Covid 19 10% Wage subsidy - how do you go back and claim for previous periods? Current federal tax withholdings do not cover the back dated amount?

Hi there,

Making sure the Wage Subsidy is recorded properly is a good way to prevent errors in your books. 

QuickBooks is easy to navigate and this makes it easy to record the Wage Subsidy. I encourage you to check out this helpful article here: Temporary Wage Subsidy for Employers (10%). There's a key section in the article which goes over how to record the Subsidy using periods. Here are the steps:

1. Go to Taxes then Payroll Tax.
2. Select Enter prior tax history.
3. Select Add Payment.
4. In Period Start Date: enter March 1, 2020.
5. In Period End Date: enter March 31, 2020.
6. In Payment Date: enter the date you make the actual payment to the CRA (i.e. April 15th).
7. In Income Tax: enter the subsidy amount calculated in Step 1 for the March period.
8. Select OK to save the entry.

If you need further assistance I also recommend contacting an accounting professional for clarification. If you're not in contact with one, I encourage you to search for one on our website using this link here. Doing this will help prevent any future discrepancies. 

Let me know if you need anything else by leaving a comment below. I'll be one message away. :)

hi LynnKen

If you haven't claimed your subsidy in prior periods, that's ok; the subsidy is allowed to be claimed in future periods as well.  Even if you didn't claim the subsidy this year, if you were eligible you'd even be able to claim it later (see more on this at the CRA website).

Just claim as much as you can against your Federal and Provincial employment taxes (remember, you can't reduce CPP or EI) and if you have left overs, you can use those in future months until consumed.

Remember in addition to reducing your taxes paid, you must also record this as a taxable revenue as well.  Rather than 'sales' though, record it as a below-the-line extraordinary income instead.