T4 box numbers explained

Which tax year your T4 covers, and why it decides every check

A T4 reports one calendar year, and the year is printed on the slip. Employers file the T4 information return and give employees their copies by the last day of February following the year the slip covers, the next business day where that date falls on a weekend (CRA).

So the T4 a Canadian is holding in the second half of 2026 is the 2025 slip, issued by the end of February 2026. The 2026 T4 is not issued until the end of February 2027.

This is not a detail. The CPP maximum pensionable earnings, the CPP2 band, the EI maximum insurable earnings and premium rate, the QPP rate and maxima and the QPIP ceiling are all set year by year. Checking a 2025 slip against 2026 ceilings raises false alarms across boxes 16, 16A, 18, 24, 26, 55 and 56. Checking a 2026 slip against 2025 ceilings hides real over-deductions.

Every figure on this page is labelled 2025 or 2026. Read the year off the slip, then use the matching figure. The section below sets both years out together.

2025 and 2026 figures at a glance

CPP. For 2025: maximum pensionable earnings $71,300, basic exemption $3,500, employee rate 5.95%, maximum employee contribution $4,034.10. For 2026: $74,600, $3,500, 5.95%, $4,230.45 (CRA).

CPP2, the second additional contribution. For 2025: year's additional maximum pensionable earnings $81,200, employee rate 4%, maximum employee contribution $396.00. For 2026: $85,000, 4%, $416.00 (CRA).

EI outside Quebec. For 2025: maximum insurable earnings $65,700, employee rate 1.64%, maximum employee premium $1,077.48. For 2026: $68,900, 1.63%, $1,123.07 (CRA).

EI in Quebec. For 2025: $65,700, 1.31%, $860.67. For 2026: $68,900, 1.30%, $895.70 (CRA).

QPP. For 2025: maximum pensionable earnings $71,300, basic exemption $3,500, employee rate 6.40%, maximum employee contribution $4,339.20. For 2026: $74,600, $3,500, 6.30%, $4,479.30 (Revenu Québec). The 2026 employee rate of 6.30% is a 5.30% base contribution plus a 1% first additional contribution.

QPP2. For 2025: $81,200, 4%, $396.00. For 2026: $85,000, 4%, $416.00 (Revenu Québec).

QPIP, shown as PPIP on the T4. For 2025: maximum insurable earnings $98,000, employee premium rate 0.494%, maximum employee premium $484.12. For 2026: $103,000, 0.430%, $442.90 (Revenu Québec).

The two earnings boxes follow those ceilings. Box 24 is capped at the EI maximum insurable earnings for the year, $65,700 for 2025 and $68,900 for 2026. Box 26 is capped at the additional maximum pensionable earnings, $81,200 for 2025 and $85,000 for 2026.

What a T4 box number actually is

A T4 reports one job, at one employer, under one payroll account, for one calendar year. If your employer moved you to a different province of employment partway through the year, or ran you through a second payroll account, you get more than one T4 for the same job. That is normal and is not double-counting.

Every numbered box holds a single figure the employer reported. The number is a label on the slip, not a line on your tax return, although many boxes feed a specific line. Box 14 feeds line 10100. Box 22 feeds line 43700. Box 20 feeds line 20700. Several boxes feed nothing at all and exist so the CRA can cross-check what the employer did.

The layout is fixed. The upper part of the slip has numbered boxes in set positions. The lower part is a blank area headed Other information, where the employer types a two-digit code and an amount into empty pairs. Nothing is printed beside those codes, so a worker looking at code 40 with $3,180.22 next to it has no way of knowing from the slip alone what it refers to.

A blank box means the employer had nothing to report under that heading. It does not mean the figure is unknown or that something went missing. Some payroll systems print $0.00 where others print nothing; the meaning is the same.

Box 10, box 12 and box 29: who you are and where you worked

Box 10 is the province or territory of employment, shown as a two-letter code such as ON, AB, BC or QC. The CRA's box 10 instruction is to use ZZ where the employee worked in a country other than Canada or the United States, or in Canada beyond the limits of any province or territory, such as an offshore rig. Employment in the United States uses the code US, not ZZ.

