- What is the Municipal Accommodation Tax rate in Ontario?
- There is no single Ontario rate. MAT is set municipality by municipality: as of August 2026 Toronto, Ottawa and Mississauga are at 6%, Kingston at 5%, and Hamilton and Niagara Falls at 4% — with Niagara Falls legislated to rise to 5% on 1 April 2027.
- Does MAT apply to the same stays everywhere?
- No, and this catches operators more often than the rates do. The stay-length threshold differs by city: Toronto, Mississauga and Kingston use 30 days or less, Hamilton uses 29 nights or less, and Niagara Falls uses 28 days or less. A 29-night booking is taxable in one city and out of scope in another.
- How often do I remit MAT?
- That also varies. Mississauga requires monthly returns; Kingston and Niagara Falls collect quarterly from short-term rental operators, though Niagara Falls still requires monthly remittance from hotels, motels and inns.
Why a table like this goes stale so fast
Three of the six municipalities below changed their MAT inside the last twelve months. Toronto went to 8.5% for the World Cup and back to 6%. Ottawa went from 5% to 6% on 1 January 2026. Niagara Falls introduced 4% on 1 April 2026 with a further increase already legislated for 2027. Every one of those is a council decision on its own timetable, answerable to nobody else's publishing schedule.
The consequence is that most third-party rate tables are wrong, including ones updated this year. While writing this page we found current guidance still quoting Ottawa at 4% and Toronto at 8.5% — both superseded. Treat any MAT figure without an effective date attached as unverified, this page included: what follows is dated, and the primary sources are linked at the bottom so you can check them the day you configure a rate.
Rates as of 22 August 2026
- Toronto — 6%. Rose to a temporary 8.5% on 1 June 2025 for FIFA World Cup 2026 hosting costs; reverted to 6% on 1 August 2026. Applies to stays of 30 days or less.
- Ottawa — 6%. Increased from 5% effective 1 January 2026 by By-law 2026-8, amending By-law 2022-56.
- Mississauga — 6%. Applies to accommodation of 30 days or less; returns and payment due monthly, by the end of the month following collection.
- Kingston — 5%. Applies to stays of 30 days or less; short-term rental operators remit quarterly, due 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January.
- Hamilton — 4%. Established by By-law No. 22-209, collected since 1 January 2023, on continuous stays of 29 nights or less.
- Niagara Falls — 4% as of 1 April 2026, rising to 5% on 1 April 2027. Applies to stays of 28 days or less.
The stay-length threshold is not standard, and that is the expensive part
Rates are easy to look up and easy to fix. The threshold that decides whether a booking is taxable at all is neither, because it varies — 30 days in Toronto, Mississauga and Kingston, 29 nights in Hamilton, 28 days in Niagara Falls — and because a booking engine configured with one number will silently apply it everywhere.
A portfolio spanning two of these municipalities cannot hold a single global rule for what counts as a short stay. A 29-night booking is within scope in Toronto, outside it in Hamilton, and outside it in Niagara Falls. If your system stores the threshold per property rather than per account, this is a configuration exercise; if it does not, it is a liability.
Remittance schedules differ too
Mississauga wants a return every month. Kingston and Niagara Falls collect from short-term rental operators quarterly. Niagara Falls splits by accommodation type — monthly from hotels, motels and inns, quarterly from bed and breakfasts, vacation rentals and owner-occupied short-term rentals — so two properties in the same city can be on different cycles.
Niagara Falls is also changing how remittance happens: from 1 June 2026, accommodation providers submit through an online portal administered by ORHMA rather than directly to the City. A process change like that is easy to miss precisely because the rate did not move.
What MAT is charged on
Consistently across these municipalities, MAT applies to the accommodation portion of the booking only — the room or the space — and not to separately billed extras such as parking, laundry, valet or meals. HST then applies on top of the MAT amount, not the other way round.
The practical failure is quoting a nightly rate that quietly absorbs MAT rather than adding it as a line the guest sees. MAT is collected from the guest; an operator who buries it either erodes margin on every booking or faces an awkward retroactive correction when someone reconciles a remittance against revenue.
Direct PMS sets the MAT rate and the stay threshold per property, not per account — which is the only way a portfolio spanning two municipalities stays correct in both.
See how bookings are priced →- City of Toronto — Municipal Accommodation Tax →
- City of Ottawa — Municipal Accommodation Tax, for owners →
- City of Mississauga — Municipal Accommodation Tax →
- City of Kingston — Municipal Accommodation Tax →
- City of Hamilton — Municipal Accommodation Tax →
- City of Niagara Falls — Municipal Accommodation Tax →
- First published, with rates for six municipalities read off each city's own page.
Toronto regulates short-term rentals through mandatory registration, not a discretionary licence — and the rules differ sharply depending on whether you're renting a whole unit or a room in your own home.
MAT applies to almost every short stay in Toronto, and the rate has moved twice in the last fourteen months — as of 8 August 2026 it's back down to 6%, after a temporary jump to 8.5%.
Every residential property owner in Toronto must declare occupancy status every year — even an occupied home — or the property is automatically deemed vacant and taxed at 3% of its assessed value.
Ottawa permits short-term rentals only in your principal residence, under a two-year host permit — with one significant exception for rural properties that Toronto has no equivalent of.