Well, it’s getting to be that time of year again… time to wrap up your books for the new calendar year! This means your bookkeeper will be issuing your company T4’s and in order to do that quickly and efficiently here are some quick items to have your employees verify with you:
1. SIN numbers
Nothing can derail a person’s income tax return faster than a T-slip that has the incorrect SIN number on it! Transposed numbers, the famous 999 999 999 entry because the employee couldn’t remember their SIN when you first brought them on; whatever the reason, check those SIN numbers before you print!
2. Mailing Addresses
How many phone calls a year do you get from an employee saying “I didn’t receive my T4!”. Then you discover that they moved and you just wasted $2.00 sending them a T4 not to mention the additional $2.00 you now have to spend to print and mail a new copy! Again, check the information you have on file with your employees! Are they not working for you any longer? Send them a quick email or phone call asking for verification of their address… it will save you headaches later on down the line.
3. Do a PIER report before the final pay of the calendar year
PIER stands for Pensionable Insurable Earnings Review. You want to do some quick calculations on your employees remittances year to date to make sure you have deducted and remitted the appropriate amount of EI and CPP on their payroll. Most accounting software packages have a PIER reporting function built in, if not, please visit the CRA website and play with the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator to help determine if you have deducted the right amounts or give us a call!
4. Get the 2014 paperwork ready!
It is good business practice to have all of your employees fill out a new TD1 in January of every year to ensure you are capturing any changes to their tax status and claim amounts for the upcoming calendar year. Did they marry? Have children? Go to school? Do they work for multiple employers? These life events all affect the basic claim amount and the amount of taxes you as an employer should be taking off their pay and remitting.
Hope this helps you all and have a safe and Merry Christmas Season!
Just a quick note as well regarding TD1’s… it is actually a requirement of the Canada Revenue Agency to have a current TD1 on file for each employee and there are fines for not being able to produce them. Another good reason to just get them filled out each year regardless!