TD1 and TP-1015.3: fix the tax withheld from your pay

A big tax refund in the spring feels good. A surprise bill feels a lot worse. In both cases the cause is often the same: the tax withheld from each paycheque does not match your real situation. Two forms control that withholding, and you can change them whenever you want.

What your employer knows about you, and what it does not

Every payday, your employer withholds income tax. That is not your final tax bill: it is an advance. And it is worked out from two things only. First, what you earn at that job. Second, what you declared on your withholding forms.

Everything else is invisible to your employer. Your second job, your RRSP contributions, the fact that you had a child in March: none of it enters the calculation until you say so.

And if you say nothing at all? The calculation simply carries on. The Canada Revenue Agency states it in its Quebec payroll deductions tables: if the employee did not complete the TD1 forms for 2026, the employer "continue[s] to deduct income tax using the same claim code that you used last year". The claim code is the marker your employer takes from your form to find the right row in its tables.

One point that saves disappointment: these forms affect income tax only. The three other deductions on a Quebec paycheque — QPP, Employment Insurance (1.30% up to $68,900 of insurable earnings) and QPIP (0.430% up to $103,000) — follow fixed rates that nobody can adjust.

Here is what all of those deductions add up to on a $60,000 salary:

Two forms, because two governments tax you

A Quebec employee fills in two of them, and that is unique in Canada. The CRA says so plainly on its page about getting the completed TD1 forms from the individual: individuals in Québec "must also use the provincial form TP-1015.3-V, Source Deductions Return".

• The TD1, the personal tax credits return, controls federal tax. Its default value for 2026 is the basic personal amount, $16,452. That is the slice of income on which you pay no federal tax.
• The TP-1015.3-V, the source deductions return, plays the same role on the Revenu Québec side.

Why two forms? Because the other provinces use a provincial version of the TD1: TD1ON in Ontario, TD1AB in Alberta, and so on. The official list of 2026 TD1 forms names every one of them except Quebec. The province collects its own income tax, so it publishes its own form.

Another Quebec particularity: the federal tax withheld from a Quebec paycheque is reduced by an abatement, and "the Quebec tax abatement rate remains at 16.5% for 2026". It is not a favour and there is nothing to apply for — it is built into your employer's tables.

The three situations that throw withholding off

You have two employers at the same time

Each one calculates its withholding as if its salary were your only income. Each one therefore gives you the full basic personal amount, when you are only entitled to it once. The result: too little tax withheld all year, then a bill in the spring.

The procedure is precise. The CRA asks an employee who has "more than one employer or payer at the same time", and whose total income is more than the credits already claimed elsewhere, to "check the box "More than one employer or payer at the same time" on page 2 of the TD1 form", then "enter "0" on line 13 on page 1 and not fill in lines 2 to 12". In other words: your personal amounts are claimed with one employer only.

Your situation has changed

A birth, a separation, going back to school, a spouse losing their job: each of these changes the credits you qualify for. The rule is tight, and few people know it — "a new form will be required within 7 days of any changes to the individual's personal tax credits". Seven days, not "when I file my tax return".

You have deductions the form does not cover

RRSP contributions you make yourself, deductible support payments, employment expenses: these are real deductions, but they appear nowhere on the TD1. So your employer withholds tax as if they did not exist, and you get the excess back a year later. That is exactly the case Form T1213 solves, below.

Having more tax withheld: your call alone

In this direction, no authorization is needed. The CRA page on increasing or reducing income tax deducted at source fits in one line: to increase the withholding, the employee gives their employer "revised TD1 forms".

The form also carries a request for additional tax to be deducted, expressed in dollars per pay period. It is the tool for people with self-employment income on the side, or investment income from which nothing is withheld.

Having less tax withheld: you need the CRA's approval

The other direction is tighter, and the logic makes sense: nobody reduces their tax advances on their own say-so. The same CRA page sets the condition — to reduce the tax withheld, the employee must first get a letter of authority.

Two routes lead to that letter. The first is Form T1213, Request to Reduce Tax Deductions at Source, which "individuals use [...] to ask for reduced tax deductions at source" for deductions or credits that are not part of the TD1. The second is a written request to the Sudbury Tax Centre, with supporting documents.

Once the letter is granted, it is the employer who acts: it keeps the letter in the employee's file, without sending a copy to the CRA, and reduces the withholding by the stated amount. It is not allowed to do so without that letter. So there is no point negotiating with the payroll department.

On the Quebec side, the withholding is set by the TP-1015.3-V, which you give to your employer just as you do the TD1. For any request that goes beyond what that form covers, Revenu Québec is the one to ask: the province administers its own income tax and its own procedures.

Checking whether your withholding is right

Pull out your latest pay stub and compare. The Salarium calculator for Quebec estimates the tax and contributions owed on a given annual salary. If the tax withheld from your pay is clearly off from that, and nothing in your situation explains it, your forms are worth a second look.

To decode what you are looking at line by line, our article on the pay stub and the road from gross to net goes through each deduction. And if the imbalance comes from a second job, tax when you work two jobs covers that case in full.

One last habit, and it applies to everyone: reread your two forms when your life changes, not when you file your return. By then the year is already decided.