T4032-QC(E) Rev. 17

This guide uses plain language to explain the most common tax situations. If you need more help, contact your tax services office.

Table of contents

Section A

• What's new as of January 1, 2017
• Payroll Deductions Tables
• Payroll Deductions Online Calculator
• Let us notify you
• Who should use this guide?
  • What if your pay period is not in this guide?
  • Which provincial or territorial tax table should you use?
• Federal tax for 2017
  • Indexing for 2017
  • Tax rates and income thresholds
    • Chart 1 – 2017 federal tax rates and income thresholds
  • Canada employment credit
  • Personal amounts
• Employment Insurance (EI) premiums for 2017
  • Quebec Parental Insurance Plan
  • Employee premiums
    • Employment Insurance Premiums
    • Quebec Parental Insurance Premiums
  • Changes to reporting
    • New fields to be kept for payroll records and reported on the T4 slip
    • Deducting and remitting obligations for Employment Insurance (EI)
• Quebec tax abatement
• Personal tax credits return (TD1 form)
• Claim codes
  • Explanation of claim codes
    • Claim code 0
    • Claim codes 1 to 10
    • Indexing of federal claim codes amounts
    • Chart 2 – 2017 claim codes
• Calculating payroll deductions for employees in the hotel and restaurant business in Quebec
  • How do you reduce the deductions?
• Form TD1X, Statement of Commission Income and Expenses for Payroll Tax Deductions
• How to use the tables in this guide
  • EI table (Section B)
  • Federal tax deductions tables (Section C)
• Additional information about payroll deductions
  • Deducting tax from income not subject to CPP contributions or EI premiums
• Step-by-step calculation of tax deductions
  • Example Tax to deduct for all income
    • Calculate annual taxable income
    • Calculate federal tax
    • Calculate total tax and the tax deduction for the pay period

Section B

• Employment Insurance Premiums Table

Section C

• Tax Deductions Tables
  • Weekly (52 pay periods)
  • Biweekly (26 pay periods)
  • Semi-monthly (24 pay periods)
  • Monthly (12 pay periods)

What's new as of January 1, 2017

Payroll Deductions Tables

You can download Guides T4008, Payroll Deductions Supplementary Tables, and T4032, Payroll Deductions Tables, from our website at cra.gc.ca/payroll. You can also choose to print only the pages or information that you need.

Payroll Deductions Online Calculator

For your 2017 payroll deductions, you can use our Payroll Deductions Online Calculator (PDOC). The online calculator makes it easier to calculate payroll deductions. PDOC is available at cra.gc.ca/pdoc.

PDOC calculates your payroll deductions. It calculates deductions for any pay period, province (except Quebec) and territory. The calculation is based on exact salary figures.

Let us notify you

We provide an electronic service that can notify you immediately, free of charge, of any changes for payroll deductions.

To subscribe, visit our website at cra.gc.ca/lists and enter your business's email address for each mailing list that you want to join.

Special Notice

Payroll Deductions Tables (T4032)

Effective with the January 1, 2017 edition, the Canada Revenue Agency is no longer publishing the paper and CD versions of the Guide T4032, Payroll Deductions Tables. The electronic version of the guide will continue to be available on our website at cra.gc.ca/payroll.

Who should use this guide?

This guide is intended for the employer and the payer. It contains tables for federal and provincial tax deductions, CPP contributions and EI premiums. It will help you determine the payroll deductions for your employees or pensioners.

For information on deducting, remitting, and reporting payroll deductions, go to the following employers' guides:

• T4001, Employers' Guide – Payroll Deductions and Remittances
• RC4120, Employers' Guide – Filing the T4 Slip and Summary
• RC4110, Employee or Self-employed
• RC4157, Deducting Income Tax on Pension and Other Income, and Filing the T4A Slip and Summary
• T4130, Employers' Guide – Taxable Benefits and Allowances

These guides are available on our website at cra.gc.ca.

What if your pay period is not in this guide?

This guide contains the most common pay periods: weekly, biweekly (every two weeks), semi-monthly, and monthly. If you have unusual pay periods, such as daily (240 working days), or 10, 13, or 22 pay periods a year, go to the Guide T4008, Payroll Deductions Supplementary Tables, or the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator (PDOC) to determine tax deductions.

Which provincial or territorial tax table should you use?

Before you decide which tax table to use, you have to determine your employee's province or territory of employment. This depends on whether or not you require the employee to report for work at your place of business.

