Can you reimburse an employee for an expense through payroll and not show as taxable income on the employee's T4?

Hi bookkeepingmadre,

Welcome back to the Community. I trust that business is going well on your end. QuickBooks is a great program for tracking and managing your payroll. I'll be happy to share more info about reimbursing your employee. 

Before proceeding with this, I highly recommend contacting an accounting professional for expert advice on how to handle that transaction. If you're not in contact with one, I encourage you to search for one on our website using this link here. Here's how to reimburse your employee: 

1. Click on New (+).
2. Select Cheque or Expense.
3. From here, select the Payee ▼ drop-down and find the name of your employee.
4. Click on the Category ▼ drop-down, then select a liability account. Note: If you don't have one yet, you can add a new account.
5. Fill in the other information:
   • Amount: Enter the amount owed to your employee. (Break down the amount into different line items if tracking or making billable for multiple customers.)
   • Billable: (Optional) Check the box under Billable if you wish to offset the expense onto your customer's invoice.
   • Customer: (Optional) Select a customer from the drop-down menu if you are looking to track the expense for a specific customer or customers. (Note:  you may turn on the feature. See How do I turn on Billable Expenses?)The Customer and Billable fields are not available in QBO Easy Start, but in QuickBooks Online Plus you may turn on the feature. See How do I turn on Billable Expenses?)
6. Hit Save or Save and close.

I encourage you to check out this article here for more info on how to reimburse your employee. In case you have other questions, feel free to reach back to me in the comments below. I'm here to assist.