| PST on the premium itself | Ontario 8%, Quebec 9%, Manitoba 7%, Saskatchewan 6%, all other provinces 0% | Each province's provincial sales tax legislation |
The CMHC premium itself is financed into your mortgage, not paid in cash on closing day, so it's shown as its own row and excluded from the calculator's closing-cost and cash-to-close totals. The PST on the premium, where it applies, is the exception — that's cash due at closing, not something you can roll into the loan.
Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Premium Information for Homeowner and Small Rental Loans.
Correction history
CostToClose launched September 9, 2026. In the weeks after launch we ran a full accuracy audit against every province's actual legislation and re-tested every calculator against real examples. That audit found real errors — some large enough to change a shown dollar figure. Rather than quietly fix them, we're keeping a dated record here. A date that changes with no public note attached to it doesn't prove anything was actually reviewed; this is that note.
| Date | What was corrected |
|---|---|
| 2026‑09‑14 | Mortgage payment math corrected to Canada's legally required semi-annual compounding — it had been compounding monthly, which understated the real payment. |
| 2026‑09‑14 | Land transfer/property tax rules verified and corrected against current legislation for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, British Columbia, Toronto and Nova Scotia; the remaining provinces and territories not yet covered were added. |
| 2026‑09‑14 | Added enforcement of the legal minimum down payment and the 30-year-amortization eligibility rule, so the calculator can no longer show a scenario that wouldn't actually qualify for insured financing. |
| 2026‑09‑15 | Corrected CMHC mortgage-insurance premium accounting, tax-formula errors for British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and several land-registration fee figures. |
| 2026‑09‑15 | Corrected Toronto's land transfer tax at higher price tiers, non-resident/foreign-buyer surcharges for Manitoba, British Columbia and Ontario, and Manitoba's PST treatment of the mortgage-insurance premium. |
| 2026‑09‑15 | Corrected the "What can I afford?" calculator to use lenders' actual qualifying-ratio formula (GDS/TDS) in place of an earlier simplified version; corrected the mortgage stress-test tool's pass/fail logic and the HST new-home rebate calculation. |
| 2026‑09‑15 | Corrected several default example figures that had drifted out of sync with the live calculator, a Quebec condo pre-purchase-inspection example, and a rounding error in the affordability calculator's insurance premium. |
| 2026‑09‑15 | Removed a small number of inaccurate trust and privacy statements on the results page — including one implying nothing is ever sent anywhere, which wasn't accurate once address search and standard advertising/security processing are accounted for — and replaced them with accurate wording. |
| 2026‑09‑15 | Toronto's land transfer tax is now shown as two separate lines (Ontario's tax, then Toronto's own tax on top) instead of one combined figure, so the doubling is visible; added a note that Quebec's welcome tax is billed by the municipality after closing, not due at the notary. |
| 2026‑09‑15 | Corrected the FHSA/RRSP guide's worked example, which had applied the $60,000 Home Buyers' Plan withdrawal limit as if it were a single combined cap instead of $60,000 per buyer — a couple with $63,000 in RRSPs was shown withdrawing only $60,000 of it and repaying $4,000/year, when their actual limit was $120,000 combined and the correct figures are $63,000 and $4,200/year. |
This list covers calculation and trust-claim corrections — the kind that change a number or a promise you'd rely on. It doesn't list routine content edits, styling fixes, or new features, which don't affect the accuracy of an existing figure. If you find something that looks wrong, tell us — a report that turns into a real fix gets added here too.
Notes on what's not on this page
The Estimate-tagged rows (legal fees, title insurance, home inspection, appraisal, status certificate, tax adjustments) are typical market figures, not government rates — they're editable in the calculator's own results table for exactly that reason. Property tax rates shown per city or province are municipal/provincial averages for budgeting purposes, not a specific assessment. Rent, cap rate, and cash-flow tools use your own entered rate and rent figures rather than a fixed government rule.
Questions or something look wrong? hello@costtoclose.ca.