Payroll services in Ottawa

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 September 2026.

The question is the establishment, not the address

Every Ottawa employer eventually hires someone living in Gatineau, and most first ask the wrong question. Residence does not determine source deductions; the establishment the employee reports for work at does. A Gatineau resident reporting daily to an Ottawa office is an Ontario employee for payroll: Ontario tables, CPP, EI, a T4. Quebec residents reconcile withholding against what Quebec assesses on their own return.

It changes when the employer has a Quebec establishment. Revenu Québec requires source deductions and employer contributions where an employee reports to one of your Quebec establishments, or reports nowhere and is paid from one. An Ottawa business opening a Gatineau location, or hiring remote staff attached to one, has entered a second payroll regime.

What a Quebec establishment actually pulls in

Quebec runs parallel institutions, not just a different table. The Quebec Pension Plan replaces CPP for Quebec employment. The Quebec Parental Insurance Plan sits beside federal EI, with employee and employer premiums. Provincial tax goes to Revenu Québec, not the CRA, on its own schedule. And an RL-1 slip is issued alongside the T4.

Where an employee reports to establishments inside and outside Quebec, treatment becomes proportional, and premiums paid under plans outside Quebec are counted so employer cost is not duplicated. At that point Ottawa payroll is no side-of-desk task. Make and document the determination before the hire, not after the first slip.

Ontario employer health tax still applies to the Ontario side

Ontario employer health tax works as usual, with one trap: the rate is picked from the band table on total Ontario remuneration before the exemption, then the $1,000,000 exemption is deducted and the rate applied. Rates run from 0.98% to 1.95% on payroll over $400,000; groups over $5,000,000 of annual Ontario payroll get no exemption. WSIB is separate. See the Ontario tax facts page.

What the engagement covers

• Province of employment determined and documented for each employee
• Ontario deductions, remittances and T4s for Ontario-employed staff
• Quebec source deductions, QPP, QPIP and RL-1 slips where a Quebec establishment is involved
• Remittances to the CRA and, where applicable, to Revenu Québec on their separate schedules
• Ontario employer health tax calculated with the band selected correctly
• WSIB payroll reporting
• Records of employment under the correct provincial standards

Remote, and nowhere near the Ottawa Valley

EverStone is a virtual sole-practitioner CPA firm with no Ottawa office, now or planned; Ottawa employers work with us by video, secure exchange and e-signature. For a payroll spanning two provincial regimes, one accountant holding the file matters more than proximity: the determination made at hiring is the one reflected in February. The remittance calculator checks federal figures.

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

Remitting to two tax authorities means two sets of due dates to fund, which is where cash flow management comes in.