Box 10 decides which payroll tax tables the employer used, whether you were in CPP or QPP, and which EI rate applied. It is not necessarily where you live. Where you lived on 31 December decides which provincial or territorial return you file, so a difference between box 10 and your home province is common for cross-border commuters and is not by itself an error. Since 2024, an employee who does not physically report to an employer establishment is assigned to the establishment they can reasonably be considered attached to.

Box 12 is your Social Insurance Number. Nine zeros means the employer filed without your SIN. A slip filed under nine zeros or the wrong SIN may not attach to your CRA account, which can hold up an assessment, and that is why employers are expected to correct it and file an amended slip.

Box 29 is the employment code. It is completed only for the specific arrangements the CRA lists, so it is empty on a slip for ordinary employment. It covers specific arrangements: placement or employment agency workers (11), self-employed drivers of taxis and other passenger-carrying vehicles (12), self-employed barbers and hairdressers (13), withdrawals from a prescribed salary deferral arrangement (14), workers under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (15), employees detached under a social security agreement (16), and self-employed fishers (17).

The box 14 treatment differs by code. For employment codes 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17 the CRA instructs employers not to report an amount in box 14. For codes 11, 12, 13 and 17 the gross earnings appear under a separate Other information code instead. Codes 14 and 15 still carry a box 14 amount.

Box 14: employment income

Box 14 is your total employment income for the year before any deductions. It includes salary and wages, overtime, commissions, bonuses, honoraria, vacation pay, statutory holiday pay, retroactive pay, tips your employer put through payroll, and the dollar value of taxable benefits and allowances.

It does not include everything your employer paid out on your behalf. Reimbursements of actual expenses supported by receipts stay out. Reasonable per-kilometre allowances stay out. The employer's share of CPP and EI stays out. Employer contributions to a registered pension plan stay out. Amounts reported only under codes 66, 67 or 71 stay out of box 14 by design.

Box 14 is cash basis. What matters is the date you were paid, not the date you did the work. A pay period worked in late December and paid in early January lands on the following year's T4. That is a common reason box 14 does not match a worker's own arithmetic. Before assuming an error, check which pay dates fall inside the year.

Because box 14 is before deductions, it will never match your net pay. It can also be higher than the gross figure you remember, because taxable benefits are added into it even though you never received them as cash.

Code 40: why box 14 looks higher than your pay

It is written as code 40 in the Other information area, and read as box 40. On the slip it is code 40 in the Other information area, and this page uses that term from here on. Its title is Other taxable allowances and benefits, and it is a common source of queries, because box 14 comes out higher than the pay the worker remembers and code 40 is roughly the difference.

Code 40 is not an extra payment. It is already inside box 14. Your employer valued something in dollars, added that value to your income for tax purposes, deducted income tax and generally CPP on it, then repeated the figure at the bottom of the slip so the CRA can see how much of box 14 was benefit rather than cash. Box 14 minus code 40 is a reasonable estimate of the cash employment income you were actually paid before deductions.

Code 40 is the catch-all. It holds taxable benefits that have no code of their own: employer-paid group life insurance premiums, taxable parking, gift cards and other near-cash gifts, non-cash gifts and awards above the CRA thresholds, employer contributions to your RRSP, wellness or lifestyle spending account payouts, taxable portions of tuition, personal use of an employer-paid phone or internet plan, and taxable moving allowances. Many of these carry GST or HST inside the value, which is normal.

Where a more specific code exists, the amount goes there instead. Personal use of a company car goes to code 34, not 40. Board and lodging goes to code 30. A low-interest loan goes to code 36. Prescribed-zone travel goes to code 32. Stock option benefits go to code 38. So a small code 40 does not mean you had few benefits.

