Contents:

Welcome
Upcoming Events
What's New
GrandMaster Updates

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Welcome!

December 2002 - Welcome to the latest edition of The Payroll News. As always, please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and associates who are interested in keeping up with the latest changes in the Payroll industry. Or better yet, subscribe them for free using the Tell Someone About Us link.

Upcoming Events

Listed here are recent changes in legislation on Federal and Provincial levels that may impact your payroll calculations. Please view the following list for changes that affect your region.

FEDERAL:

November 4, 2002 - CPP pensionable earnings ceiling raised for 2003 - The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency announced today that the maximum pensionable earnings under the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) for 2003 will be $39,900—up from $39,100 in 2002. The increase reflects the growth in average weekly wages and salaries in Canada. (Full Story - 195 Words)

November 28, 2002 - Employment Insurance Premium Cut for 2003 - Employment insurance (EI) premiums will be reduced by 10 cents to $2.10 in 2003, John Manley, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development, announced today. "This reduction will mean savings of $890 million for workers and businesses next year," said Minister Manley. (Full Story - 222 Words)

November 6, 2002 - Report shows Enhanced EI maternity and parental benefits a great success - Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada released today the much anticipated 2001 first-year results since the enhancements to Employment Insurance (EI) maternity and parental benefits. About 216,000 Canadians accessed parental benefits in 2001 compared to almost 174,000 in 2000-a sharp increase of 24.3 per cent. (Full Story - 582 Words)

Alberta:

November 27, 2002 - Increased funds for workplace safety - The employer-funded Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) is increasing its annual transfer of funds to the Alberta government by $3.3 million to $9.6 million to support the Workplace Safety 2.0 initiative. "Workplace Safety 2.0 is a comprehensive strategy developed by industry, labour, safety associations, government and the WCB to reduce injuries and fatalities on Alberta worksites 40% by 2004," said Alberta Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford. (Full Story - 263 Words)

November 25, 2002 - Bill 37 introduced to make workplaces safer - Legislation to help make Alberta workplaces safer through increased fines and public awareness has been introduced in the Alberta Legislature. "Keeping Alberta workers safe is a responsibility shared by employers, labour, safety associations, government and workers themselves," said the sponsor of the Bill, Drayton Valley-Calmar MLA Tony Abbott. "Bill 37 represents an important step in government's plan to reduce workplace injuries by 40% over the next two years." Bill 37 proposes five major amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act. (Full Story - 315 Words)

October 30, 2002 - Working parents leaving SFI keep health benefits - Effective Nov. 1, parents who find a job and no longer receive financial benefits through the Supports for Independence (SFI) program will be able to keep their health benefits, subject to an annual review based on their net income. To qualify, parents must have dependent children and must be leaving SFI for employment. (Full Story - 311 Words)

British Columbia:

November 22, 2002 - Employment standards changes come into effect Nov. 30 - Changes to employment standards that give employees and employers greater flexibility, reduce unnecessary regulation and bring mandatory penalties into force come into effect Nov. 30, Skills Development and Labour Minister Graham Bruce said today. "These changes modernize and simplify B.C.’s rules, making them more consistent with other jurisdictions," said Bruce. "Employees and employers want to negotiate improved workplace arrangements, and our legislation allows them to do that, which will create jobs and revitalize the economy." (Full Story - 357 Words)

Workplace Health Works - A seminar on innovative workplace health practices - Organized by the Canadian Labour and Business Centre, this seminar will highlight the innovative workplace health practices of two selected British Columbia workplaces. The seminar takes place December 2-3, 2002, at the Westin Bayshore Resort and Marina, Vancouver, B.C. (Full Story - 94 Words)

New Brunswick:

November 8, 2002 - Labour force highest ever for New Brunswick - New Brunswick had its largest labour force ever last month, which helped fuel a slight increase in the unemployment rate, Training and Employment Development Minister Norman McFarlane said today. "There were 388,800 New Brunswickers in the labour force in October which was 12,200 more than at the same time last year," McFarlane said. "There were also 10,100 more people working than at the same time last year. The fact we have the most people in our province either working or actively looking for work shows our people have confidence in the economy." (Full Story - 256 Words)

