What Is a TD1 Form? Filing, Multiple Jobs, and Extra Withholding

A TD1 form, officially the Personal Tax Credits Return, is the document you give a new employer or payer in Canada so they know how much income tax to withhold from each of your paycheques. The credits you claim on it decide your take-home pay all year, and getting the numbers right is what keeps you from either overpaying through the year or owing a lump sum at tax time.¹

Federal and Provincial Versions

You almost always fill out two TD1s at the same time. One is the federal form, which sets the credits used to calculate federal tax. The other is the TD1 for the province or territory where you work, since each has its own tax brackets and credit amounts.²

Quebec is different. If you work in Quebec, you fill out Revenu Québec’s form TP-1015.3-V (the Source Deductions Return) instead of a provincial TD1, alongside the federal TD1.³

What You Enter on the Form

At the top you give your full legal name, current address, date of birth, and your nine-digit Social Insurance Number. The SIN links your payroll records to your CRA file, and an incorrect number can affect future Canada Pension Plan benefits.⁴

Below that, the form runs through numbered lines for each credit that reduces how much of your income is subject to withholding: the basic personal amount that everyone can claim, the age amount if you’re 65 or older, the Canada caregiver amount, the disability amount, tuition, and several others. You add up the dollar values of every credit that applies to you and enter the total on the last line of page 1. That total tells your employer which claim code to use when looking up your withholding. You sign and date the form to certify the information is accurate.¹

For 2026, the federal basic personal amount is $16,452, so you can earn up to that figure before federal income tax applies.⁵ If your net income for the year is expected to fall between roughly $181,440 and $258,482, the credit gradually shrinks to $14,829, and once income passes about $258,482 it stays at $14,829. The form itself has a worksheet for that calculation.⁶

When You Need to File One

You fill out a new TD1 whenever you start a job with a new employer or payer. After that, you have to submit an updated form any time your situation changes in a way that affects your credits. The CRA sets the deadline at seven days after the change.¹ Typical triggers include gaining or losing a dependent, starting or finishing post-secondary school, turning 65, or a change in your disability tax credit status. Updating promptly is what keeps your paycheques accurate.

If You Have More Than One Job

Watch out here. The basic personal amount should only be claimed on the TD1 for one employer, normally the one paying you the most. On the TD1 for every other employer, tick the box on page 2 marked “More than one employer or payer at the same time,” enter “0” on line 13 of page 1, and leave lines 2 through 12 blank.¹

If you claim the full basic personal amount at more than one job, each employer withholds too little, and you’ll likely face a sizable balance owing when you file your return, potentially with interest on the shortfall.

Asking for Extra Tax to Be Withheld

The back of the form has a line for requesting additional tax to be taken off each pay. It’s useful if you have income that isn’t taxed at source, such as investment income, rental income, or freelance work, and you’d rather smooth it out through payroll than write a cheque at tax time. Enter the extra dollar amount you want deducted per pay period, and your employer adds it on top of the withholding calculated from your credits.¹

Where to Send the Form

You give the completed TD1 to your employer or payer, not to the CRA. The agency doesn’t collect these forms from individuals. Many employers now handle it electronically, either through a payroll portal or a fillable digital version of the form; others still accept a signed paper copy delivered to payroll or HR.⁵ The updated withholding usually kicks in on the next pay cycle.

What Happens If You Don’t File One

If you never hand in a TD1, your employer doesn’t stop withholding tax. They default to withholding based only on the basic personal amount, so you lose the benefit of any other credits you’d be entitled to and more tax comes off each cheque than you actually owe. You get it back when you file your annual return, but until then your take-home pay is lower than it needs to be.¹

There are also penalties for failing to file a required TD1: $25 for each day the form is late, with a $100 minimum and a $2,500 maximum.¹ Providing false information is worse. If you knowingly make a false statement or omission amounting to gross negligence, the CRA can impose a penalty equal to the greater of $100 or 50 percent of the understated tax or overstated credits linked to the false information.⁷

What the TD1 Doesn’t Control

The form only governs income tax withholding. Canada Pension Plan contributions and Employment Insurance premiums are calculated on their own rate tables and aren’t affected by the credits you claim on your TD1. The tax credits for the CPP and EI amounts you pay are already built into the federal tax deduction tables your employer uses, so you don’t claim them separately on the form.⁸

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Canada Revenue Agency. Get the Completed TD1 Forms From the Individual
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Canada Revenue Agency. TD1 Personal Tax Credits Returns
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Revenu Québec. Source Deductions Return – TP-1015.3-V
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Canada Revenue Agency. Get the Social Insurance Number (SIN) From the Individual
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Canada Revenue Agency. TD1 2026 Personal Tax Credits Return
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Canada Revenue Agency. Basic Personal Amount
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Canada Revenue Agency. False Reporting or Repeated Failure to Report Income – Personal Income Tax
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Canada Revenue Agency. CPP, EI, and Income Tax Deductions – Payroll