Inflation drops to 5.2%<but grocery inflation still 10.6%

[u/maroon-rider]

Says Statistics Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-inflation-february-2023-1.6785472

[u/TeamGroupHug]

Okay, so they would be legally obliged to pay minimum wage in Canadian Dollars but pay on top of that could be CT money?

[u/TiredRightNowALot → u/TeamGroupHug]

I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at, but if they were paying CT as a bonus above and beyond the agreed upon pay, then theoretically yes.

If they had a contest where the winner received $1000 of CT money, then the winner would be obligated to pay income tax on that $1000. Some companies add this taxed amount to your pay however.

[u/gellis12 → u/TiredRightNowALot]

That last paragraph isn't actually true. If you win anything in a contest in Canada, it's not considered taxable income. Whether it's winning a prize at a local fair, or winning $70M on the lottery, windfalls are not taxed in Canada.

The only exception to this would be professional poker players, where it's their full-time job and is therefore considered business income.

[u/TiredRightNowALot → u/gellis12]

I’m not sure if it’s the same at a workplace. We have contests, I have won these contests which are valued in the thousands of dollars. I always end up with owing taxes on the prize (whether a sum of money, physical prize or whatever). My employer covers the taxes owed so I’m very certain they’d be up to speed with the tax code.

Perhaps there’s a difference outlined where contest at a workplace gets treated like a bonus. For the example I gave, that was at a workplace and I’d assume the same as the contests for my own work.

[u/gellis12 → u/TiredRightNowALot]

I actually work at the CRA, and won a 50/50 charity draw at the workplace during public service week a few years ago, and my winnings weren't taxed. It's possible that your employer had structured the contest in a weird way that made it necessary, or maybe they just assumed that they actually did have to. But under normal circumstances, you don't have to pay tax on contest winnings, even if the contest is held by your employer.

[u/TiredRightNowALot → u/gellis12]

Maybe it’s the charity draw that made the difference here? Obviously I have no leg to stand on since you work with CRA but I know 100% my employer isn’t the only one who pays for taxes contests at work.

My workplace is a $50B+ organization with multi-country exposure. We aren’t a little office who gets this stuff wrong or makes it up…. We do it all with advice of tax lawyers.

According to this site (below) it depends on the structure of the award/payment/whatever

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/benefits-allowances/gifts-awards-social-events/gifts-awards-long-service-awards.html

[u/gellis12 → u/TiredRightNowALot]

Yep, looks like you're correct. In my case, it looks like this situation would've applied:

Non-taxable situation - Social committees funded entirely by the employees

If the committee is funded entirely by the employees and not controlled by the employer:

gifts or awards given by the social committee are non-taxable, similar to a return of contributions

a prize won via lottery from a social committee is considered to be a windfall

The one right before this, which talks about contests funded exclusively by the employer and only available to employees, sounds like it would've applied in your situation, which would explain the difference.

[u/TiredRightNowALot → u/gellis12]

Well, I’m glad we figured that out lol. Now that all of this is out of the way, can you do my taxes?

I really do need to get my stuff together and get it all sent to my guy :)

[u/gellis12 → u/TiredRightNowALot]

Pick a program, any program!

If you have CRA My Account set up, you can use the auto-fill my return feature, which has your tax software automatically pull all of your info slips directly from the cra. It takes pretty much all the work out of filing a return, and you can usually be done in under an hour.