There is no line on the return for code 40 and it is not deductible. It is informational. Payroll systems normally hold the underlying benefit detail, so you can ask whether a benefit-by-benefit breakdown can be produced. Errors that do occur include a benefit entered twice, a reimbursement treated as a taxable allowance, and a car benefit calculated on personal-use kilometres that were never confirmed. Where the reported figure is wrong, the CRA's route is an amended T4 from the employer rather than a different number on your return.

Boxes 16 and 16A: CPP and CPP2 you paid

Box 16 is the CPP contribution deducted from your pay. Box 16A is the second additional CPP contribution, known as CPP2, which applies to earnings above the first ceiling. Both show only your share. The employer matches it dollar for dollar, and that match appears nowhere on the T4.

For 2025 the CRA set maximum pensionable earnings at $71,300, with a basic exemption of $3,500 and an employee rate of 5.95%, giving a maximum employee contribution of $4,034.10. CPP2 applied to earnings between $71,300 and the additional maximum of $81,200 at 4%, for a maximum employee CPP2 contribution of $396.00.

For 2026 the CRA sets maximum pensionable earnings at $74,600, the same $3,500 basic exemption and the same 5.95% rate, giving a maximum employee contribution of $4,230.45. CPP2 applies to earnings between $74,600 and the additional maximum of $85,000 at 4%, for a maximum employee CPP2 contribution of $416.00.

A figure above the maximum for that year from one employer is an over-deduction, and the employer's route to correct it is an amended T4 and an application to the CRA. Exceeding the maximum across two or more employers is different and is expected: each employer stops at its own ceiling, so combined contributions can run over. The excess is recovered through your tax return. The employers' shares are not refunded to you.

Age rules explain some short figures. CPP contributions start with the month after an employee's eighteenth birthday and stop after the month they turn 70. An employee aged 65 to 70 who is already receiving a CPP or QPP retirement pension can elect to stop contributing by filing form CPT30 with their employer and the CRA. Any of these will show up as a reduced box 26, and in some cases a tick in box 28.

Boxes 17 and 17A: QPP and QPP2 for Quebec employees

If box 10 shows QC, your pension contributions appear in boxes 17 and 17A instead of 16 and 16A. Quebec runs its own pension plan, and the employee rate is higher than the CPP rate.

For 2025 Revenu Québec set QPP maximum pensionable earnings at $71,300 with a $3,500 basic exemption and an employee rate of 6.40%, giving a maximum employee contribution of $4,339.20. QPP2 applied between $71,300 and $81,200 at 4%, for a maximum of $396.00.

For 2026 Revenu Québec sets QPP maximum pensionable earnings at $74,600 with the same $3,500 basic exemption. The employee rate falls to 6.30%, made up of a 5.30% base contribution and a 1% first additional contribution, giving a maximum employee contribution of $4,479.30. QPP2 applies to the $10,400 band between $74,600 and $85,000 at 4%, for a maximum of $416.00, the same as CPP2.

Boxes 16 and 17 are never both filled for the same period of employment. If you moved between Quebec and another province during the year, you will normally have two T4 slips: one with box 10 as QC and figures in 17 and 17A, and one for the other province with figures in 16 and 16A.

QPP contributions still appear on the federal T4 because you file a federal return as well as a Quebec return. The same contribution is also reported on your RL-1, in a different box.

Box 18, box 55 and box 56: EI and QPIP premiums

Box 18 is the Employment Insurance premium deducted from your pay. For 2025 the CRA set maximum insurable earnings at $65,700, with an employee rate outside Quebec of 1.64% and a maximum annual employee premium of $1,077.48. In Quebec the 2025 employee rate was 1.31% and the maximum $860.67.

For 2026 the CRA sets maximum insurable earnings at $68,900, with an employee rate outside Quebec of 1.63% and a maximum annual employee premium of $1,123.07. In Quebec the 2026 employee rate is 1.30% and the maximum $895.70. The Quebec rate is lower because Quebec administers its own maternity, parental and adoption benefits through QPIP and the federal plan does not have to fund them for Quebec workers.

