Payroll services in Selkirk, Manitoba

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.

What payroll looks like for a Selkirk employer

Selkirk’s employers are mostly small: a contractor with a crew that grows in spring and shrinks in winter, a shop or fabricator with a few full-time staff and some shift work, a retailer or restaurant with part-timers on variable hours, a professional office with salaried staff. The city’s steel industry and its role as a service centre for the surrounding municipalities mean a real mix of hourly, salaried and seasonal workers. The payroll rules do not change with the size of the business, and the penalties attach to the deductions rather than to the tax, so a small employer who misses a remittance pays the same percentage as a large one.

Source deductions and the remittance schedule

On every pay run the employer withholds income tax, CPP contributions and EI premiums, adds the employer’s share of CPP and EI, and remits the total to the CRA through the payroll (RP) account. The schedule is assigned from your average monthly withholding amount and tightens as payroll grows, moving from monthly to twice-monthly at $25,000 and to four times a month at $100,000. A contractor whose summer crew pushes withholding up can find the schedule changing, and the employer who keeps remitting on the old dates is late without knowing it. We track the schedule and remit on the right dates. Payroll remittances and the RP account explains how the categories work.

Manitoba general holiday pay is 5% of the previous four weeks

Manitoba’s holiday calculation belongs to Manitoba alone. General holiday pay is 5% of an employee’s earnings in the four-week period before the holiday. An employee who works on a general holiday is generally entitled to one and a half times their regular wage rate for the hours worked, in addition to that general holiday pay, not instead of it. That stacking rule catches employers who assume the premium replaces holiday pay. For a Selkirk retailer or restaurant open on holidays, or a shop running a shift through one, it is the most common payroll error we correct. Statutory holiday pay for employers compares the provinces.

Construction staff and vacation pay

Construction employment is treated separately again in Manitoba: construction employees earn general holiday wages as a percentage applied in every pay period on regular earnings, rather than being calculated holiday by holiday. Vacation pay for general employees runs at 4% of gross wages for those entitled to two weeks and 6% for those who have earned three weeks. A Selkirk contractor with an office manager and a field crew can therefore have two different holiday mechanisms running in the same payroll, which is manageable when it is set up deliberately and confusing when it is not.

WCB Manitoba

Workplace coverage is administered by the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba, separately from both Manitoba Finance and the CRA. Premiums are based on assessable payroll, so the wage figures reported to WCB need to agree with the payroll records and the T4s. For contractors there is a second question: whether each subcontractor has their own coverage, because a hiring contractor can be held responsible where a sub is not covered. Coverage for a director or owner of the corporation is treated separately from employee coverage, so owners should check their own status rather than assume it is included.

The HE Levy, which most Selkirk employers never reach

Manitoba’s employer payroll tax is the Health and Post Secondary Education Tax Levy. Employers with total yearly payroll of $2.5 million or less are exempt, which covers most owner-managed Selkirk businesses. Between $2.5 million and $5.0 million the levy is 4.3% of the amount over $2.5 million, and above $5.0 million it is 2.15% of the entire payroll, with no deduction at all. Associated companies share one exemption, so an owner with several corporations should look at the combined figure, not each company alone.

Seasonal crews, records of employment and year-end

Seasonal work means people joining and leaving through the year, and each departure needs a record of employment issued on time. At year-end every employee needs a T4 and every eligible non-employee payment may need a T4A, filed with the summary by the last day of February. Owner-managers paid by salary appear on the T4 too, and the payroll should reflect the salary-and-dividend decision made with the corporate year-end in mind. The payroll year-end checklist sets out the sequence, and hiring your first employee covers the set-up.

What is covered

• Pay runs with Manitoba tax tables applied
• Income tax, CPP and EI withheld and remitted on your assigned CRA schedule
• General holiday pay at 5% of the prior four weeks, with premium pay added where the day is worked
• Vacation pay at the correct rate for each employee
• WCB Manitoba assessable payroll reporting
• Records of employment for departing staff
• T4 and T4A slips and summaries filed by the last day of February
• HE Levy monitoring for growing or associated employers

Online, with no Selkirk office

EverStone is a fully virtual CPA firm with no Selkirk office. Payroll is a natural fit for online work, because every input and output is already electronic: hours come in by upload or from your time-tracking system, pay is deposited directly, remittances are made online and slips are filed electronically. One CPA holds the file year-round, which keeps the remittances, the WCB report and the T4s consistent with each other and with the books.

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

Payroll and its remittances are the largest recurring obligation most businesses carry, and they belong on the cash forecast.