I just noticed this error on a government T4 slip. This is for T4 slips for employees posted overseas. The primary worker who may be affected are members of the Diplomatic Corp. Individuals working in private industry such as the Oil Sector may also be affected.

Background

The definition for province codes for T4 slips may be found by checking this following web page. If you check the instructions for Box 10 – Province of Employment, the government has standardized all the codes.

These codes reflect the same two character provincial abbreviations used by Canada. The only two exceptions are:

• US – for employment in the US, and
• ZZ – for other, meaning that the employee worked in a country other than Canada or the United States, or if the employee worked in Canada beyond the limits of a province or territory (for example, on an offshore oil rig).

Problem

Phoenix has used the code EX instead of the authorized codes.

All government workers who work outside of Canada (principally the diplomatic corp,) will probably have their T4 slips registered at the Canada Revenue Agency with this wrong code in box 10. As a result, any person who downloads these tax slips will likely have a problem with importing the tax slip into their tax return, if you use tax software.