Your employer pays 1.4 times your premium (CRA). That amount is not shown on the slip.

Box 55 is the QPIP premium, called PPIP on the federal form, and appears only for Quebec employees. Revenu Québec set 2025 QPIP maximum insurable earnings at $98,000 with an employee premium rate of 0.494% and a maximum employee premium of $484.12. For 2026 the figures are $103,000, 0.430% and $442.90.

Box 56 is your QPIP insurable earnings. The CRA's instruction is that box 56 is not completed where there are no insurable earnings, where the insurable earnings are the same as the employment income in box 14, or where they are over the maximum for the year — $98,000 for 2025 and $103,000 for 2026. A blank box 56 beside a box 55 premium is therefore the expected reporting in those cases rather than an error.

As with CPP, over-deduction across two employers is expected and is settled on your return as an EI overpayment. Over-deduction by a single employer is that employer's to correct.

Boxes 24 and 26: insurable and pensionable earnings, and why they differ from box 14

Box 24 is the earnings figure the employer ran EI premiums on, capped at $65,700 for 2025 and $68,900 for 2026. Box 26 is the earnings figure CPP, CPP2, QPP or QPP2 contributions were calculated on. The CRA's box 26 instruction for slips filed in 2024 and after is to report the total pensionable earnings used to calculate the amounts in boxes 16, 16A, 17 and 17A, up to the additional maximum pensionable earnings for the year. That is $81,200 for 2025 and $85,000 for 2026, not the first ceiling of $71,300 or $74,600.

Three separate reasons make box 14, box 24 and box 26 differ, and all three can apply at once.

The caps are the obvious one. On a 2025 slip, earn $120,000 and box 14 shows $120,000 while box 24 stops at $65,700 and box 26 stops at $81,200. On a 2026 slip the same earnings give box 24 of $68,900 and box 26 of $85,000.

Not all employment income is insurable or pensionable. Retiring allowances reported under codes 66 and 67 are neither. Non-cash taxable benefits are generally pensionable and taxable but not insurable for EI, which means box 26 can be higher than box 24 even for someone earning well under both ceilings. That is what surprises people with large code 40 amounts.

Exempt periods shorten the figures. A worker who turned 18 in July has pensionable earnings only from August. A worker over 70, or one with a CPT30 election in force, has pensionable earnings for part of the year or none at all.

The CRA expects both boxes to be completed. A zero is a valid entry where there genuinely were no insurable or pensionable earnings and nothing appears in box 18 or boxes 16, 16A, 17 and 17A. A blank box 24 sitting beside a box 18 premium is worth raising.

Box 22: income tax deducted

Box 22 is the total income tax your employer withheld and sent to the CRA on your behalf. Outside Quebec it combines federal and provincial or territorial tax in one figure; the slip does not split them. For Quebec employees, box 22 shows federal tax only. Quebec provincial tax withheld appears in box E of your RL-1.

Box 22 includes tax withheld on bonuses, on retroactive pay, and on the value of taxable benefits. It also includes any additional voluntary amount you asked for on your TD1.

Box 22 is not your tax bill. It is a prepayment against the tax you actually owe once your return is assessed. A refund means too much was withheld. A balance owing means too little was.

Several payroll mechanisms produce a box 22 that looks too low without the slip being wrong. Two jobs in the same year each withhold as though they were your only source of income, which under-withholds overall. A TD1 claiming credits you were not entitled to has the same effect. So does a mid-year change in pay that payroll annualised downward. None of these are slip errors, but each can show up as a balance owing.

Where there is real doubt about the figure, box 22 can be compared with the sum of the tax lines on your pay stubs for the year.

Boxes 20, 50 and 52: registered pension plan figures

Box 20 is the amount you contributed to a registered pension plan through payroll during the year. It is deductible and goes on line 20700 of your return. It can also include contributions made to buy back past service, including interest in some cases, which is why box 20 sometimes jumps in a single year.

