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CANADIAN: What are boxes 57, 58, 59, and 60 used for on the Canadian Form T4 preparer grid, and how do they affect me?

Created on  | Last modified on 

Summary

The CRA has announced that all Canadian employers must report certain employment payments on the 2020 T4 slip, "Statement of Remuneration Paid", using new information codes that correlate to defined periods. According to the CRA, this additional information is intended to validate payments made to individuals under the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) programs, as well as payments made to employers under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS). The T4's new information codes must be used to report employment income and retroactive payments to employees paid in the following time periods: Code 57: Employment income – March 15 to 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 Each period, which aligns with periods relating to COVID-19 benefit eligibility, pertains to the day the employee was paid and not necessarily the period of work the payment covered. For example, if an employer is reporting employment income for the period of April 25 to May 8, payable on May 14, that information would be reported under Code 58. These new reporting requirements are in addition to the existing requirement to report employment income in Box 14, "Employment Income" or Code 71, "Indian (exempt income) – Employment".

Cause

.Support for new Canadian Form T4 requirements related to COVID-19 reporting:
The Canadian government established new requirements for reporting 2020 employee earnings. Some amounts that are reported in Box 14 are now also broken out into four new Other boxes, coded 57, 58, 59, and 60. These codes represent four earning periods from March through September, coinciding with COVID-19 relief payments. The January 2021 Sage 100 Contractor program update includes changes that enable Aatrix to identify the period in earnings accrued and report the amount in the correct box code.

Resolution

When you use the Aatrix tax reporting feature to generate your Canadian Form T4, you will see additional columns for the provinces and codes associated with employee earnings. The amounts in each column are based on the check dates in which the income was earned and the province associated with each paycheck. Any earnings that fall outside the defined periods are included only in Box 14, while earnings from March through September are included in Box 14 as well as in one of the respective code boxes. You may adjust the amounts in any column or add another column manually, if necessary.

For more information about the Government of Canada requirements, visit the CRA website by clicking here.

As always, please consult your accountant, if you have questions about how to report earnings on Form T4.


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