GST/HST for Mental Health Practitioners in Ontario (2026)

The Short Version

Mental health care in Ontario is, for the most part, GST/HST-exempt — but the rules reached that point by different routes for each profession, and the exemption is conditional in every case. This guide explains how the exemption works for psychologists, registered psychotherapists, and registered social workers as of May 2026, where revenue is still taxable, and what the exemption costs you in input tax credits.

The exemption is not a blanket “mental health is tax-free” rule. It attaches to specific services, rendered by specific registered practitioners, for a health-care purpose. The moment your work steps outside that — coaching, training, expert testimony — you are likely in taxable territory.

How Each Profession Reaches Exemption

Psychologists. Psychological services have long been exempt under Schedule V, Part II of the Excise Tax Act when rendered to an individual by a practitioner licensed or certified to practise psychology in the province. In Ontario that is registration with the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario.

Psychotherapists. This is the recent change. Effective June 20, 2024, psychotherapy and counselling therapy services were added to the exempt list. In Ontario, a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO) qualifies. Before this date, many psychotherapists were registered for HST and charged it on every session.

Registered social workers. Social work counselling can be exempt under the long-standing social-work provision in section 7.2 of Schedule V, Part II. CRA’s 2026 psychotherapy memorandum says that when a social worker provides psychotherapy within the scope of social work, the person is generally practising social work rather than the profession of psychotherapy, so the social-work exemption is the provision to analyze.

What Stays Taxable

Across all three professions, the same categories of revenue generally remain taxable at 13% HST:

• Coaching and consulting that is not a health-care service to an individual
• Corporate or organizational contracts — workshops, wellness programs, training, EAP program design (as opposed to delivering covered clinical sessions)
• Administrative or professional-development supervision of other practitioners
• Expert opinions, medico-legal assessments, and third-party reports prepared for an insurer, employer, or court rather than for the individual’s own care

Clinical supervision is not a blanket taxable category. CRA’s 2026 psychotherapy guidance says it can be exempt where it is within the profession’s scope and is supplied for a qualifying health-care purpose, such as safeguarding client well-being. The purpose and recipient of the service matter.

Practices that mix clinical work with any of these have both exempt and taxable revenue, and need to track them separately.

The Input Tax Credit Trade-Off

Exemption is not all upside. Because exempt revenue does not carry HST, you cannot claim input tax credits (ITCs) to recover the HST you pay on rent, software, and other expenses tied to exempt services. If you have taxable revenue, you can claim ITCs only on the portion of expenses reasonably attributable to that taxable activity. All legitimate expenses remain deductible for income tax regardless — the ITC limit affects HST only.

If You Registered Before June 2024

Many psychotherapists and counselling-focused social workers registered for and charged HST before the exemption took effect. Now that core clinical services are exempt, the transition needs handling: you generally stop charging HST on exempt services from June 20, 2024, decide whether to deregister or keep a registration for any taxable revenue, and address transitional items on your final return. This is exactly the kind of change worth getting right with an accountant rather than guessing.

What This Means for Your Practice

For a purely clinical solo practice, the practical effect is simple: you do not charge HST, you do not file HST returns, and your practice-management software should mark sessions as non-taxable. The complexity arrives when you add coaching, corporate contracts, supervision, or assessments — at which point you have a mixed practice, a possible registration obligation once taxable revenue crosses $30,000, and an ITC apportionment to manage.

Wellspring Accounting sets up that exempt/taxable split for psychotherapists, registered social workers, and psychologists across Ontario so your books and HST filings are correct from the start.