Canadians come in - paying provincial tax on EI

[emmagk]

I have a friend who insists that provincial taxes are not taken out of EI payments on mat leave but according to the service Canada website they are:

'Yes, your EI benefits are taxable. This means that federal and provincial or territorial taxes will be deducted from your payment'

can anyone confirm if provincial taxes are or are not taken? 

[kittyriot]

They are taken, but at a reduced amount emmagk - so some people choose to have more taken off from the get go, so they aren't hit with a big bill at tax time.

[emmagk]

Ok that makes sense. Looks like I'll be getting a tax bill this year then. Although they own me my tax credit for the last 8 months!

[jerssey]

Yes, like kittyriot said. Also if you get a top up, that is typically not taxed at all. So tax time is a huge hit.
As an example: I owed $4600 in taxes for being off a year (with top up). Salary was approx $57K

[jerssey]

May I add it sucks major balls : (

[letal316]

Jan 31, 2015 11:37:06 GMT -5 jerssey said:

Yes, like kittyriot said. Also if you get a top up, that is typically not taxed at all. So tax time is a huge hit.
As an example: I owed $4600 in taxes for being off a year (with top up). Salary was approx $57K

That surprises me, my top up was taxed massively. Although, I do work for an accounting firm.

[emmagk]

I had a top up for 17 weeks but I'm pretty sure it was taxed. I don't even know how I could pay a $4k tax bill

[jerssey]

Ya it was a huge surprise for me and was quite upset with my hR for not informing me. Thank god for a line of credit which I'm still paying for 2 years later

[letal316]

Jan 31, 2015 20:14:26 GMT -5 emmagk said:

I had a top up for 17 weeks but I'm pretty sure it was taxed. I don't even know how I could pay a $4k tax bill

Same as me (17 week top up) and you guys had me worried so I went and checked and they took almost half off in taxes, so I figure I should be good. No idea about the EI payments.

[sunnybeachesnwaves]

You have to ask for the government to take the full amount of taxes off. Otherwise you end up paying back quite a bit come tax time.

It was only an extra $30 a payment for me. So I opted for them to take the full amount. Don't need that huge bill!