Effective February 4, 2013, the Royal Canadian Mint will officially no longer distribute pennies. In order to assist consumers, businesses and other organizations to deal with the phase out of the penny, the Canada Revenue Agency released GST/HST Info Sheet GI-131, “Phasing Out of the Penny”.
For transactions on or after February 4, 2013, GST/HST on both cash and non-cash purchases will continue to be calculated and reported to the penny on the value of the consideration. However, where pennies are not available, cash transactions will need to be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment.
This publication contains several useful examples of the rounding that will be required for cash transactions, as a result of the disappearing penny. As illustrarted in example 7, a supply made in Ontario of tangible personal property at a retail store for $179 plus $23.27 HST would result in cash consideration being accepted of $202.25, where no pennies are available, instead of $202.27. The HST remitted by the vendor in this example would remain unchanged at $23.27.
GI-131