Canadian Payroll Association's Online and In-Class Seminars Focus on Key Year-End Payroll Issues
TORONTO, Oct. 12, 2018 /CNW/ - According to recent research by the Canadian Payroll Association (CPA), managing year-end issues remains the most time-consuming task for payroll professionals. That's not surprising given the array of regulatory and legislative changes affecting payroll each year, and 2018 was no exception.
Upcoming enhancements to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and a multitude of legislative changes affecting employment and labour standards across many jurisdictions will be top of mind this year-end for those trying to manage payroll operations within their organizations.
To guide employers and payroll, HR and accounting professionals through these changes, the CPA offers an array of learning options (both in person and online). The full-day Year-end and New Year Requirements seminar, and the half-day Legislative Update: Year-end and New Year seminar, support practitioners looking to understand what is changing legislatively for year-end and what to anticipate for the New Year.
Here are some of the key issues covered through this training that employers and professionals should keep in mind for year-end:
CPP Enhancement Takes Effect in 2019
Increased employer and employee CPP contribution rates take effect beginning in 2019 and will incrementally increase over the subsequent seven years. Employers should already have the required changes programmed into their payroll systems in order to meet their legal obligations for the 2019 CPP enhancement. The increased mandatory contributions for employers may be significant, depending on the size of their payroll and if they are already sponsoring retirement savings programs. Employers will need to reassess their current retirement and benefit offerings for practicality and financial preparedness.
In Quebec, Bill 149 amends the Act respecting the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) and introduces an additional plan. The changes introduced in the bill are intended to mirror the CPP enhancements, with additional employee and employer contributions starting in 2019, however, there will still be a differential between the CPP and QPP rates.
Extensive Employment Standards Changes in Many Provinces
Many jurisdictions introduced or changed their employment/labour standards legislation this year, impacting important work-related considerations from parental and maternity leave, to statuary holidays. Alberta's Employment Standards Code amendments clarified issues from general holiday pay to terminations and temporary layoffs. British Columbia's Bill 6 introduced many new leaves including adoption, compassionate care and child death leave. Ontario changed and later reinstated its policies on public holiday pay calculations. Manitoba's newly introduced Bill 20 extended existing parental leave and increased the minimum age for employment, among other changes. New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Quebec also implemented amendment to their employment/labour standards in 2018.
Making a Plan for Compliance
Given the nature of these significant changes, coupled with the fact that payroll must regularly comply with more than 200 payroll-related legislative and regulatory requirements, it is imperative that employers and payroll professionals to keep their knowledge up-to-date.
The CPA's year-end training covers these, and a whole host of other issues, including Employment Insurance (EI) and pension adjustments, federal year-end reporting and more in their popular year-end training options. The education gained from these seminars, coupled with the many resources provided by the CPA, including a Year-End Checklist, helps employers and professionals ensure year-end compliance while mitigating audit risk.
The CPA's year-end seminars are available from October to December online and at various locations across Canada, with limited locations in January. For a complete listing of seminar dates and for more information on the CPA's Professional Development Seminars, visit payroll.ca.
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 has annually influenced the payroll compliance practices and processes of over 500,000 organizational payrolls.
SOURCE Canadian Payroll Association
Alison Rutka, Communications Specialist, [email protected], 416-487-3380 x 125
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