A Canadian freelancer owes three different things to three different clocks: income tax, CPP (both halves — you are the employer too), and the GST/HST you collected that was never yours. This estimator prices all three from your own numbers, using editable EXAMPLE settings for the 2025 tax year (federal + Ontario) that you verify and replace with the current published figures: $68,000 of revenue and $9,500 of expenses become $58,500 of net income, $6,545 of CPP, $5,194.77 federal tax, $2,241.27 Ontario tax — $13,981.04 all-in, or $1,165.09 a month set aside before it can surprise you.
What it does for you:
– CPP, done properly: pensionable earnings capped at the year’s maximum with the $3,500 exemption, the self-employed rate on both halves, and CPP2 above the first ceiling — plus the part most estimators miss: the employer half is deducted and the employee half credited in the tax math.
– Real brackets, both levels: federal and Ontario taxes are computed band by band on your taxable income, with the basic personal credits and the Ontario surtax applied — and every bracket, rate and threshold is a yellow example setting you can update the day new figures publish.
– GST/HST kept separate, as the CRA keeps it: $8,840 collected on the sample’s sales, an estimated $655.75 of input tax credits backed out of tax-included expenses, $8,184.25 net to remit — plus the $30,000 small-supplier registration check.
– Quarterly instalments on a calendar: the bill split four ways ($3,495.26), due Mar / Jun / Sep / Dec 15, with Paid? flags — instalments already paid flow back into the estimator’s balance owing automatically.
– Honest about its limits, in writing, on the first tab: it models the basic personal amounts only, excludes the Ontario Health Premium, and says so. A set-aside planner, not a tax return.
What’s inside (.xlsx, works in Excel AND Google Sheets):
– Start Here — setup, the example-rates warning, and your settings (revenue, expenses, other income, RRSP, GST/HST rate, ITC share)
– Tax Estimator — net income, CPP + CPP2, taxable income, federal and Ontario tax band by band, total, balance owing, monthly set-aside, effective rate, and the full 2025 example-rate settings block
– GST-HST & Instalments — GST/HST collected, ITC estimate, net remittance, quarterly remittance dates, and the four income-tax instalments with Paid? tracking
– Expense Log — business spending, categorized, with a Tax Set-Aside line
– Monthly Budget — zero-based, Budget vs Actual fills itself
– Dashboard — the whole tax picture on one screen
– Monthly Summary — spending by month, Jan–Dec
Instant download. Yellow cells are yours to type in; every formula cell is locked (password sheetdaily, shown in Start Here). A sample freelancer is pre-filled so you can watch the estimate build. Estimation tool only — not tax advice; verify every rate against the CRA and your province before relying on it.
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