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CRA PDOC is the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator, a free CRA tool that works out CPP, EI and income tax deductions from the pay you enter. It covers every province and territory except Quebec, where you use Revenu Quebec’s WebRAS program instead.
What does the CRA’s PDOC actually do?
You give it the details of a pay, and it returns the federal and provincial or territorial tax, the CPP or EI amounts, and the net figure. The CRA describes it as a tool to calculate federal, provincial and territorial payroll deductions, with Quebec left out. It sits at canada.ca/pdoc.
Rates on the page were updated for July 2026. If the pay date you enter is July 1, 2026 or later, the new provincial rates apply. That matters in places where a rate changed mid-year, and a pay date in June can give a different answer from one in July. The CRA’s list of July changes includes British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, so if you live in one of those, check the pay date you type in.
What should you know before you use it?
Three things come straight from the CRA page. The reliability of the result depends on the accuracy of what you enter. The printout isn’t an official statement of earnings, because a real statement needs information the calculator doesn’t include. And the CRA doesn’t keep your entries, though they stay in your session for up to 30 minutes of inactivity.
That last point is practical. Close the browser and clear the cache when you’re done, especially on a shared computer. The CRA page says information stored in your browser could be viewed by others.
The exact list of input fields can change, so open the tool and read what it asks for. Short and dull, but it’s the honest answer. Have your gross pay for the period and the pay date ready before you start, and, for an employee, the claim amounts from the TD1 forms.
How do you use the CRA payroll calculator step by step?
The screens change from time to time, so this is the general order of a session and won’t match the fields one for one.
- Gather the inputs: gross pay for the pay period, the pay date and, for an employee, the claim amounts from the TD1 forms.
- Open the calculator at canada.ca/pdoc and pick the province or territory of employment. Quebec isn’t covered.
- Get the pay date right before anything else. A date of July 1, 2026 or later brings in the newer provincial rates.
- Type in the pay details and read each screen as you go, since the list of fields can change.
- Look over the result: federal tax, provincial or territorial tax, CPP, EI and the net amount.
- Print what you need within the session, keeping in mind that a printout isn’t an official statement of earnings.
- Close the browser and clear the cache, which matters most on a shared computer.
If a number looks odd, the first suspects are a mistyped gross amount and a pay date on the wrong side of July 1.
Which payroll formulas sit behind the answer?
Behind PDOC are the CRA’s payroll formulas, published as T4127, and the lookup tables, T4032, for each province. The formulas had a 122nd edition for January 1, 2026 and a 123rd for July 1, 2026. Here are the 2026 federal contribution figures we hold for an employee.
| Deduction | Rate | Applies up to | Yearly maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPP | 5.95% above $3,500 | $74,600 | $4,230.45 |
| CPP second tier | 4% | $85,000 | $416 |
| EI outside Quebec | 1.63% | $68,900 | $1,123.07 |
Those limits explain why a pay stub changes late in the year.
Once you pass a maximum, that deduction stops and take-home pay rises, which is a pleasant surprise for higher earners in November and December and a non-event for everyone else. You can check the CPP maximum yourself: $74,600 minus the $3,500 exemption is $71,100, and 5.95% of that is $4,230.45.
How close is a calculator to the PDOC result?
Try an Ontario worker paid $2,884.62 every two weeks, which is about $75,000 a year. The payroll deductions calculator shows federal tax of $317.64, Ontario tax of $171.00, CPP of $163.33 and EI of $43.20. Net pay is $2,189.46.
Close, but not identical. Your PDOC answer may differ by a few dollars, because payroll systems spread tax across the year in steps. One example is the EI line. $43.20 is the yearly maximum of $1,123.07 spread over 26 pays, whereas a real pay early in the year would take 1.63% of $2,884.62, about $47.02, until the maximum is reached. The CRA tool hasn’t been run for this case, so treat ours as an estimate. For BC, be careful. The CRA moved to a different payroll rate from July, so an annual-return calculator and a July pay stub won’t agree exactly.
Can you check the EI line by hand?
Yes, and it takes about a minute. EI is the easiest deduction to verify manually because it’s one rate applied to gross pay until the yearly maximum is reached.
Take the same Ontario worker paid $2,884.62 every two weeks. At 1.63%, each pay carries about $47.02 of EI. Divide the yearly maximum of $1,123.07 by $47.02 and you get roughly 23.9, so the maximum is hit on the 24th pay of the year.
| Pay number | EI on that pay | EI so far |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 23 | $47.02 each | $1,081.46 |
| 24 | $41.61 | $1,123.07 |
| 25 and 26 | $0 | $1,123.07 |
That lines up with the limit in the table above: 1.63% of $68,900 is $1,123.07. On a salary of about $75,000, the last two cheques of the year come with roughly $47 more take-home each. Rounding on individual pays can shift the 24th amount by a few cents.
Which calculation types does the Canadian payroll calculator offer?
The CRA page lists four calculation types: salary, commission, pension and a check of CPP and EI. The salary option covers the usual employee case, and the last one lets you verify the CPP and EI amounts that are already on a pay statement. The page does not describe hourly pay, pay period types, bonuses or retroactive pay, so for those cases the CRA points to the payroll formulas in T4127.
Two more CRA documents sit next to the tool. T4127, Payroll Deductions Formulas, holds the rules behind the results, and T4001, Employers' Guide: Payroll Deductions and Remittances, covers what an employer does with the amounts it withholds. The calculator and the printed tables should agree for a normal pay, so a gap between your result and a payroll deductions table usually means an input was entered differently, such as the pay date or a claim amount.
Quebec is handled separately. Quebec income tax, the QPP and the QPIP go through Revenu Quebec's WebRAS program, which is why PDOC returns nothing for that province.
What if you’re not an employer?
Employees use the same idea in reverse. Your pay stub should match roughly what a tool shows for your gross pay. If it’s far off, check your TD1 forms first, since claim amounts change withholding. The take-home pay calculator gives a yearly view, and the net to gross calculator works backward from the pay you want.
Employers who remit these amounts can pair PDOC with the payroll remittance calculator, which covers the employer side. Employer duties go well beyond what any calculator covers, and the details fill a whole CRA guide. If you run payroll for staff, read the CRA’s employer guide.
Where the numbers come from
The PDOC description comes from the CRA‘s Payroll Deductions Online Calculator page on canada.ca. The CPP and EI figures come from the CRA’s 2026 rates pages, and the example from the calculator on this site. This is an independent guide, separate from any government body.
Frequently asked questions
What does PDOC stand for?
Payroll Deductions Online Calculator. It's a CRA tool for CPP, EI and income tax deductions.
Does PDOC work for Quebec?
No. The CRA page points Quebec to Revenu Quebec's WebRAS program.
Can I print PDOC results as a pay statement?
No. The CRA says the printout isn't an official statement of earnings.
Does the CRA keep what I enter?
The CRA says it doesn't keep it, but it stays in your session for up to 30 minutes of inactivity.
Which date sets the provincial rates?
The pay date you enter. The CRA page says a date of July 1, 2026 or later uses the new provincial rates.
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