Payroll services in Montreal

Two remittance streams for every pay run

Outside Quebec, payroll is mostly a conversation with one agency: income tax, CPP and EI go to the CRA together. A Montreal employer splits every run. Federal income tax and EI are remitted to the CRA. Quebec income tax, QPP contributions and QPIP premiums are remitted to Revenu Québec, which also collects the employer’s Health Services Fund contribution. Two accounts, two remittance schedules, two sets of reconciliations at year-end.

The deductions themselves are different too. QPP replaces CPP entirely for employees working in Quebec. QPIP, the Quebec parental insurance plan, charges premiums to both employee and employer, and in exchange the EI premium is charged at a reduced rate, because parental benefits are paid by Quebec rather than through EI. Payroll software set up for another province gets all of this wrong at once, which is why the setup is checked before the first run. The payroll deduction calculator shows the federal pieces.

The employer’s own costs

Two Quebec charges fall on the employer rather than the employee. The Health Services Fund contribution is calculated on total payroll and remitted to Revenu Québec with the source deductions. CNESST premiums fund workplace health and safety coverage and are assessed on insurable payroll by the employer’s activity. Neither appears on a pay stub, so neither shows up when an owner budgets a hire from the salary figure alone. The honest cost of an employee in Montreal is the salary plus the employer’s share of QPP, QPIP and EI, plus both of these, and it is worth knowing before the offer letter goes out. Hiring your first employee walks through the order of registrations.

Past $2 million: the workforce skills requirement

A Quebec employer whose total payroll exceeds $2 million faces the workforce skills development requirement: it is expected to invest 1% of payroll in eligible training, or pay the shortfall. For most small Montreal businesses this is years away. For a growing tech company or a contractor with a large crew it can arrive in a single good year, and it is far easier to document qualifying training as it happens than to reconstruct it afterwards. Payroll reporting flags the threshold before it is crossed.

February: T4s and RL-1s together

At year-end every Quebec employee receives two slips. The T4 goes to the CRA with the federal summary; the RL-1 goes to Revenu Québec with its own summary. Both are due by the last day of February, and both have to agree with what was remitted through the year. A missed remittance, a benefit coded on one side only, or a departed employee whose last pay was never reconciled is where the two stop matching. Running the reconciliation quarterly rather than once in February keeps the slips a formality. Payroll year-end lists the federal steps; the Quebec ones run beside them.

Payroll across Montreal’s industries

The pattern of a payroll depends on the trade. Restaurants run large, changing teams with a summer terrace season, and controlled tips flow through payroll with deductions while direct tips do not. Construction contractors doing CCQ-regulated work operate under rules the Commission de la construction du Québec sets for that work, on top of ordinary payroll. Tech startups decide early how founders are paid, and salaried developers are also the core of an SR&ED claim. Retail and apparel businesses add seasonal staff around the holidays, which multiplies records of employment and slips rather than the payroll itself.

Remote, from Abbotsford, in English

EverStone is a one-CPA firm in Abbotsford, British Columbia, with no Montreal office. Payroll runs from timesheets and changes you send through a secure upload link, with pay stubs and remittance confirmations returned the same way. EverStone works in English, so every question about a deduction gets an English answer. What is covered:

• Payroll setup for Quebec: QPP, QPIP, the reduced EI rate and both income taxes
• Remittances to the CRA and Revenu Québec on your assigned schedule
• Health Services Fund and CNESST calculations
• T4 and RL-1 slips and summaries by the end of February
• Records of employment when someone leaves
• Payroll entries posted to your books each run

Payroll is usually bundled with monthly bookkeeping and the year-end, and the combined fee is fixed in writing before the first run. Published fees show where each service starts.