CRA Commissioner Bob Hamilton Accepts the Canadian Payroll Association's Partner Award
TORONTO, Aug. 21, 2018 /CNW/ - The Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) presented its Partner Award to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to acknowledge the Agency's support of legislative changes, resulting in administrative efficiencies that have saved employers hundreds of millions of dollars.
The CPA's Partner Award recognizes a private or public sector organizations' outstanding work in assisting the Canadian Payroll Association in achieving its objectives.
"The CPA's advocacy goal is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of payroll legislation and administration for all stakeholders (employers, government and employees)" said Patrick Culhane, the retiring President of the CPA, who presented the award on behalf of the Association. "We have worked cooperatively with the CRA in developing and implementing payroll tax changes because employers pay $310 billion in payroll remittances to the Agency, which administers most employer-related legislation."
The decades-long professional relationship between the CPA and CRA has resulted in legislative changes being included in three Federal Budgets over ten years.
First, after a successful pilot from 2003 to 2008, the CPA worked with the CRA to include graduated penalties legislation in the 2008 Federal Budget. The legislation removed the onerous 10% penalty for late remittances, moving to a new system based on days late (3% for 3 days, 5% for 5 days and so on), and saving employers millions of dollars.
In 2010, the CPA worked with the CRA for four years to increase payroll remittance thresholds to $25,000 and $100,000 for employers, an efficiency which was included in the 2014 Federal Budget. The CRA estimated that this change eliminated more than 800,000 payroll remittance transactions for over 50,000 small- to medium-sized organizations, savings tens of millions of dollars.
And, last year, legislation enabling employers to provide electronic T4s to employees as the standard delivery method was included in the 2017 Federal Budget. As a result of e-T4s, the Quebec government harmonized its legislation to support electronic Releve-1s. These two changes resulted in employers saving over $130 million annually, at no cost to government.
In presenting the Partner Award, the CPA recognizes the diligent work of CRA staff and its members who participated in the CRA's e-T4 Pilot, which demonstrated the savings and efficiencies to employers and government.
CRA Commissioner Bob Hamilton accepted the award at the CPA's National Conference and Trade Show in June 2018.
"I am honoured to accept the Partner Award on behalf of all Canada Revenue Agency employees who contribute significantly to our valued partnership with the Canadian Payroll Association," said Mr. Hamilton. "This collaboration has led to exciting innovations for payroll professionals and I have no doubt we will share many more successes in the years ahead."
About the Canadian Payroll Association:
Canada's 1.5 million employers rely on payroll practitioners to ensure the timely and accurate annual payment of $929 billion in wages and taxable benefits, $310 billion in statutory remittances to the federal and provincial governments, and $180 billion in health and retirement benefits, while complying with more than 200 federal and provincial regulatory requirements. Since 1978, the Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) has annually influenced the payroll compliance practices and processes of over five hundred thousand organizational payrolls. As the authoritative source of Canadian payroll compliance knowledge, the CPA promotes payroll compliance through advocacy and education. For more information on the Association's Professional Development Seminars, Certification Programs, and the Benefits of Membership visit payroll.ca.
SOURCE Canadian Payroll Association
Alison Rutka, Communications Specialist, [email protected] or 416-487-3380 x 125
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