Apr 2, 2025
For a lot of Canadians, payday doesn’t hit like it used to. However, not properly noting the necessary deductions off your paycheque certainly doesn’t help either. A new H&R Block survey revealed only 13% of Canadians are taking note of paycheque deductions for taxes, insurance and pensions.
“We don't typically learn about how to interpret paycheques or how to maximize your tax return at school,” Yannick Lemay, H&R Block Canada tax expert, said in a statement.
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“It's important for Canadians to have the right conversations with the right people no matter what life stage they're at to better understand their pay and tax situation, whether that's at work or with a tax expert."
Additionally, more than one in four say they don't feel the need to review their paycheque information as they assume their employer is correct in their pay and any deductions.
Canadians’ understanding of their paycheque
Over one in ten Canadians say they have a good understanding of their income tax bracket and how much should be deducted for tax purposes on each pay slip.
Just slightly less than that, 9% of Canadians say they feel confident that they would notice an error when it comes to tax deductions on their paycheques. This inevitably means that Canadians would also be challenged to review their T4s to ensure accuracy of tax deductions when it comes time to file their taxes.
While there is a lack of Canada-specific data on this, H&R Block cited a global survey from international talent management company, Remote, showing just over half of employees said they had experienced a payroll issue in their career.
The most common mistake among those that had experienced an issue was they were underpaid, and the second most common mistake was incorrect deductions.
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Time for tax season
When filing their taxes, while 65% of Canadians believe they'll get a refund this year (of which 35% anticipate they will get the same or bigger refund than prior years), a significant number of Canadians say they have no idea whether they'll get a refund or owe money.
Separately, 37% don't feel confident in knowing how to leverage all available tax credits and benefits they may be eligible for, to maximize their refund.
"Filing taxes is both a great way to save money and put money back in your pocket – in the form of a tax refund and access to credits and benefits," said Lemay. "There are a lot of changes this tax season that benefit Canadians.”
Survey methodology
The survey was conducted by H&R Block in French and English from Feb. 12 to 13, among a nationally representative sample of 1,790 Canadians members of the Angus Reid Forum
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Nicholas completed his master's in journalism and communications at Western University. Since then, he's worked as a reporter at the Financial Post, Healthing.ca, Sustainable Biz Canada and more. Aside from reporting, he also has experience in web production, social media management, photography and video production. His work can also be found in the Toronto Star, Yahoo Finance Canada, Electric Autonomy Canada and Exclaim among others.
Managing Money • Mar 06
