Economical PD7A Payroll Remittance Support for Canadian Businesses

EI benefits are taxable income. Service Canada withholds income tax before each payment reaches you, and the total benefits plus the tax withheld appear on your T4E for the year. That withholding follows a basic calculation rather than your full marginal rate, so people who also worked during the year often end up with a balance owing at filing. Asking Service Canada to withhold more, or setting money aside yourself, avoids a surprise. Higher-income claimants can also have to repay part of their regular benefits through the return.

A T4E is the statement of Employment Insurance and other benefits. Service Canada issues one for each year in which EI was paid, covering regular, sickness, maternity, parental, caregiving or fishing benefits, and it shows the total received, the income tax already withheld and any amount to be repaid. Those figures go on the personal return for that year. Benefits paid under a different program come on their own slip.

Three different calculations go by that name. For sales tax, multiply the price by the harmonised rate that applies to the province of supply. For income tax, apply the federal brackets and then the Ontario brackets to taxable income and subtract your credits. For payroll, the CRA payroll deductions calculator handles income tax withholding along with CPP and EI for each pay period. Look up the rates and brackets published for the year you are calculating, since they change annually.

Yes. Tips are income and belong on your T1, whether they come as cash from a customer, on a card, or out of a pooled arrangement. Tips the employer controls and pays out are run through payroll, appear on your T4 and have CPP and EI withheld. Tips handed to you directly are not on any slip, so you report the total yourself. A daily record makes that figure defensible.

The claim code is the number payroll uses to turn the credits you claimed on your federal and provincial personal tax credits returns into the tax withheld from each pay. A higher code means larger credits claimed and less tax deducted; the lowest code means no credits, so tax comes off every dollar. Most people sit at the code matching the basic personal amount, which is $16,452 federally for 2026. File a fresh return when your situation changes.

Rental income is revenue, not an asset. In double-entry bookkeeping you credit a rental income account and debit cash or accounts receivable, so the income sits on the income statement while the receivable or bank balance sits on the balance sheet. The property itself is the asset, and the rent it produces is periodic revenue. Rent collected in advance is a liability, deferred revenue, until the month it relates to arrives.

Not automatically. Relief applies where goods are bought on a reserve, or bought off reserve and delivered to the reserve, by a status Indian, a band or a band-empowered entity, and to services performed on a reserve. Purchases used off reserve with no delivery to it normally carry GST/HST at the usual rate. The vendor has to record the buyer's status information to support the relief. The CRA's guidance for Indigenous peoples sets out the conditions and paperwork.

Yes. Pay for casual, part-time or one-off work is taxable to the worker, however small the amount and whether or not a slip was issued. If the person is your employee, you generally withhold and remit source deductions and report the pay on a T4. If they are genuinely self-employed, they invoice you and report the income on a T2125. Worker status turns on control and independence, not on the word “casual”.

The Canada Revenue Agency is the federal body that administers income tax, GST/HST, payroll deductions and most benefit programs for the federal government and most provinces. It processes T1 and T2 returns, issues assessments and refunds, collects amounts owing, runs reviews and audits, and pays benefits such as the Canada child benefit. Your CRA My Account is the online portal showing your slips, notices of assessment, balance and payment history.

Only if you are authorised first. The CRA will not discuss an account with anyone who is not on file as a representative, even a spouse or adult child. The taxpayer can add you online through My Account, or you can submit an AUT-01 with their signature. For someone who cannot sign, the CRA needs legal documents such as a power of attorney or estate paperwork. Authorisation can be limited to view-only access.

Yes. Every monthly lease payment on a vehicle in Ontario carries 13% HST, and so do the down payment, administration and acquisition fees, excess-kilometre charges and the buyout if you purchase at the end of the term. A registered business can generally claim an input tax credit on the tax in each payment, reduced for personal use and subject to the cost limits for passenger vehicles. Keep the lease agreement and the monthly statements.

Most taxable benefits are pensionable, so CPP contributions apply to them alongside regular wages. Whether EI premiums apply depends on the form the benefit takes: a taxable benefit paid in cash, such as an allowance, is generally insurable, while a non-cash benefit such as employer-paid parking or a gift in kind is pensionable but not insurable. Add the value to the employee's earnings for that pay period before running the deduction calculation.