Calculation on Sales Tax?

I live in Ontario, which has 13% tax so my question is:

Is sales tax calculated like this:

Item #1 + Tax, Item #2 + Tax, = Total



OR is it like this:

Item # 1 + Item #2 + Tax of total price of Item 1 & 2 = Total

Thank you for your help.

Your 2nd one is what the sales slips from ontario retail stores show. However, I would have thought that both of your examples would show the same amount of sales tax and total final sale price.

In provinces where there is PST (Provincial Sales Tax) as well and you have to charge both GST and PST, you calculate the GST on the price of the goods or service before PST has been applied.

For example, in Ontario, the Retail Sales Tax is 8 percent. Suppose you sold a wind chime at a price of $39.99 (a taxable good). RST, like GST, is charged on the total selling price of the merchandise. (The total selling price includes delivery, mailing, transportation, or handling charges.) So in this case your sale would be calculated as:

1 Windchime $39.99
GST @ 5% 2.00
PST @ 8% 3.20
Total Price $45.19

Note that Quebec and Prince Edward Island are the exceptions to this rule; in these two provinces, PST is charged based on the total of the selling price plus GST.
So if the windchime above was sold in P.E.I., where the PST is 10 percent, the sale would be calculated as:

1 Windchime $39.99
GST @ 6% 2.00
Total 41.99
PST @ 10% 4.20
Total Price $46.19

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland/Labrador have HST (Harmonized Sales Tax), meaning that the GST and PST have already been combined. In those provinces, you would charge a straight 13 percent on the price of a windchime.

How the question and solutions are being offered here ~ offer the same answer to the calculation.

The question (likely) is more so about the Ontario Provincial Taxation and the GST calculations on top of that. Unfortunately, considering this ~ yes, there is tax on the tax ~

I believe in math class we learned a rule that said:

(A*B)+ (C*B) is always the same as B*(A+C)

I believe its the associative property.

Retail sales sub-total items and charge appropriate taxes. Note Ontario does not have a 13% tax.

Ontario charges Retail Sales Tax (RST) of 8 % on most goods; note some items are RST exempt as are services.

The federal government charges Goods & Services Tax (GST) of 5%; there are a few exemptions.

Since they are separate taxes (in Ontario) the taxes are calculated individually. In some provinces the taxes have been combined and the total tax is charged on the sub-total.

The only difference between the two methods in your question would be in the rounding of the taxes.