If the employee reports for work at your place of business, the province or territory of employment is considered to be the province or territory where your business is located. To withhold payroll deductions, use the tax table for that province or territory of employment.

If you do not require the employee to report for work at your place of business, the province or territory of employment is the province or territory in which your business is located and from which you pay your employee's salary.

For more information and examples, go to Chapter 1, "General Information" in Guide T4001, Employers' Guide – Payroll Deductions and Remittances.

Federal tax for 2017

Indexing for 2017

Tax rates and income thresholds

For 2017, the federal tax rates and income thresholds are as follows:

Canada employment credit

Personal amounts

Employment Insurance (EI) premiums for 2017

Quebec Parental Insurance Plan

This plan replaces and enhances the measures provided to new parents under the Employment Insurance program administered by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) administers the requirements relating to Employment Insurance (EI) premiums. The Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) references in this guide are only for clarifying EI requirements. All QPIP requirements should be confirmed with Revenu Québec, which administers the provincial plan.

Employers will use the EI rate corresponding to the province of employment. A reduced EI rate applies when the province of employment is Quebec and the regular EI rate applies when the province of employment is other than Quebec.

For more information on province of employment, refer to the section "Which provincial or territorial tax table should you use?"

Employers who have employees working in Quebec will use an EI deduction table specific to employees in Quebec. The deductions, remittances, reporting and the applicable new non-refundable tax credit will be based on the reduced EI rate. Employers should also track the QPIP information for T4 reporting.

The EI maximum insurable earnings will remain the same for all provinces and territories and will continue to be set by the federal government.

Employee premiums

You withhold EI premiums beginning with the first dollar of insurable earnings. You stop deducting premiums when you reach the employee's maximum annual insurable earnings.

When you use the table in this guide to determine the EI premiums, look up the insurable earnings for the period, not the gross remuneration.

Employment Insurance Premiums

You stop deducting EI when the employee reaches the maximum annual premium.

For more information, go to Chapter 3, "Employment Insurance premiums" in Guide T4001, Employer's Guide – Payroll Deductions and Remittances.

Quebec Parental Insurance Premiums

Changes to reporting

New fields to be kept for payroll records and reported on the T4 slip

These reporting changes are province dependent. For now, these fields will only be filled when the province of employment is Quebec.

The T4 slip will have new fields for the three data elements that must be saved and reported. They are:

• Provincial Parental Insurance Plan (PPIP) premium;
• PPIP insurable earnings; and
• PPIP exempt code (leave blank – no exemptions for the first year).

The names are generic to accommodate future plans. The province of employment will be the key to applying the appropriate EI rate and maximum premium.

The QPIP fields will be reported on the T4 slip in the new PPIP premiums and insurable earnings boxes, located below the existing fixed boxes 52 and 50. The new numeric codes are box 55 for PPIP premiums and box 56 for PPIP insurable earnings. The new PPIP exempt code box will be created next to the CPP/QPP and EI exempt boxes as part of box 28.

Deducting and remitting obligations for Employment Insurance (EI)

The EI deductions will decrease for employees working in Quebec, but the method of remitting to the Canada Revenue Agency does not change.

It is possible that some employers' federal remittance frequency could change if the reduction of EI for Quebec employees changes the threshold for the employer, however this is unlikely for large employers.

For information on how and when to remit QPIP premiums, visit the Revenu Québec website at revenu.gouv.qc.ca.

When an employee changes province of employment with the same employer during the year, the maximum premium for the year will vary based on the province where the first $51,300 of insurable earnings are paid.

Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec will reconcile adjustments to EI and QPIP premiums for trans-border employees. It is anticipated that adjustments between the EI and QPIP deductions will be resolved through the filing of the income tax return and an annual year-end adjustment process.

For detailed information concerning federal requirements, refer to the CRA payroll website at cra.gc.ca/payroll.

Quebec tax abatement

The Quebec tax abatement rate remains at 16.5% for 2017.

Personal tax credits return (TD1 form)

You may have to ask your employees or your pensioners to complete a federal personal tax credits return using a federal Form TD1.

For more information, go to Chapter 5, "Deducting income tax" in Guide T4001, Employers' Guide – Payroll Deductions and Remittances.

Claim codes

The total personal amount an employee claims on a TD1 form will determine which claim code you will use. Go to Chart 2.

Explanation of claim codes

Claim code 0

This code represents no claim amount. This code may also be used if the employee indicated they have more than one employer or payer at the same time and have entered “0” on the front page of Form TD1 for 2017.

