Is there HST on massage therapy in Ontario?

Massage therapy is taxable, not exempt

The Excise Tax Act exempts a specific, named list of health care services from GST/HST, mainly services provided by physicians, dentists, physiotherapists, chiropractors, and a handful of other regulated professions. Registered massage therapists are not on that list, so their services are fully taxable at Ontario's 13% HST rate, the same as most other consumer services.

This is a common point of confusion, since massage therapy is a regulated health profession in Ontario with its own college and standards, much like physiotherapy. Being regulated and being GST/HST-exempt are two different things; the exemption depends on the specific list in the Excise Tax Act, not on whether a profession is licensed or regulated provincially.

A clinic still only has to charge this tax once it registers for GST/HST, which generally happens once its taxable sales pass $30,000 over a single quarter or four consecutive quarters, the same threshold that applies to any other business; see our answer on when you have to register for GST/HST for how that test works. A brand-new solo massage therapy practice may not yet be required to charge HST at all if it remains under that amount.

Why physiotherapy and chiropractic get different treatment

The exempt health care list in the Excise Tax Act names specific practitioner types by profession, rather than exempting health-related services generally. Physiotherapists and chiropractors appear on that list; registered massage therapists do not, and there is no indication that omission was accidental rather than a deliberate line Parliament drew.

The practical effect is that two clients receiving treatment for the same injury, one from a physiotherapist and one from a registered massage therapist, can see different tax treatment on their receipts even though both services are being used for a similar health purpose. This is worth explaining to clients who assume any treatment ordered or recommended by a doctor is automatically tax-exempt, since that is not how the rule works.

The 2024 exemption for psychotherapy did not extend to massage

As at the time of writing, a 2024 legislative change added psychotherapy and counselling therapy services to the exempt health care list, closing a gap that had existed for those specific mental health professions. Massage therapy was not part of that change, and nothing in it altered how massage therapy is taxed.

Because the exempt list has been amended before and could be amended again, it is worth confirming the current list directly with the CRA if a client asks whether a specific health profession has since been added, rather than assuming today's list matches what was true a few years ago.

Insurance coverage does not change the tax answer

Many clients assume that if their extended health insurance reimburses a massage therapy claim, the service must be tax-exempt, since insurance plans are often associated with medical, tax-favoured spending. That assumption does not hold here.

• GST/HST exemption depends on the Excise Tax Act's specific list of practitioner types, not on whether a private insurance plan reimburses the cost.
• A massage therapy receipt correctly shows 13% HST whether or not the client's plan will reimburse any part of the visit.
• Clients submitting receipts to their insurer for reimbursement should still expect to see HST itemized on a properly issued receipt from a registered clinic.

Clinics that leave HST off a receipt because a client mentions insurance coverage are issuing an incorrect receipt, which can create problems for both the clinic and the client later.

A related but separate question is whether massage therapy can be claimed as a medical expense on a client's own personal income tax return. That question is governed by entirely different rules than GST/HST, and the answer can differ from the GST/HST treatment described here; see our answer on claiming physiotherapy and massage as medical expenses for how the income tax side works. A service being taxable for GST/HST purposes does not prevent a client from later claiming it as an eligible medical expense, since the two systems evaluate the service on different terms entirely.

This distinction is worth explaining clearly to clients rather than letting the two questions blur together, since a client who hears "massage is not GST/HST exempt" can easily and incorrectly conclude that it also cannot be claimed on their personal return, when in fact the two questions have nothing to do with each other; see our explainer on the difference between zero-rated and exempt supplies for how the GST/HST side of this categorization actually works.

How we handle GST/HST for massage therapy clinics

We set up clinic billing systems so registered massage therapy is taxed correctly from the first invoice, separate from any exempt services a multidisciplinary clinic might also offer, such as physiotherapy delivered under the same roof. Where a clinic bundles services from several types of practitioners, we help split revenue by service type so the taxable and exempt portions are reported correctly rather than treated as one blended total. We also see clinics where registered massage therapists work as independent contractors renting treatment rooms rather than as employees, and in that structure each therapist tracks their own $30,000 small supplier threshold separately from the clinic itself, much like a chair renter in a salon. Our tax services for massage therapists page covers registration, mixed-practice billing, and GST/HST filing specific to this industry, and our bookkeeping for massage clinics page covers day-to-day recordkeeping for contractor therapists.