Quick answer: A Pensionable and Insurable Earnings Review (PIER) report means the CRA recalculated the CPP contributions and EI premiums your T4 slips imply, and got a different number than the slips show. The report lists each affected employee and the difference. Sometimes the difference is real; often it is explained by something the automated check cannot see, and the response is an explanation rather than a payment.
A PIER letter carries a reply deadline. We answer these for clients, and the answer is usually a correction rather than a payment.
A PIER means the CRA’s CPP and EI arithmetic and your T4s disagree, and one of the two is wrong. How payroll is handled here, or send an enquiry.
On this page
Why PIER reports happen to careful employers
The check is arithmetic: T4 earnings times the year’s rates, against the deductions reported. Legitimate gaps usually come from an employee turning 18 or 70, one who maxed out with a previous employer, prorated exemptions for mid-year hires, or CPP2’s second band with a mid-year start. Current figures are on our payroll figures page.
Work the report before you pay it
- Take each named employee and reconstruct their year: start date, birth date if near 18 or 70, prior-employer earnings if any, and what was actually withheld.
- Where the report is right, a real under-deduction — the employer generally owes both halves of the shortfall, and can then recover the employee half from the employee within the rules.
- Where an explanation applies, respond with it, per employee, by the report’s stated date. An explained line is closed, not paid.
Stop it recurring
A PIER every year means a setup problem, usually the basic exemption, proration or CPP2 handled wrongly. Fix the configuration once rather than reconcile every February. Our remittance calculator and payroll hub cover the mechanics, or move payroll to us.
A PIER report is the CRA reconciling your remittances for you, and it stops arriving once ongoing payroll compliance is doing the same check monthly.
General information, not tax advice. A letter’s own wording and dates govern — confirm anything that affects a decision by sending us an enquiry.
Common questions about PIER report
Do I have to pay the amount on the PIER report?+
Can I recover an under-deduction from my employee?+
Why does this keep happening every year?+
Does a PIER report affect my employees’ benefits?+
Other CRA letters, decoded
Not sure which letter you have? Start with the full list and match what yours says.
One letter often follows another. These cover the ones owner-managers see most.
What happens when you get in touch
A PIER letter has a reply date, so the first week matters more than usual.
- An email enquiry. What you do, what is filed and what is overdue. You leave with a fixed fee in writing and no obligation to take it.
- Access, in the first week. We are authorized with the CRA, so notices and balances get looked up rather than requested from you. If you are switching firms, your file is requested the same week.
- Current, then ahead. Books set up or brought current, anything overdue scheduled oldest year first, and the next twelve months of deadlines set before they arrive.
Send an enquiry, or ask one question first — both go to a CPA, not a queue.