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Payroll

Your top 2023 tax season questions, answered

Jan 10, 2024
7
min read

As another year closes and tax season approaches, it鈥檚 common to feel a hint of apprehension. You're not alone! Employers share the responsibility of calculating, withholding, and remitting income taxes to the Canadian government while ensuring employees receive their T4 forms by February's end.

From scrutinizing taxable benefits to reconciling records and generating T4s, payroll administrators face essential tasks to comply with CRA regulations and offer a seamless tax experience for employees.

We understand tax season can be daunting, even for seasoned professionals. Thankfully, 黑料传送门 Payroll users can rely on a dedicated team of payroll product experts and robust software to navigate tax season with confidence!

Drawing on valuable insights from the previous tax seasons, our payroll team has compiled answers to your top questions. Let's make this year's filing a stress-free experience!

  1. What does it mean when I have a +/- on 黑料传送门鈥檚 PIER Analysis Report, and what should I do now?

    黑料传送门鈥檚 Pensionable and Insurable Earnings (PIER) Analysis Report is designed to help streamline T4 preparation and quickly identify potential discrepancies in Employee CPP, Employer CPP, Employee EI, and Employer EI.

    You can easily see a discrepancy if there鈥檚 an amount other than zero in any of the 鈥渧ariance鈥 fields.


A positive (+) discrepancy means there鈥檚 an over-remitted amount, or an 鈥渙verage鈥.
A negative (-) discrepancy means there鈥檚 an under-remitted amount, or a 鈥渄eficiency鈥.

If you see a discrepancy, determine if it is valid, by:

  • Totalling the CPP and Employer CPP
  • Totalling the EI and Employer EI
  • Taking those amounts and cross referencing them with the Remittance Report to determine if you need to remit more

If you have over-remitted, the CRA will issue a credit for the over remittances. If you鈥檝e determined that you need to make additional payments, you can view the process in our

  1. Why is there a PIER deficiency on 黑料传送门鈥檚 PIER Analysis Report?

黑料传送门鈥檚 PIER Report helps bring to your attention any variances that may be flagged by the CRA, although it doesn鈥檛 mean that you鈥檝e definitely over or under remitted.

These variances need to be explained to the CRA if they question it. Reasons for variances could include, but are not limited to:

  • If an employee was on payroll, with 0 pay in a pay period
  • If an employee turned 18 or 70 and started/stopped contributions
  • If an employee was on leave but remained on as an active employee and active on payroll
  • If you were granted an EI premium reduction, using a rate that is lower than the standard employer rate of 1.4 times the employees' EI premium
  • If your company was implemented mid year.

Smaller variances aren't looked at closely by the CRA, so in the cases where you are seeing pennies, it's likely a rounding error and that isn't something you鈥檒l be required to explain.聽


黑料传送门鈥檚 PIER Report is designed to give you the tools you need to flag and determine the cause of the variance so you can decide on the best course of action to take. Due to compliance and liability reasons, we鈥檙e not able to advise on specific reasons for employee variances, but we highly recommend speaking to an accountant if you are new to reconciling a PIER Report. 黑料传送门鈥檚 PIER Report is not a replacement for the CRA鈥檚 PIER Report.

  1. How do I send my terminated employees T4s?

Once you鈥檝e edited, reviewed, and finalized your T4 package in 黑料传送门, you鈥檒l be able to send T4s to all employees via the email associated with their 黑料传送门 profile. Terminated employees cannot log into their 黑料传送门 profile anymore to edit their email, so it鈥檚 good practice to check the email on their 黑料传送门 account is a personal email.

To update a terminated employee鈥檚 email address:

  • Go to the 鈥淧eople鈥 module on the left navigation pane.
  • Under the "Directory" tab, click on the filter icon next to the "Status" column and select the "Terminated" checkbox.聽
  • Follow the steps in to update an employee鈥檚 email.

  1. What do I need to consider if I joined 黑料传送门 part way through a calendar year?

    We recommend that you follow up with your previous payroll provider to confirm they do not file T4s, as this will overstate actual earnings and will require reconciliation.

Review the company's Year-to-Date (YTD) records to ensure they include all payroll details from the 2023 periods prior to your switch to 黑料传送门. If you find any omissions, you can employ 黑料传送门's T4 Adjustment Tool to integrate the required YTD information.

Note: Your 黑料传送门 PIER Report may flag your CPP and Employer CPP as a discrepancy since you鈥檝e joined mid year, due to the CPP per pay period exemption which would not be captured when importing YTDs.

  1. My previous payroll provider filed 2023 T4s for the first part of the year, what do I do?

Kindly reach out to your former payroll provider to retract the submission. If not addressed, there's a potential for duplicative reporting of your employees' earnings.

  1. An employee has informed me that there is an error on their T4. How do I revise a T4 that鈥檚 been filed already?

If you've submitted your T619 file to the CRA and discovered an error on a T4, the CRA requires that you create and submit an Amended T4, and upload a new, updated T619 on the CRA's website.

Thankfully, you can create T4 amendments in 黑料传送门 Payroll! Follow for creating T4 amendments.

  1. Why can鈥檛 I access or make changes in the Year End Adjustment tool?

Once you've produced or completed your T4 package, access to the Year End Adjustment tool will be restricted. To regain access to the Year End Adjustment tool, you must remove the T4 tax package. Be aware that deleting the tax package will result in the removal of any manual modifications made to the T4s within the T4 module.

  1. Does 黑料传送门 automatically submit our T619 file to the CRA?

This year for the 2023 tax season, 黑料传送门 will be enabling automatic T4 submissions. Follow for how to submit the T4s.

  1. Where can I obtain a copy of my T4 summary?聽

The T4 summary can be found within the T4 module beneath each individual employee's T4s. Additionally, it can be accessed when downloading the tax package.聽

  1. Am I required to send my employees a new TD1 form to fill in?

Employers must provide TD1 forms when hiring new employees. Subsequently, employees should update and submit revised TD1 forms if there are modifications to their tax deductions, place of residence and/or SIN number.聽



Want to learn more? We鈥檝e got you covered.

For a comprehensive guide on how to navigate year-end, refer to our , which includes a year-end checklist to help you stay on top of critical tax season tasks, and detailed instructions for:

  • how to review and adjust records
  • how to issue, edit, and file your T4s
  • how to set-up for the next payroll year

If you have specific questions regarding the T4 module, our payroll support team will be happy to help! Simply .

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