If you drew employment insurance during the year, the T4E slip tells you what was paid, what was already repaid, and what tax was withheld along the way.
You do not prepare it. You receive it and use the boxes when you file.
What it reports
The T4E, Statement of Employment Insurance and Other Benefits, reports employment insurance (EI) benefits paid to you in the year, the tax deducted from them, and any repayment activity. It also carries a repayment chart on its front, which the slip itself asks you to complete in one situation.
Who sends it
Service Canada, which administers employment insurance.
The one calculation on the slip
Enter on line 11900 of your return the amount shown in box 14 minus any amount shown in box 18. That subtraction is the single most important thing on the slip, and it is easy to miss because box 14 is the larger, more obvious figure.
Box 14, total benefits paid, includes the amounts in boxes 15, 17, 18, 33, 36 and 37. It may also include benefits earned in the previous year but paid in the year shown on the slip.
Box 18, tax exempt benefits, applies to Indians registered, or eligible to be registered, under the Indian Act. It is included in box 14, and Form T90 covers it.
The boxes inside box 14
None of these are reported on their own — they show what box 14 is made of.
- Box 15 – Regular and other benefits paid. Includes work-sharing benefits paid and income benefits under Section 25 of the Employment Insurance Act.
- Box 17 – Employment benefits and support measures paid. EI-funded financial assistance paid while you were taking part in an approved employment program that is not included in box 15.
- Box 33 – Payments out of the consolidated revenue fund.
- Box 36 – Provincial Parental Insurance Plan benefits.
- Box 37 – EI maternity and parental benefits payment.
Tuition assistance, repayments and tax
- Box 20 – Taxable tuition assistance. Included in box 14, and also included in box 17 or box 33. For more on claiming a tax credit, see Form T2202, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate.
- Box 21 – Non-taxable tuition assistance. Enter this amount on line 25600. It does not qualify for a non-refundable tax credit. It is also included in box 17 or box 33.
- Box 22 – Income tax deducted. Enter this amount on line 43700.
- Box 23 – Quebec income tax deducted. If you were a resident of Quebec on December 31 of the tax year, enter this amount on your Quebec provincial return. If you were a resident of another province or territory, enter it on line 43700 of your federal return.
- Box 24 – Non-resident tax deducted. Enter this amount on line 43700.
- Box 26 – Overpayment recovered or repaid and box 27 – reversal of income tax deducted are both included in box 30.
- Box 30 – Total repayment. The total of boxes 26 and 27. Enter this amount on line 23200, and use it for line 0 of the repayment chart on the front of the slip.
Box 7 and the repayment chart
Box 7 is the repayment rate. If box 7 shows a rate, complete the repayment chart on your T4E slip to calculate how much of your employment insurance benefits you have to repay. Line 23500 and line 42200 have more on the social benefits repayment.
If a slip is late or looks wrong
Service Canada issues the slip and is the one to ask about it. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) page this article is written from does not state a date by which the slip has to reach you.
The page also dates from the COVID-19 benefit years, and it notes that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) paid through Service Canada is included in box 14. If that applies to your slip, you can get an itemized statement for the benefit from My Service Canada Account.
What to keep
Keep the slip, including the repayment chart printed on its front. That chart is part of the document, not packaging, and box 7 and box 30 both feed it.
If your slip shows amounts in box 18, keep it with anything else supporting exempt income, because box 18 is the amount you subtract from box 14 before anything reaches line 11900.
Dossier stores the slip and identifies it as a T4E, so it is with the rest of your year's paper. It does not read the amounts off it, and it does not do the box 14 minus box 18 subtraction; that happens on the return when you file.
Official CRA sources
Source: Canada Revenue Agency (canada.ca). Not tax advice.