New 2020 T4 reporting requirements

The new 2020 T4 reporting requirements are noteworthy especially as February approaches and some of you may already be starting to prepare your T4 slips for yourself or your employees. For 2020 T4 slips, there are 4 additional codes that are required to be reported. These are codes 57, 58, 59, and 60. These four codes are for reporting employment income and retroactive payments made to employees during the following time periods:

 

 

  • Code 57: Employment income – March 15 – May 9
  • Code 58: Employment income – May 10 to July 4
  • Code 59: Employment income – July 5 to August 29
  • Code 60: Employment income – August 30 to September 26

These periods align with COVID-19 benefit eligibility and pertains to the day the employee was paid and not necessarily the period the income was earned.  For example, if you are reporting employment income for the period April 25 to May 8, paid on May 14, then that information would be reported under Code 58.  This income would already be reported in Box 14 “Employment Income”.  These codes allow CRA to determine when payments were actually made to employees, which we are assuming they will use to correlate with any COVID benefits claimed by employees.

Here is a link to the Employer’s Guide to filing the T4 slip and summary.

PD27 Filing Requirements

Another reporting requirement related to the Temporary Wage Subsidy (TWS 10% subsidy) and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) is the filing of the PD27 form (Click here to download). This form is required to be filed if you claimed either the TWS or the CEWS or both.  This form will be used to reconcile and confirm the balance of source deductions that were remitted with the amount reported on your T4 summary.  If you claimed the TWS 10% subsidy and reduced your source deduction payment to CRA you will show an amount owing on your T4 summary.

This is correct and the PD27 form will explain to CRA how much you withheld and prevent them from sending you a PIER report questioning the discrepancy.  Once you have filed the PD27 form and CRA has approved it, you will see a credit in your payroll account for the amount you claimed under the TWS 10% subsidy.

When you complete the PD27 form please note that you need to include both the employee and the employer portion of CPP and EI.

If you have already filed the PD27 but you need to make an adjustment, CRA has indicated that you can file the PD27 form again, but clearly indicate in the “Additional Comments” section that the form is being amended and what is being changed.


If you have any questions relating to this post or any other personal tax topics, please feel free to contact us at 403-509-3290 or info@focusllp.ca

Focus LLP, Your Calgary Tax and Accounting Professionals