Box 52 is the pension adjustment, reported in whole dollars with no cents. It is not money and it is not a deduction. It is the CRA's measure of the value of the pension benefit you earned this year, and its effect is to reduce your RRSP contribution room for the following year. A large box 52 sitting beside a small box 20 is normal in a defined benefit plan, where the employer funds most of the cost of the benefit you accrued.

Box 50 is the registration number the CRA issued for the registered pension plan or deferred profit sharing plan. It should be present whenever box 52 shows a pension adjustment, including where only the employer contributes.

The document to check box 52 against is the RRSP deduction limit statement on your notice of assessment the following year. Where your room dropped by roughly the box 52 amount, the reporting worked as intended.

Boxes 44 and 46: union dues and payroll charitable giving

Box 44 shows union dues deducted through payroll, but only where the employer and the union have agreed that the union will not issue its own receipts. A blank box 44 in a unionised workplace means the union is issuing the dues receipt directly instead. Checking which document carries the figure avoids double-counting, because the same dues are only deductible once, whether they are evidenced by box 44 or by a union receipt.

Not everything the union takes off your pay is deductible. Box 44 is meant to hold only tax-deductible dues. The CRA's line 21200 guidance is that annual membership dues do not include initiation fees, licences, special assessments, or charges for anything other than the organisation's ordinary operating costs, and that charges for pension plans cannot be claimed as membership dues even where a receipt shows them as dues. A box 44 figure is therefore not automatically claimable in full.

Box 46 shows charitable donations withheld through payroll and paid to registered Canadian charities. The CRA accepts the T4 as support for the claim on Schedule 9 without a separate receipt from the charity. Political contributions are not charitable donations and do not belong in box 46.

Where donations came off your pay and box 46 is blank, payroll can confirm whether the deduction went to a registered charity and whether a separate receipt was issued.

Box 28 and box 45: the tick boxes

Box 28 has three positions: CPP/QPP, EI and PPIP. A tick means you were exempt from that deduction for the entire period the slip covers. It is an all-or-nothing box. Exempt for part of the year is shown by reduced figures in boxes 24 and 26, not by a tick.

Reasons for a tick include being under 18 for the whole year, holding employment excluded from insurable employment for EI purposes, being over 70, or having a CPT30 election in force throughout. The CRA's instruction is to tick a box 28 position only where no amount is reported because contributions did not have to be deducted for the full reporting period. A tick sitting beside a contribution figure is therefore a contradiction and can be queried.

Box 45 reports employer-offered dental coverage and has been mandatory for the 2023 calendar year and after. It carries a single digit from 1 to 5. The CRA's codes are: 1, not eligible to access any dental care insurance or coverage of dental services of any kind; 2, payee only; 3, payee, spouse and dependent children; 4, payee and their spouse; 5, payee and their dependent children.

Box 45 records whether coverage was available to be accessed on 31 December of the year, not whether it was used. It has no effect on your tax. It is used in determining eligibility for the Canadian Dental Care Plan.

The Other information area and its two-digit codes

The bottom strip of the T4 has several empty pairs of fields. The employer types a two-digit code on the left and an amount on the right. Nothing on the slip explains the codes. If more codes apply than there are slots, the employer issues an additional T4 carrying only the identifying details and the extra codes, with box 14 left blank on that second slip. Two slips from the same employer for the same year can therefore be one T4, not two employments.

The codes fall into three groups. Some break out amounts already inside box 14 so the CRA can see what box 14 is made of. Some report a deduction or exemption. Some report amounts deliberately kept out of box 14.

Code 30, board and lodging. The value of employer-provided housing or meals. Inside box 14.

Code 32, travel in a prescribed zone. Employer-paid travel benefits for employees in northern areas. Inside box 14, and needed for the travel portion of the northern residents deduction on form T2222.

Code 34, personal use of an employer's automobile or motor vehicle. The standby charge plus the operating cost benefit. Inside box 14, and calculated from the personal-use kilometres reported to the employer.

Code 36, interest-free or low-interest loan. The imputed interest benefit at the CRA prescribed rate, less any interest actually paid. Inside box 14.