November 6, 2002 - WHSCC announces increase in employer assesement rates for 2003 - The Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (WHSCC) announced today that anticipated cost increases for 2003 and a weakening financial situation will result in a 9% increase in the average assessment rate charged to employers. The average assessment rate will increase to $2.07 per $100 of assessable payroll from $1.90 in the year 2002. The decision has the full support of the Board of Directors of the WHSCC. (Full Story - 431 Words)

Newfoundland and Labrador:

November 8, 2002 - Province experiences slight decrease in employment - Newfoundland and Labrador experienced a decrease in employment last month according to the latest Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada. Employment decreased by 1.2 per cent to 214,300 persons in October as compared to 216,800 for the month last year. In addition the unemployment rate rose by 2.2 percentage points to 16.2 per cent. In addition to lower employment, growth in the labour force of 1.5 per cent also contributed to this increase. (Full Story - 255 Words)

Nova Scotia:

November 19, 2002 - Government to Increase Benefits to Injured - Changes to the Workers' Compensation Act introduced today, Nov. 19, will improve benefits for Nova Scotia workers injured before March 23, 1990. David Morse, Minister of Environment and Labour, introduced the amendment at the request of the directors of the Workers' Compensation Board, who unanimously approved the step at their last board meeting. (Full Story - 243 Words)

Ontario:

November 15, 2002 - Workplace Safety and Insurance Board releases 2003 premium rates - The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) today released the average premium rate for 2003, which will increase by 3 per cent from $2.13 to $2.19 for every $100 of insurable earnings. Over the past six years, the WSIB has been able to reduce the average premium rate for Schedule 1 employers by 29 per cent. (Full Story - 376 Words)

November 28, 2002 - Three Upcoming Public Holidays Under Ontario's Employment Standards Act - Many workers will get three public holidays off this holiday season with "public holiday pay." Three of eight public holidays under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 fall on: Christmas Day on December 25, Boxing Day on December 26 and New Year's Day on January 1. (Full Story - 995 Words)

Prince Edward Island:

November 30, 2002 - New Monthly Employer Statement of Account - WCB is pleased to announce a new initiative aimed at improving the current mailings sent to employers regarding their assessment and claims information. Feed back from employers has suggested that WCB examine some alternatives to the large volume mailings that employers receive with respect to their workers compensation assessments and claims cost information. The result is a new monthly employer Statement of Account which will outline employer assessment and claims information for the month. (Full Story - 265 Words)

The current release of GrandMaster Suite (3.60.12) incorporates a number of changes to make it even easier to use the program and perform your payroll tasks. Recent program changes since our last Payroll News issue include:

• End of employee selection list message has been added - In the View Pay History dialog box, we have added an error message to indicate when you are the start or end of the employee selection. The message will appear when you select the Next or Previous employee button with no further employees in the list. This functionality has also been added to the Pay Sequence Selection dialog box.
• Newfoundland and Labrador abbreviation change from NF to NL - The Provincial abbreviation for Newfoundland and Labrador has been changed from NF to NL. This was based on official legislation that became effective October 21, 2002.
• Reference field now printable in the Payroll Entry Report - The Reference field now appears on the Payroll Entry report. This was added in conjunction with the Reference field's addition to the to the Hours Entry dialog box.
• Journal Entry report now includes provincial health tax breakdown. When creating the Journal Entry report, you are now provided with a breakdown of the provincial health tax information. Previously the provincial amounts would be included as one lump sum. This is of particular interest to companies who have employee working in multiple provinces.
• Employee missing pay periods when creating ROEs - If you created an ROE using the Pending Termination setting and spanned from one pay period into another, and if there were several employees in the current group, the first employee's final period ending date would be applied to each subsequent employee in the group. This was causing everyone in the next pay period to be missing pay periods. This has been addressed so that now when you create ROEs through pending termination, the employees' correct dates are processed.
• Reverse Pay doubling up on certain earnings - If you ran a Reverse Pay run, reversal was doubling up any earnings that were not being reversed. This has been corrected.
• Employee Number not being exported correctly - If you created a Transaction Report and exported it with the Employee Number as one of your options, the program would export the employee's system-generated ID number in place of the employee number. This has been corrected.
• Mass update process is allowed without a group loaded. If you performed a mass update using a template, the program was allowing you to perform the procedure even though a group was not loaded (thus the update was affecting all employees). This has been corrected and you are now forced to load a group before performing the Mass Update process.
• Fixed list groups incorrectly including all employees. If you created a fixed list group from any other location other than from the Groups - Fixed List command, the list of employees would include all employees, even those from other payrolls. This has been corrected so that only current payroll employees appear in your fixed list.
• Printing the Name and Address Report displays error message. Under certain circumstances, an error message would appear when you printed the Name and Address report. Specifically, if you activated the Employee Number as a print option and if the badge number row was set to zero. This has been corrected.

