One of the most common tax slips is T4 tax slip. If you work as an employee, your employer should mail you T4 tax slip for you to do your income tax return. If for any reason you can’t get it, you can contact CRA, login your CRA online account or authorize your account to get it for you.
T4 tax slip contains important information such as your employment income, taxes already deducted on your payques, your pension deduction and union dues. Knowing how to read your T4 tax slip, you can avoid tax mistakes and make a tax plan to save your taxes.
Below are some of the important boxes:
- Box 14: Your employment income. This is your total salary before paying taxes, CPP and other benefit payment.
- Box16: The amount you pay to Canadian Pension Plan (CPP).
- Box 17: The amount you pay to Quebec Pension Plan(QPP) if you are Quebec resident.
- Box 18: The amount you pay to Employment Insurance Premium(EI).
- Box 20: The amount you pay to Register Pension Plan (RPP), which is a pension plan that has been set up by your employer, to provide you with a pension when you retire. You can deduct it on your tax return.
- Box 22: Income tax already deducted on your payques. If the tax deducted is more than you are supposed to pay, you will get tax refund; if it is less than that, you have to pay the balance.
- Box 44: Union dues you paid. You can deduct it on your tax return.
- Box 46: Charitable donations you made. You can claim it as tax credit.
- Box 84: Public transits pass. You can claim it as tax credits.
- Box 85: Employee-paid premiums for private health services plans. You can claim it as medical expenses.
You can still prepare your tax return without understanding every detail of these boxes on your T4 tax slip. However, the more you know, the more clearly you will understand how you get taxed and how to plan ahead to reduce taxes.
If you think there is an error on your T4 tax slip, you should discuss it with your employer’s payroll department. And if there is an error, the department needs to issue an amended T4. You cannot alter your T4 tax slip yourself, even if you know there is an error.