Code 38, security options benefits. The taxable benefit arising on the exercise of employee stock options. Inside box 14.

Codes 39 and 41, security options deductions under paragraphs 110(1)(d) and 110(1)(d.1). The offsetting deduction, generally one-half of the code 38 amount. Where code 39 or 41 appears, code 38 should appear too.

Code 40, other taxable allowances and benefits. The catch-all described in its own section above. Inside box 14.

Code 42, employment commissions. The commission portion of box 14, already inside it. This figure is needed for a claim of commission employee expenses supported by a signed T2200.

Codes 66 and 67, retiring allowances. Code 66 is the eligible portion, based on years of service before 1996, which can be transferred to an RRSP or RPP without using contribution room. Code 67 is the non-eligible remainder. Neither is inside box 14; both are taxable in the year received and go on line 13000.

Code 71, First Nations (exempt income). Employment income exempt under section 87 of the Indian Act for an employee who is registered or entitled to be registered. The amount is reported under code 71 rather than in box 14 and is not taxable, but it is reported so CPP and EI treatment can be verified.

Code 77, workers' compensation benefits repaid to the employer. Used where the employer kept paying you while a claim was open and the board later reimbursed the employer.

Code 85, employee-paid premiums for private health services plans. Reporting this is voluntary for the employer, so a blank code 85 does not mean you paid nothing. Where premiums came off your pay, payroll can supply the annual total in writing; the CRA treats qualifying premiums as a medical expense.

Code 87, emergency services volunteer exempt amount. Up to $1,000 paid by a government, municipality or public authority to a volunteer firefighter, search and rescue volunteer or similar emergency volunteer, excluded from box 14. The CRA states that a person who claims this exemption cannot also claim the volunteer firefighters' amount or the search and rescue volunteers' amount.

Arithmetic you can check yourself

Small differences are expected, because the CPP basic exemption is applied per pay period rather than once a year and rounding accumulates across the year. A difference large enough to change what you owe is worth asking about. Use the figures for the tax year printed on the slip.

Cash income: box 14 minus code 40 is roughly the cash employment income you were paid before deductions.

CPP: take the lesser of box 26 and the year's maximum pensionable earnings, $71,300 for 2025 or $74,600 for 2026, subtract the $3,500 basic exemption, and multiply by 5.95%. The result should be close to box 16. In Quebec, multiply by 6.40% for 2025 or 6.30% for 2026 and compare with box 17.

CPP2: where box 26 is above the year's maximum pensionable earnings, subtract that ceiling from box 26 and multiply by 4%. For a 2025 slip that is box 26 minus $71,300; for a 2026 slip, box 26 minus $74,600. Compare with box 16A, or box 17A in Quebec.

EI: box 24 multiplied by 1.64% for 2025 or 1.63% for 2026 should be close to box 18 outside Quebec. In Quebec use 1.31% for 2025 or 1.30% for 2026.

QPIP: where box 56 carries a figure, box 56 multiplied by 0.494% for 2025 or 0.430% for 2026 should be close to box 55. Where box 56 is blank because insurable earnings equalled box 14 or passed the year's maximum, compare box 55 against the maximum employee premium for the year instead — $484.12 for 2025, $442.90 for 2026.

Ceilings for 2025: box 24 should not exceed $65,700 and box 26 should not exceed $81,200. Box 16 should not exceed $4,034.10 from one employer, box 16A $396.00, box 18 $1,077.48 outside Quebec or $860.67 in Quebec, box 17 $4,339.20 and box 55 $484.12.

Ceilings for 2026: box 24 should not exceed $68,900 and box 26 should not exceed $85,000. Box 16 should not exceed $4,230.45 from one employer, box 16A $416.00, box 18 $1,123.07 outside Quebec or $895.70 in Quebec, box 17 $4,479.30 and box 55 $442.90.

Total income: add box 14 to any amounts under codes 66, 67 and 71 and compare with the year-to-date gross on your final pay stub, allowing for the December pay date boundary.