Stay tuned to CanPay's Product News page to receive the latest changes and release information for all GrandMaster products!

December is here and that means that most companies are working through their year-end procedures and beginning preparations for the 2002 tax-filing year. This includes verifying the amounts they have deducted from employees for CPP contributions, EI premiums and Income tax over the course of the year.

If your company regularly enlists the services of workers who are not considered your employees, you need to be aware of some special rules when handling their payroll deductions.

Special Trades
Based on the nature of their associated trade, and if circumstances apply, some types of workers should not have CPP, EI and Income Tax deducted from their pay by the employer. Instead, the workers themselves are responsible for remitting the corresponding amounts to the CCRA.

This special category of workers include: Barbers, hairdressers, taxi drivers, and drivers of other passenger-carrying vehicles.

• Barbers and hairdressers - This class of workers includes barbers, hairdressers, manicurists, and other people who provide services in a barbershop or hairdressing business. With respect to the workers who perform services in connection with the establishment, the CCRA considers the owner, proprietor, or operator of the barbershop or hairdressing business to be the employer for EI purposes. The same is true for even if the individuals are not employed under a contract of service.
  
  
• Drivers of taxis and other passenger-carrying vehicles - In the case of a taxi business, the CCRA considers the employer to be operating a business if they supply one or more vehicles to others, and if they provide related facilities such as taxi stands and dispatch services.
  
  At the taxi industry's request, a special EI regulation was created to protect taxi and passenger-vehicle drivers who are not employees. The regulation was created because these independent workers would often go through periods without work.
  
  This special EI regulation applies to drivers of taxis and other passenger vehicles who do not own or operate the business or do not own more than 50% of the vehicle. Further, the earnings of these workers are insurable even though they are self-employed. If you are the operator of a taxi or passenger-vehicle business, the CCRA considers you to be the employer of your drivers for EI purposes.

If these workers are your employees, you are responsible for deducting Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions, Employment Insurance (EI) premiums, and income tax as you would for your regular employees.

If these workers are not your employees, special rules will apply with respect to how must handle the payroll deductions for these workers. Refer to the following section for more information.

Special rules for EI premiums, CPP contributions, and income tax deductions
The following rules apply to barbers and hairdressers, and to drivers of taxis and other passenger-carrying vehicles, who are not considered to be employees.

• EI premiums - If you are the owner or operator of the business, you have to pay both the worker's share and your share of EI premiums. There are two ways to determine the insurable earnings for a week, depending on whether or not you know the worker's weekly earnings:
  
  a) If you know how much the worker earned in a pay period, the amount of the individual's insurable earnings is the total actual earnings from the individual's employment for the pay period up to the yearly maximum of $39,000.
  
  b) If you do not know how much the worker earned in a pay period, the amount of insurable earnings is the lesser of: the number of days worked in the week multiplied by $100 or $500. As the employer, you are responsible for reporting remitting the EI premiums that you paid for your workers.
  
  
• CPP contributions and income tax - For CPP and income tax purposes, the CCRA considers individuals who are not employed under a contract of service to be self-employed. They are responsible for paying their CPP contributions and income tax. These types of workers should not have any amounts deducted from their pay for CPP or income tax purposes.

Finally
For EI purposes, you have to complete a T4 slip for each worker whom you do not consider to be an employee.