Ex-employer won't give me my t4. What can I do?

[Horrifying_Howler_Monkey]

I’m not sure what you call these elsewhere, but it’s basically a statement of income & taxes paid etc from your employer. I should have filed my tax return in April. I left my job in March. I still do not have my t4. I have given them my mailing address, I have gone in to try and get it, I have given them a SASE, and still they have not mailed it. I called yesterday again for it, and got a nasty call back from the owner telling me that they had filed it with the government, and I could get it from them, and to not bother the store again.

So today I called the appropriate government number, turns out the employer has not filed with them. The only advice they gave me was to go and ask the employer for it again.

What can I do here? I would really like to file, because a. it’s the law, and b. I will be getting back some much needed money.

[Horrifying_Howler_Monkey]

Oh, whoops, and I’m in Ontario, Canada.

[d12]

I believe it is against the law for them to hold that kind of documentation back? Perhaps you should contact Revenue Canada and ask what to do

[Q.E.D]

I don’t know who in your company you have spoken to, as you didn’t say, but I would speak to whoever is in charge of the payroll department directly.

[alice_in_wonderland]

1. How long did you work for the company? (Did you start before the beginning of 2003?)

2. Were you on bad terms when you left? (not that this should matter, but I just curious.)

3. Were you being paid “under the table”? This could explain the company’s reluctance to provide a T4.

Get all the relevant info and contact Revenue Canada again.

[Rube_E.Tewesday]

Also, do you have your paystubs? You could probably file a return using the information in them, and include a note to Revenue Canada explaining the T4 problem.

[Lord_Derfel]

Here’s what the CCRA says about missing T4 slips.

According to that page, you should have filed on time and estimated your income and deductions from your pay stubs.

[mhendo]

Well according to the Revenue Canada website, if you do not have a T4 slip you should not delay filing your tax return, and you should

use any stubs you have to estimate your income and related deductions and credits.

I couldn’t find any advice about what action an employee can take against an employer, but if i were you i’d report your employer to Revenue Canada.

According to the Employer’s Guide to Filing the T4 Slip and Summary Form (warning: pdf document):

The T4 information return is the T4 slips and the T4 Summary form, and in some cases T4 Segment forms, as explained in section 2.1. You have to file an information return and give information slips to your employees by the last day of February following the calendar year to which the information return applies. If you fail to do this, the penalty for each failure is $25 a day, with a minimum penalty of $100 and a maximum of $2,500.

Maybe a friendly call to your ex-employer, hinting that any further delay will result in your making a report to RC, will get the ball rolling…

[Horrifying_Howler_Monkey]

Many thanks to everyone for your advice and links.

A little more background, the store is owned by two people, and aside from myself, there is only one other employee, so no payroll department.

I have worked there since 1997, and I did leave on bad terms (they cut my hours back to almost nothing, and asked me not to quit, because they hoped to have me back to f/t again. I quit when I couldn’t pay my bills for a couple of months, and they threatened me with various things, as they felt I had abandoned them).

I didn’t know it was acceptable to estimate income, so thanks for that information. I am not sure how accurate it will be, my hours changed every month (I worked over 50 hours some weeks, and 35 some weeks, and down to 10 hours for a couple of months), and I don’t have my pay stubs anymore, which is totally my fault, they did give them to me.

Thanks for that link mhendo, I may hint at that a bit when I call them today…I had hoped to attempt to stay on reasonably okay terns with these people, but obviously that’s not what they want.

[Declan]

As has been said , estimate your wages by going by your remaining stubs that you do have left and add a fudge factor. IF there is a difference ,have no fear the government will let you know.

Your former employer is required to give you papers of separation with in two weeks of leaving , this would have your wages earned to date , for purposes of pogey.

As for the T-4 ,they are required to give you your copy of it for your filing purposes , and send something in saying that they paid you x amount of dollars for their purposes , plus they paid cpp , and what ever else the government normally deducts.

I would call and set up an interview with RevCan(or what everthey call themselves now) and state your case before them, as This employer seems like (s)he is going to be facing a government audit, and guess who gets to point the finger

you might want to mention that to your former employer

Declan

[mmmiiikkkeee]

Yes, estimate your earnings and use that. You say you’ll be getting some back so you obviously have an idea what you got (in order to do that calculation)… so I assume your hours were fairly regular and predictable up until Dec 31st 02. If you are getting money back, you don’t really have to rush as there will be no late-filing penalty to you. If you owe, definately get this done yesterday.

Then simply inform CCRA (by phone or in a note with your tax return) that your company not only issued your T4 late, they refuse to issue it at all. You said you called already and Rev Can said the company didn’t even send in a copy to the government. CCRA would be very interested in a business that is more than likely committing tax fraud. Just inform them, and they’ll do the rest ;).