The Quebec case: a T4 and an RL-1

A Quebec employee gets two slips for the same job. The T4 goes to the CRA and supports your federal return. The RL-1 goes to Revenu Québec and supports your Quebec return. Both cover the same employment. Neither replaces the other, and both are needed to file.

On the T4 side, box 10 shows QC, pension contributions sit in boxes 17 and 17A rather than 16 and 16A, box 18 uses the lower Quebec EI rate, and boxes 55 and 56 carry your QPIP premium and QPIP insurable earnings. Box 22 shows federal tax only.

Quebec provincial income tax withheld from your pay does not appear anywhere on the T4. It is in box E of the RL-1. A worker reading only box 22 will conclude that far too little tax was taken.

RL-1 box A, employment income, can legitimately differ from T4 box 14. Quebec treats some benefits as taxable that the federal system does not, including employer-paid contributions to a private health services plan. A gap of a few hundred or a few thousand dollars between box A and box 14 can be this rather than an error.

Where only one of the two slips arrived, the employer is the source of the other. Employers file both.

When a box is blank

A blank box means the employer had nothing to report under that heading.

Boxes that are routinely blank: box 29 for ordinary employment, box 44 where the union issues its own receipts, box 46 where nothing was given through payroll, boxes 50 and 52 where there is no pension plan, boxes 55 and 56 outside Quebec, boxes 16 and 16A in Quebec, boxes 17 and 17A elsewhere.

Blanks that deserve a question: box 24 empty or zero while box 18 shows a premium; box 26 empty or zero while box 16, 16A, 17 or 17A shows a contribution; ; box 50 empty while box 52 shows a pension adjustment; box 10 empty; box 12 showing nine zeros.

A blank code 40 does not prove you had no taxable benefits. It shows the employer reported none under that particular code. Benefits with their own codes, such as a company car under code 34, appear elsewhere. Read the whole Other information strip before concluding anything.

A blank code 85 is common and means only that the employer chose not to report it, since that reporting is optional.

When a box looks wrong: amended T4s and the CRA route

Pull your final pay stub of the year and read the year-to-date columns, then check which pay dates fell inside the calendar year. The December-to-January boundary explains many apparent errors.

Raising it with payroll in writing puts a record on file: the box, the figure on the slip, the figure you expected, and what you are relying on.

The employer is responsible for the accuracy of the slip and for filing an amended T4 with the CRA where it is wrong. An amended slip is marked AMENDED, replaces the original in the CRA's records, and must also be given to you. The CRA states that there is generally no time limit to amend T4 slips.

The money behind an amendment is time-limited even where the slip is not. An employer applying to the CRA for a refund of over-deducted contributions on form PD24 must apply no later than 4 years from the end of the year in which the CPP overpayment occurred, and no later than 3 years from the end of the year for an EI overpayment (CRA).

Where the employer will not correct the slip, the CRA's published guidance for a missing or unobtainable slip is to file on time, estimate the income by adding up your pay stubs or statements, and include a note with the return giving the name and address of the slip issuer, the type of income, and what you are doing to get the slip. Paper filers are told to attach copies of the pay stubs with that note; electronic filers are told to keep the documents available. Filing late adds interest and penalties to your own account.

Where the dispute is specifically about whether CPP or EI should have been deducted, there is a separate route: a CPP/EI ruling from the CRA. The CRA's wording is that a payer or worker can ask for a ruling by June 29 of the year after the year the question relates to, and that where June 29 falls on a Saturday or Sunday a request is on time if it is received or postmarked on the next business day. This route has a fixed date, unlike the amendment route.

Where no T4 arrived at all, the CRA's first instruction is to ask the employer or slip issuer for a copy, and it notes that slips the issuer filed may be viewable in My Account. The CRA does not publish a guaranteed availability date for that data, so the slip issuer remains the primary source. Amounts genuinely withheld from your pay are credited to you even where the employer failed to remit them, provided you can show they were withheld.

Frequently asked questions