Please note the basic exemption for federal and provincial has changed effective Jan 1, 2012. A new TD1 form must be completed if you are claiming more than the basic amount for Federal / Provincial tax or requesting addition tax deduction. If there is no change to your basic exemption no action is required. For further information, please visit Canada Revenue Agency website: TD1 Forms:

Canada has a growing, concerning issue. We have more than a generation of people groomed on the “Freedom 55” concept. Build your retirement up and don’t wait until you are 65. Choose a better path and retire ten years earlier and enjoy life. But, we also have an attitude, sub-conscious or not, that the government will take care of us. January 1st 1966 was a momentous date for Canadians. On that date, the CPP (Canada Pension Plan) Act came into existence. It was “An Act to establish a comprehensive program of old age pensions and supplementary benefits in Canada payable to and in respect of contributors.” By the...

Records of Employment, commonly referred to as ROE, are forms that are completed by employers for employees who stop working and/or experience an interruption of earnings. All insurable earnings are hours that are recorded on the ROE as well as the dates of employment and the reason the ROE is being issued. These forms can be completed either manually or electronically. If your company is completing ROE’s in the paper format (manually) it is in triplicate. This means that there are three copies of the form, one is the original which goes to the employee, the second one is mailed to Service Canada and the third part is...

There are new rules as of January 1, 2012. Employers must deduct CPP contributions paid to employees between 60 to 70 years old even if they are receiving CPP or QPP pension benefits. Employers must also contribute a portion matching their employees’ deductions. Currently, employees receiving CPP benefits do not have to contribute from their pay cheques, however starting in 2012 the following new rules apply: • Working employees, between 60 and 65 years of age, must still contribute regardless of receiving CPP/QPP retirement pension benefits. This means employees between 60 and 65 currently exempted from CPP contributions will start being deducted January 1, 2012. • Working employees...

Within your organization, it is important to define the positions which are eligible for overtime and which ones are not. Although every province has slightly different rules with regards to the amount of time required to work prior to receiving overtime, the rules for who is eligible for overtime are generally the same. One misconception that we hear often is: Hourly employees receive overtime and salaried do not. While this often turns out to be the case in many organizations, it is the position’s level of responsibility that determines the eligibility of overtime, not the manor in which the employee’s compensation is paid. For example: you could have...

On May 1, 2011 minimum wage will increase in the province of British Columbia from $8.00 to $8.75 per hour. The minimum wage for training is still set at $6.00 per hour but that is currently being repealed. But the increases don’t just stop there. There are 2 more minimum wage increases to come; one this year and one next year. The next minimum wage increase this year will be on November 1, 2011 to $9.50 per hour and then next year on May 1, 2012 to $10.25 per hour. Depending on the job and the industry, there are difference minimum wage requirements. For example, if your employees...

There are a lot of conflicting articles in the media. Politicians say that that the population wants one thing and then, based on surveys, the population appears to want something else. Ultimately, more than seven out of ten Canadians rely heavily on the Canada Pension Plan for their retirement savings as they cannot afford to put additional money away on their own. It does make sense to most people to increase the Canada Pension Plan benefits over a period of time as well as increasing other avenues to encourage more privately funded arrangements.

You know how in some store, mostly gas stations in Canada, you can wave your credit card in front of a machine to pay without having to sign or enter a PIN. Well….Canada gets ready to welcome the new Interac Flash, a contactless debit solution in the summer of 2011. This exciting piece of technology will speed up transactions which will make customers happy and as a result, vendors happy. How It Works: The Flash Interac can only be used at participating locations. Simply wave the card in front of a supported reader and your purchase will automatically be debited from your bank account. No PIN required. If...

Did you know… According to a 2008 survey: 1 in 6 Canadians have been victims of Identity Theft. 6.5% of Canadian adults, or almost 1.7 million people were victims of identity fraud in 2007 alone. The victims spent over 20 million hours and more than $150 million to resolve problems associated with these frauds. What is Identity Theft? Identity Theft refers to all types of crime in which someone steals or misuses personal or financial identifiers of someone else by using their credit card, driver’s licence, social insurance number or other personal identification numbers to commit fraud or other criminal activity. In the words of Frank Abagnale, the...

I guess we could have all predicted that EI premium rates would increase at some point. When the economic downturn hit causing massive job losses it was only a matter of time. Over a 4 year span from 2011 to 2014 the Parliamentary Budget Officer projects the EI premium rates for the employee will be: 2011 - $1.882012 - $2.032013 - $2.182014 - $2.33 Currently, the maximum allowable EI premium rate is $1.73 per year and will increase to $2.33 (per $100 of insurable earnings) by 2014. That’s only a $0.60 increase over the next 4 years. Just to put these figures into perspective, on average, the projected...