Claim codes 1 to 10

The claim code amounts do not appear on either the federal or the provincial TD1 form.

You match the "Total claim amount" reported on your employee's or pensioner's TD1 form with the appropriate claim codes. Then, you look up the tax for the employee's pay under the claim code in the federal tax tables for the pay period.

Indexing of federal claim codes amounts

The credits that apply to each federal claim code have been automatically changed in the tax tables by the indexing factor for the current year. If your employee did not complete the federal and provincial TD1 forms for 2017, you continue to deduct income tax using the same claim code that you used last year.

Calculating payroll deductions for employees in the hotel and restaurant business in Quebec

As a result of legislation introduced in the province of Quebec, employees in the hotel and restaurant business who receive income from tips and gratuities have to declare this income to their employers. Effective January 1, 1998, you have to include tips declared by these employees when you calculate insurable earnings for purposes of Employment Insurance (EI). You also have to include these tips when you determine federal income tax deductions. Report the tips and deductions on a T4 slip.

When you include the declared tips and gratuities in the income, the corresponding deductions shown in the Payroll Deductions Tables may be greater than the cash salary or wages paid. Payroll deductions cannot be more than the amount of salary and wages paid. To make sure that the deductions are not more than the salary or wages, you will have to reduce the deductions until net pay is no longer negative.

How do you reduce the deductions?

When you reduce the payroll deductions, you have to reduce them in a particular order, as specified in the Quebec legislation. First reduce the Quebec provincial tax, and then reduce Quebec Parental Insurance Premiums and finally Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) contributions. If the net pay is still negative, reduce the federal tax withholding. Any shortfall of federal or provincial tax will be determined when the individuals file their personal tax returns.

In some cases, when QPP is reduced, you may have to increase federal tax to reflect the change in the federal tax credit for QPIP and QPP contributions. You can use the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator (PDOC) to determine the adjusted deductions.

Form TD1X, Statement of Commission Income and Expenses for Payroll Tax Deductions

If your employees want you to adjust their tax deductions to allow for commission expenses, they have to complete Form TD1X, Statement of Commission Income and Expenses for Payroll Tax Deductions.

You deduct tax from your employees' commission pay using the "Total claim amount" on their TD1 forms in the following situations:

• if your employees do not complete a Form TD1X; or
• if they tell you in writing that they want to cancel a previously completed Form TD1X.

How to use the tables in this guide

Use the tables in this guide to determine the EI premiums and federal tax that you will deduct from your employees' remuneration.

EI table (Section B)

• Find the page in Section B that corresponds to the "Insurable earnings" of your employee.
• To find the range that includes your employee's insurable earnings, look down the "Insurable earnings" column. When you use the table in this guide to determine the EI premiums, look up the insurable earnings for the period not the gross remuneration.
• In the column next to the "Insurable earnings" column, you will find the EI premium that you should withhold from your employee's pay.

Federal tax deductions tables (Section C)

Even if the period of employment for which you pay a salary is less than a full pay period, you must continue to use the tax deductions table that corresponds to your regular pay period.

• Find the pages in Section C that correspond to your pay period.
• To find the range that corresponds to your employee's taxable income (this includes any taxable benefits), look down the "Pay" column.
• In the row under the applicable claim code, you will find the amount of federal tax that you should withhold from your employee's pay (for more information, go to the section called "Claim codes" and Chart 2).

Additional information about payroll deductions

Deducting tax from income not subject to CPP contributions or EI premiums

We have built the tax credits for CPP contributions and EI premiums into the federal and provincial tax deductions tables in this guide. However, certain types of income, such as pension income, are not subject to CPP contributions and EI premiums. As a result, you will have to adjust the amount of federal and provincial income tax you are deducting.

To determine the amount of tax to deduct from income not subject to CPP contributions or EI premiums, use the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator, available at cra.gc.ca/pdoc. On the "Salary pay calculation" and/or on the "Commission pay calculation" screen, go to Step 3 and select the "CPP Exempt" and/or "EI Exempt" option before clicking on the "Calculate" button.

Step-by-step calculation of tax deductions

You can use the following step-by-step calculations to calculate the tax deductions for any employee or pensioner who earns more than the maximum amounts included in the tax deductions tables.

The example shows you how to determine the amount of tax to deduct from all income.

However, if you design your own payroll program or spreadsheets to calculate tax deductions, do not use either of these calculations. Instead, go to Guide T4127, Payroll Deductions Formulas for Computer Programs.