Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Over-Payment of CPP and EI Are Only Refunded For Limited Time



If you work two jobs in a year, both of your employers are likely deducting CPP and EI from your pay cheques, which sometimes result in you, the employee, over-contributing to CPP and EI during the year. Typically, your accountant will calculate the overpayment and reduce your personal income tax owing by this amount.

This can be done in prior years BUT only to a maximum of four years for CPP and three years for EI. This means that if you are behind on filing your tax returns more than 3-4 years, it is possible that the Canada Revenue Agency will deny your over-payment and not reduce your taxes payable by this amount.
The amounts of overpayment are usually not large, but keep in mind that penalties and interest are charged on the overdue taxes. This means that the denial of the Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance amounts will result in more tax, more penalties and more interest. Over a number of years, the small overpayments that were denied have grown, essentially on a daily basis as the CRA computes compound interest daily.

So do yourself a favour and file those tax returns. Even if you think you have refunds, why take the risk of losing out on potential CPP and EI over-payments.

Feel free to contact our firm to help you get up to date with your tax filings.

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