In 2022, the federal government announced plans to create the Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) to make dental care affordable for more Canadians. The long-term goal of this plan is to provide dental care coverage for uninsured Canadians with an annual household net income of less than $90,000. There will be no co-pays for those with an annual family income under $70,000. The government estimates that, once fully rolled out, this will support 9 million uninsured Canadians.
Canadians with access to dental coverage will not be eligible for the CDCP.
Employers will need to indicate on each current and former employee’s T4 if they were eligible for employer-sponsored dental coverage on December 31 of the reporting tax year. The reporting requirement will be mandatory beginning with the 2023 tax year reporting cycle, and will continue to be required on an annual basis.
The codes below will be used to identify the type of access the employee had:
| Code | Description |
| 1 | No access to any dental care insurance, or coverage of dental services of any kind |
| 2 | Access to any dental care insurance, or coverage of dental services of any kind for only the employee |
| 3 | Access to any dental care insurance, or coverage of dental services of any kind for employee, spouse and dependants |
| 4 | Access to any dental care insurance, or coverage of dental services of any kind for only the employee and their spouse |
| 5 | Access to any dental care insurance, or coverage of dental services of any kind for only the employee and dependants |
Two new boxes to be added to the T4 and T4A
- T4 Box 45: employer-offered dental benefits (mandatory)
- T4A Box 015: payer-offered dental benefits (mandatory if an amount is reported in box 016).
The T4A slip is used to show all other income that was received in a tax year, such as pension or superannuation, lump-sum payments, and research grants. If box 016 is filled, the payer—an employer, a trustee, estate executor, administrator, or corporate director—must also input a code in box 015. If the payer does not offer dental coverage they would input code 1; otherwise, they would input the applicable code.
It is important to note that a health care spending account and/or an incidental health expense benefit counts as dental coverage. Codes are not based on whether employees decline benefits for themselves or dependents; the question employers are being asked is whether they offer coverage.
Plan administrators who have questions about the new dental codes can get help by emailing group.administration@empire.ca.
Read the latest press release from September for more details.