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metroNEWS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2017
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Rod MacDonald shows off items he has been posting online to trade for coffees, at his home in Ottawa, Wednesday. JUSTIN TANG/FOR METRO
Phoenix fiasco still ‘stressful and confusing’ PAYROLL
Federal workers encouraged to file income taxes by deadline Dylan C. Robertson
For Metro | Ottawa
KITSCH FOR COFFEE, ANYONE? Cup of Timmies burning a hole in your pocket? These enterprising locals have a proposition for you metroNEWS
The federal government is telling public servants to file their income taxes with botched payslips, saying Canada Revenue Agency will adjust the figures afterwards. In a Wednesday briefing on the government’s Phoenix payroll fiasco, Public Services and Procurement Canada’s top bureaucrat told federal employees to make sure they file income taxes by the April 30 deadline. “We recognize that this is a situation that is confusing and stressful for some employees,” Marie Lemay, PSPC’s deputy minister, told reporters. “When you look at a $20-billion payroll with 80,000 rules and 27 collective-bargaining agreements, it is a really complex system.” The government has already reissued 50,000 tax slips, including 22,000 for employees who work or live in Quebec; the rest were for British Columbia. That means any public servants working or living in
Gatineau should wait until March 1 to print their tax forms, Lemay said. Public servants who had reported a payment issue before Dec. 31, 2016, should receive accurate information on their first tax slip. But anyone reporting issues this year may receive a second replacement slip, Lemay said. She estimated the government has overpaid $140 million for 2016, roughly one per cent of the total pay. Lemay said her department erred on the side of paying people too much when they have payroll problems, because it’s easier for employees to manage a surplus than going without enough money for living costs. “It was a question of priorities; we wanted to focus on getting the money to people, now we’re focused on getting the overpayments settled too,” Lemay said. Anyone who’s been overpaid is supposed to get a phone call to arrange reimbursement, which she claims is usually resolved quickly. In 2015, the government overpaid employees about $78 million. Lemay said people can return overpayments through instalments, and appeal for reimbursement if they’ve suffered economically, like if they can prove being overpaid had suspended their eligibility for tax credits.