Canadian Payroll Reporter

3 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2019 News Canadian Payroll Reporter Do you know your federal remitting rules? Quiz yourself with these true and false statements on the CRA's regulations BY SHEILA BRAWN PAYROLL is a challenging job with many responsibilities. In addition to paying employees, filing year-end returns, and pre- paring Records of Employment, many payroll professionals are also tasked with sending the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) their employer's source deduc- tion remittances. Sending in the wrong amount or submitting payments late can result in penalties and inter- est charges for employers. For this reason, it is important that payroll professionals follow the CRA's remitting rules. This applies whether an em- ployer sends in its own remit- tances or outsources the job to a payroll service provider. After all, the employer is ultimately responsible for complying with CRA rules. While payroll professionals only need to comply with the rules for their employer's remit- tance category, it is still a good idea to know the general require- ments for the other categories in case the organization's classifica- tion changes or the payroll pro- fessional switches employers. How well do you know federal remitting rules? Test yourself with the following statements: The CRA sets remittance due dates based on each em- ployer's pay period. True or False? False. The CRA divides em- ployers into four remittance categories for determining how often they send in their remit- tances and when they are due: quarterly remitters, regular remitters (monthly), and two groups of accelerated remitters (up to twice a month and up to four times a month). In general, the categories are based on the employer's average monthly withholding amount (AMWA) two calendar years ago. The AMWA is determined by totalling all of the amounts an employer was required to remit for Canada Pension Plan (CPP), employment insurance (EI), and income tax, divided by the number of months (up to 12) for which the employer was re- quired to remit. When employers have to re- mit will depend on their remit- ter category and when they pay remuneration to employees. Monthly remitters must send in their withholdings by the 30th day of each month. True or False? False. Monthly remittances are due by the 15th day of the fol- lowing month. Employers with Quebec em- ployees must remit their with- holdings to both the CRA and Revenu Québec. True or False? True. Quebec employers send the CRA remittances for EI, and federal income tax and remit to Revenu Québec their withhold- ings for the Quebec Pension Plan, Quebec Parental Insurance Plan, and provincial income tax. If a remitting due date falls on a weekend or a public holi- day, the remittances are due by the day before the weekend or holiday. True or False? False. If a due date is on a Saturday, Sunday, or a public holiday, the remittance is due by the first working day afterwards. The CRA's website provides a list of public holidays that it recognizes. see DOES page 8

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