Canadian Payroll Reporter

News Published 12 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. Subscription rate: $179 per year Customer Service Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5106 E-mail: carswell.customerrelations @thomsonreuters.com Website: www.carswell.com One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 3V4 Director, Carswell Media Karen Lorimer Publisher John Hobel (on leave) Managing Editor/Acting Publisher Todd Humber Editor Sheila Brawn sbrawn@rogers.com Assistant Editor Mallory Hendry Marketing Manager Mohammad Ali mm.ali@thomsonreuters.com (416) 609-5866 Circulation Co-ordinator Keith Fulford keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-9585 Payroll Reporter R adian a www.payrollreporter.com ©2014 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-7798-2810-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher (Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business). Return Mail Registration # 1522825 | Return Postage Guaranteed Paid News Revenue Toronto Canadian Payroll Reporter is part of the Canadian HR Reporter group of publications: • Canadian HR Reporter — www.hrreporter.com • Canadian Occupational Safety magazine — www.cos-mag.com • Canadian Payroll Reporter — www.payroll-reporter.com • Canadian Employment Law Today — www.employmentlawtoday.com • Canadian Labour Reporter — www.labour-reporter.com See carswell.com for information date specified in the legislation (it could be on a future date or be implemented retroactively). Other acts do not come into force until proclamation, which means that the governor general (or the provincial or territorial representative), on the advice of the federal (or provincial) cabi- net, issues an order stating an act will come into force on a speci- fied date. The implementation date is important for payroll because that is when they must make sure they are complying with the new law. Sometimes, there is a lot of ad- vance notice of when an act will come into effect, giving payroll departments time to implement the changes, even if they were previously unaware of them. Other times, it will apply right away or retroactively, requiring payroll to make changes imme- diately or to go back and imple- ment them. The best way for payroll to stay on top of legislative changes is to be aware of what governments are proposing so they can take steps to prepare for it in advance, says Annie Chong, manager of Carswell's Payroll Consulting Group. "My advice for employers is to be mindful of the upcoming changes and that proposed legis- lation will become law," she says. "It's just a matter of time. If necessary, they should start hav- ing a conversation with their payroll service provider/vendors in preparing for implementing changes to the system. Employ- ers should be prepared in ad- vance for any updates once the from AN ACT on page 3 Good idea to regularly check for changes legislation is enforced." Regulations While many of the requirements with which payroll must comply are set out in acts, some rules come from regulations under those acts. For instance, mini- mum wage requirements are of- ten found in regulations rather than the acts themselves. Unlike acts, regulations do not have to go through a legislature to have legal effect. Governments often publish draft regulations in a publication called a Gazette and may ask for public feedback on them. The final regulations are pub- lished in the Gazette, with the in-force date being the date the regulation is registered or a date specified in the regulation. Most jurisdictions provide free online access to their Gazette. It is understandable that most payroll professionals are too busy with their day-to-day respon- sibilities to closely follow every bill's progress through the legis- lative process. However, it is a good idea to periodically check on the status of proposed legislation through payroll hotlines or publications or by going directly to the legis- lature websites. Knowing how the legislative process works can help to give payroll professionals a heads-up on changes that may be coming and when they will need to im- plement them. Readers who are interested in a more detailed look at the legislative process should visit the Parliament of Canada's website at www.parl.gc.ca/com- p e n dium / w e b - c o n t e n t / c _ g _ legislativeprocess-e.htm. December 2014 December 2014 | CPR CPR Payroll should review process occasionally dated. Insurable earnings reported on the RL-1 pertain to the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan. The federal portion of income tax is not re- ported on the RL-1. Retiring allowances have been reported in box O (using code RJ). The "Renseignements complémentaires" boxes in the centre of the slip have been used to report additional information relating to amounts reported in other boxes on the form. If any amounts have been reported in box O, the appropriate alphabetic code has been entered in the code box to indicate the type of payment. In box G, you have reported the employee's QPP pensionable salary or wages for the year up to the annual maximum pensionable earnings ($52,500 for 2014). In box H, you have reported the total amount deducted for QPIP premiums. Leave the box blank if you did not deduct any pre- miums. Do not adjust the amount if you de- ducted too much. In box I, you have reported the total amount of salary or wages from which the employer deducted QPIP premiums, up to the annual maximum insurable earnings ($69,000 for 2014). All amounts entered on RL-1s should be reported in Canadian currency. If this is not possible, enter "200" in one of the blank boxes in the centre of the RL-1 slip, followed by the type of currency used. Negative dollar amounts are not reported. To adjust amounts reported in previous years, submit an amended slip for the year in question. A separate set of RL-1s and summaries are required for each Revenu Québec employer account number. The totals you report on the summary match the total amounts reported on the RL slips, where applicable. from QUEBEC on page 6

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