# CPP Contribution Mistakes



## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Interesting ... I just used the online account to check my CPP contribution history.

For some reason, years 1999 and 2017 are marked as being under YMPE when my base salary was well over the YMPE for that year.

The 2017 one is easy to fix as I have the requested documentation to prove their number is wrong (i.e. a T4 form). The 1999 one is going to be harder as I don't think I have a T4 nor any pay stubs. I'll see whether my new job offer letter that preceded that year is good enough.


I'm not really surprised that 1999 could be wrong but am puzzled that with computers heavily used and all my info as well as CRA's T4 form say I'm over yet somehow the CPP folks think my salary / CPP contributions were cut.


Anyone has any advice or experience to share?


Cheers


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## RBull (Jan 20, 2013)

Both my wife and I didn't have any issues so no experience on this. Maybe post this on the dogger1953 thread as he might have some experience in how its remedied.

G/L


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## Dogger1953 (Dec 14, 2012)

Eclectic12 said:


> Interesting ... I just used the online account to check my CPP contribution history.
> 
> For some reason, years 1999 and 2017 are marked as being under YMPE when my base salary was well over the YMPE for that year.
> 
> ...


It's usually either an employer error that causes this situation, or sometimes where you have multiple employers in one year and where they all deduct for your "Year's Basic Exemption. You would normally be credited with pensionable earnings equal to the lesser of a) your actual earnings or b) the earnings that your contributions will support. If the employer deducts even 1 cent less than the maximum contributory amount, you would not be credited with maximum pensionable earnings even though your actual earnings far exceed the YMPE for that year. Another mistake that employers make sometimes is to put a lower amount in box 26 "CPP pensionable earnings" than box 14 "employment income" and you will limited to the box 26 amount. If it was an error, you're probably stuck with it now, but how much under maximum was it?


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

The split year with two employers were 1997 and 2001 ... so in both cases, it was the same employer the year before, the year of the issue and the year after. *Edit:*Correction, 1997 and 2003.

I can see where if I don't have documentation that both the earnings and the contributions deducted were a the maximum, likely I am stuck. In other words, the 1999 error.

For the 2017 error, I have both a pay stub and a T4 form to show that both were deducted at the maximum. The T4 was downloaded using the NetFile service so it's not clear to me whether the payroll service provided a different T4 than what was provided to CRA or whether I updated the one line for pensionable earnings to the wrong number while working on the tax return.

I'll have to check the 1999 one but the 2017 one is a bit under $5K too low.


Either way, they have a process where for one case, I have the requested documentation for a change so I see no down side to following up as it costs little where worst case, they tell me no.


Cheers


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## RBull (Jan 20, 2013)

^Good luck. Yes, definitely worth trying to fix.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

To give a bit of an update ... I have been too busy with 2018 taxes, work etc. so instead of writing a letter, I have used MyCRA to change the tax return. Hopefully it all flows through to the CPP folks.

I managed to find in the archives a copy of my 1999 T4 for which does have the lower than base salary and lower than YMPE in the CPP pensionable earnings box. If I decide to give it a try, I'll likely have to find my offer of employment letter to document that base salary is higher.


Cheers


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## RBull (Jan 20, 2013)

In any case good luck getting the results you're looking for. 

This year I had a first for me. Had some capital gains each of the past 3 years. This year I had a loss. Using turbo tax claimed the loss back 3 years to 2015, offsetting the gain, nearly balancing. 
I figured I'd have to file and pay what's owing for 2018 and then wait until the 2015 filing was adjusted and wait to receive a refund. My 2018 assessment came back as expected, but to my surprise a week or so later and before I paid 2018 taxes owing my 2015 return was adjusted. So I ended up being able to send in a smaller balance owing. A small victory but I'll take it.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

Correct it if you can, but it's unlikely they can correct a 20-year old error in contributions, because they can't go back to the employer or you and ask for the Present Value of those contributions. But remember that in the end they will drop out some of your lowest contribution years in calculating your benefits anyway.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

We will see how long it takes ... I was assuming that this being prime tax season it would take a while. 

OTOH, the T4 downloaded from CRA had the correct CPP pensionable earnings so it shouldn't need a lot of effort/documentation to make the change.


Cheers


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

OhGreatGuru said:


> Correct it if you can, but it's unlikely they can correct a 20-year old error in contributions, because they can't go back to the employer or you and ask for the Present Value of those contributions ...


Where the T4 forms show that the maximum CPP contributions were made - why would they need to go back to the employer?

What's wrong is that the T4 form *pensionable earnings < YMPE < base salary * << employment income.




OhGreatGuru said:


> ... But remember that in the end they will drop out some of your lowest contribution years in calculating your benefits anyway.


I have a bunch of low contribution, low pensionable earnings years already. I expect to work less or retire early so that will also add low contribution years.

I see it is 17% of one's career so I'll have to see if that would be enough.


Cheers


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

Perhaps I misinterpreted the discussion. I understood he may not have actually paid the maximum YMPE due to multiple employers in one year.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

The OP is me ... where I responded to the multiple employers = YMPE salary with less than YMPE contributions theory by pointing out that the years with multiple employers were 1997 and 2003 instead of the problem years of 1999 and 2017 (see post # 4).

For those two years, CPP lists that the max contributions were made but that the pensionable earnings < YMPE << base salary, resulting in what should be a max year being listed as not being max (for both # listed as well as the M indicator flag).

Now if the max year flag is informational where the payout is driven by the amount contributed, maybe it does not matter. I'd prefer if possible to get everything corrected.

Cheers


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Now that the adjustment to the 2017 tax return has been made and accepted, the CPP numbers now show max pensionable earnings, which has changed that year to an M.


Cheers


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