Payroll services in Kingston

Payroll covers the source deductions for CPP, EI premiums and income tax, the remittances to the CRA, the year-end T4 and T4A slips, and access through My Business Account.

Updated October 2026.

Payroll that changes with the season

Kingston’s visitor economy — a pedestrian-friendly downtown full of restaurants and bars, Fort Henry, a live music scene and the Thousand Islands region nearby — makes the warmer months the busiest for hospitality and tourism. Contractors work to a building season shaped by winter. And with Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College in the city, many employers draw part-time staff from students whose availability follows the academic year.

The payroll consequence is turnover. Every hire needs a TD1, a correct start in the payroll system and the right deductions from the first cheque. Every departure needs a Record of Employment issued promptly and final pay that includes outstanding vacation pay. At year-end, T4 slips go to people who left months earlier and may have moved. None of this is difficult on its own; the volume is what causes errors, and errors in source deductions are expensive because penalties attach to the amount that should have been remitted.

The federal deductions underneath

The federal obligations are the same everywhere in Canada. Income tax, CPP and EI are withheld from each pay run and, with the employer’s share of CPP and EI, remitted to the CRA under the business’s RP payroll account. The remittance schedule is assigned from your average monthly withholding amount, so a business that grows can be moved to a more frequent schedule, and a missed or late remittance carries a penalty and interest. Directors can be held personally liable for unremitted source deductions, which is why remittances come before almost every other payment. The payroll remittances guide covers the schedules.

The Ontario employer health tax rate is chosen before the exemption

Ontario’s employer health tax is graduated, and the order of operations is where employers go wrong. You select your rate from the band table using total Ontario remuneration before any exemption is deducted; only then do you subtract the exemption and apply the chosen rate to what remains. The bands run from 0.98% on Ontario payroll up to $200,000, through eight further steps between $200,000.01 and $400,000, to 1.95% on payroll over $400,000. The exemption is $1,000,000.

Two further rules matter. No exemption is available where the employer or its associated group has more than $5,000,000 of annual Ontario payroll. And associated employers must file an allocation agreement to share the single exemption between them. Most Kingston owner-managed businesses sit below the exemption and owe nothing, but a contractor with a large crew, or an owner running two related restaurants through separate companies, should do the calculation at group level before assuming so. All of it is tabled with its source on the Ontario tax facts page.

WSIB is a separate registration

Workplace coverage in Ontario runs through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, which is entirely separate from the CRA and the Ministry of Finance and carries its own registration, classification and reporting obligations. It is driven by the same payroll figures as everything else, but reported to a different body on a different schedule, which is exactly the kind of split that gets missed when payroll is run informally. Construction is a particular case: Ontario’s compulsory coverage rules reach owners and executive officers in construction, not only their employees, so a Kingston trades business should confirm its WSIB position before its first job.

Public holidays, vacation pay and Ontario’s formula

Ontario recognizes nine public holidays. Public holiday pay is the regular wages earned plus vacation pay payable in the four work weeks before the work week containing the holiday, divided by twenty. That formula matters most for part-time and seasonal staff whose hours vary, because a flat day’s pay will be wrong in both directions. Vacation pay accrues on every pay and has to be paid out when employment ends. Both are set up once in the payroll system, correctly, rather than calculated by hand each time.

Tips, students and family members on payroll

Three Kingston situations come up often. Restaurants that collect and distribute tips through the employer (controlled tips) generally run them through payroll with income tax withheld, while tips passed directly from guest to server are treated differently — the distinction affects CPP and EI. Students are employees like any other: age and study status do not remove the obligation to withhold. And an owner paying a spouse or child needs to pay a reasonable wage for work actually done, documented with timesheets, with the usual deductions, rather than a round number at year-end.

What is covered

• Pay runs with Ontario tax tables applied to Ontario employees
• Income tax, CPP and EI withheld and remitted on your CRA schedule
• Onboarding and Records of Employment for seasonal and student staff
• Employer health tax calculated at group level, with the band selected correctly
• WSIB registration support and payroll reporting
• Public holiday and vacation pay under Ontario employment standards
• T4 and T4A slips and summaries filed by the last day of February

Remote, with no Kingston office

EverStone is a sole practitioner CPA firm that works online. There is no Kingston office and no Ontario branch — Kingston employers are served entirely through video calls, secure document exchange and e-signature. Payroll suits that arrangement well because none of the inputs or outputs are physical: hours come in electronically, pay goes out by direct deposit, and slips are filed with the CRA online. The payroll hub collects the underlying guides and calculators.

What a lender or a shareholder actually reads is year-end statements in Kingston.

The year-end this all feeds into is corporate tax in Kingston.

Seasonal payroll and remittance dates are easiest to plan on a thirteen-week cash forecast.