Reading a T4 Instead of an IRP5 With South African Eyes

It’s tempting to assume a T4 is just a Canadian IRP5 with different letters on it — same idea, same document, different country. That assumption will get you through most of a Canadian tax season fine, and it will also mislead you on a few lines that matter.

What both documents genuinely share: an employer-issued annual summary of what you earned and what was deducted at source, used to file your tax return. Reading an IRP5 versus a T4 with South African eyes starts from that shared shape, but South Africa’s PAYE-and-UIF system and Canada’s federal-plus-provincial system diverge in ways this research can’t fully map line-for-line, so the honest version of this article compares what a T4 shows against your general sense of what a payslip should tell you, rather than translating IRP5 codes directly. If you need the specific SARS-side detail, that sits with SARS’s own guidance or a South African tax practitioner.

What actually comes off a Canadian paycheque

Two federal payroll deductions apply before tax even enters the picture, and they’re not optional:

• CPP (Canada Pension Plan) — employee contribution rate 5.95% in 2026, with a basic exemption of $3,500 and a ceiling: contributions stop once you’ve paid $4,230.45 for the year (a second tier adds up to $416.00 more on earnings between $74,600 and $85,000).
• EI (Employment Insurance) — employee premium 1.63% of insurable earnings, capped at $1,123.07 for the year.

Both of these show up as separate lines from income tax — not folded into a single “tax” deduction the way a South African payslip’s UIF line sits alongside PAYE.

What comes off between gross and net

After CPP and EI, income tax is withheld against two rate schedules at once, not one — federal and provincial. For 2026, federal brackets start at 14% up to $58,523 and rise to 33% above $258,482. Your province adds its own schedule on top: Ontario runs 5.05% up to $53,891, Alberta runs 8% up to $61,200, and so on — ten different provincial tables, so your net pay depends on where you live as much as on what you earn. A worked estimate for a single person on $90,000 with no dependants: roughly $67,197 net in Ontario, $67,508 in Alberta, $68,367 in BC — each around 24–25% total deductions. Those figures are the site’s own estimates from the published rates, accurate to roughly ±1.5% and no substitute for running your actual numbers on the CRA’s own payroll calculator.

Employer versus employee — the split that isn’t visible on your slip

The employer versus employee contributions on each payslip aren’t shown side by side. CPP and EI are matched by your employer, but not evenly: employers pay CPP dollar-for-dollar and EI at 1.4 times the employee rate. None of that employer-side contribution appears as a deduction from your pay — it’s a cost your employer carries separately — which is worth knowing if you’re ever comparing a Canadian salary offer against what it actually costs an employer to hire you.

What genuinely doesn’t translate

Provincial variation is the single biggest structural difference from a system built around one national payroll tax table. A T4 from an Ontario job and a T4 from an Alberta job at the same salary will show meaningfully different net figures, for reasons that have nothing to do with your employer. Beyond that, this research doesn’t cover exactly how South Africa’s IRP5 codes map onto specific T4 boxes — a South African tax practitioner or a Canadian accountant familiar with newcomer filings is the right place to get that mapping done properly for your own situation, especially in your first year when you may owe tax in both countries.

Cape2Canada’s free What It Really Costs guide breaks down the wider cost picture of the move, budget category by category, if you want the take-home numbers alongside everything else.