Payroll Tools: Deductions Online Calculator

Ever need to make a special payment outside of the normal payroll cycle, but not sure how much to deduct for payroll deductions at source?

I ran into just this situation with a client. Prior year performance bonuses had been declared, and now came time for the payout of one of the employee's bonus.

Estimating the entire year's gross wages and deductions could have been one way to do it, but I thought, there must be a quicker way.  Besides, as is often the case, it was busy, we were short on time, and we wanted to get this cheque out ASAP.  I just needed an estimate, and we could simply adjust for the details later. I was looking for a "quickie" solution.

What I did was I googled "Payroll Deductions Calculator" and found one provided by Canada Revenue Agency.

I found this tool to be very easy to use, and prompts for the general information (i.e. estimated annual gross earnings, what's been claimed on the TD1 tax credit form, year-to-date CPP & EI contribution) for that employee in order to provide the estimate deductions for both employee & employer's portions, and income tax withheld for both federal and provincial amounts.

What other tools have you also found particularly useful? Let us know what you think in the comment sections below.