Payroll services in Vancouver
Vancouver companies hire outside Vancouver more than any other employer group in the province. The moment a Toronto or Calgary hire joins the payroll, the deductions, the provincial payroll taxes and the slips all fork. EverStone handles multi-province payroll for Vancouver businesses remotely, on a written scope.
Quick answer: Deductions for an employee follow the province of employment — the establishment the employee reports to — rather than where the employee lives. A Vancouver employer with staff in other provinces therefore applies different provincial tax tables, different employment standards and, in some provinces, a different employer payroll tax. Payroll is included in monthly bookkeeping from $325 a month.
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 .
On this page
- Province of employment decides the deductions, not the postcode of the employee
- Employer health tax is charged on BC remuneration, and only BC remuneration
- Employment standards do not travel with the employer either
- What the engagement covers
- Remote, with no Vancouver office
- Payroll obligations for a Vancouver employer
- Who this is for, and who it is not
- Remote payroll
- Statutory holiday pay
- Multi-province payroll questions
Province of employment decides the deductions, not the postcode of the employee
Source deductions use the tax tables for the province of employment: generally the province of the employer’s establishment at which the employee reports for work, not where they live. A Burnaby resident reporting to a Vancouver office is a BC employee. With no establishment to report to, it is the establishment that pays them.
That produces two recurring Vancouver situations. The cross-border commuter is simple once the rule is stated. Genuinely remote hiring is not: depending on the facts, a fully remote employee in another province may be employed at an establishment there, bringing in that province’s income tax tables, employment standards and employer levies. Settle it before the first pay run, not across a year of slips.
Employer health tax is charged on BC remuneration, and only BC remuneration
British Columbia’s employer health tax measures BC remuneration only, so a Vancouver company with half its payroll in Ontario tests just the BC portion against the $1,000,000 exemption. Above it: 5.85% of the excess to $1,500,000, then 1.95% of total BC remuneration, per the BC facts page. Of the payroll taxes Vancouver employers pay, the employer health tax is the one measured on BC remuneration only.
Other provinces run their own regimes on their own bases. Ontario charges a graduated employer health tax, with the rate set by total Ontario payroll before the exemption. Manitoba runs a Health and Post Secondary Education Tax Levy with a far higher exemption. Alberta has none. One employer can owe provincial payroll tax in one province, two at different rates, or none, depending only on where its people report to work.
Employment standards do not travel with the employer either
Vacation, holidays and termination rules are provincial. BC accrues vacation pay at 4% of total wages after five calendar days and 6% after five consecutive years, and pays a qualifying statutory holiday as an average day’s pay. Ontario has nine public holidays with its own calculation; Alberta and Manitoba use other formulas. One national handbook is wrong somewhere, most expensively on termination. See final pay on termination before an out-of-province exit.
What the engagement covers
- Province of employment determined and documented for each hire
- Correct provincial tax tables applied to every pay run
- Federal source deductions calculated and remitted on your assigned schedule
- BC employer health tax on BC remuneration, plus any equivalent provincial levy elsewhere
- Workers’ compensation registration and payroll reporting in each relevant province
- Records of employment reflecting the correct provincial rules
- T4 slips coded to the right province of employment, filed by the February deadline
Remote, with no Vancouver office
EverStone has no office in Vancouver and does not plan one. Vancouver employers work with the firm online, which for a distributed team is rarely a limitation. Video calls, secure document exchange and e-signature cover everything, and one CPA holds the file, so province-of-employment decisions made at hiring match the slips in February.
Written and checked by EverStone CPA’s Chartered Professional Accountant, who serves Vancouver employers remotely. Revised September 2026. About the firm · Send an enquiry
Payroll obligations for a Vancouver employer
| Obligation | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Source deductions | CPP, EI and income tax withheld from each pay |
| Remittance | Due on the schedule the CRA assigns to your payroll account |
| T4 slips and summary | Filed after the calendar year end |
| Provincial payroll tax (British Columbia) | BC employer health tax, once annual BC remuneration exceeds $1,000,000 |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST plus 7% BC PST: two registrations, two returns |
Source: British Columbia tax facts. General information, not advice.
Free tools for Vancouver businesses: remittance calculator.
Who this is for, and who it is not
This suits a Vancouver company with staff in BC and perhaps one or two working from Alberta or Ontario. You want each person on the right provincial tables, the PD7A balanced and T4s coded to the correct province. A large unionized shift workforce needs a dedicated payroll platform instead, and we will point you to one. For anything short of that, the fee is agreed before work starts.
Remote payroll
Vancouver payrolls run online. There is no Vancouver office and no local staff. For a team spread across provinces that is the natural fit anyway: pay data, TD1s and approvals move through a secure upload link and e-signature, not a boardroom.
What a lender or a shareholder actually reads is year-end statements in Vancouver.
The year end this all feeds into is Vancouver.
Remittances in more than one province still leave one bank account, so map them on the cash forecast payroll sits on.
Statutory holiday pay
BC stat pay applies to staff reporting to a BC establishment; a remote hire elsewhere follows that province’s holiday rules. For the BC side, qualifying staff get an average day’s pay, plus a premium for working the day. The BC stat pay calculator does the sums, and the qualifying rules are set out here.
In Vancouver, EverStone also works with e-commerce sellers, realtors and restaurants.
Multi-province payroll questions
Which province’s tax tables apply to a remote employee in another province?+
Does BC employer health tax apply to wages paid outside British Columbia?+
Could a Vancouver company owe employer payroll tax in two provinces?+
Do statutory holidays differ across provinces?+
Is there an EverStone office in Vancouver?+
Do we need workers’ compensation coverage in every province we hire in?+
What does payroll cost for a Vancouver business?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Vancouver businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Starting fees
Every fee is fixed in writing before any work begins.
- Payroll, remittances, T4s and ROEsincluded in monthly bookkeepingThis page
- Monthly bookkeeping, GST/PST filing includedfrom $325 a month
- Books, payroll and the year-end T2 together$500–$700 a month
- Corporate year-end and T2 returnfixed fee, quoted in writing
- Personal tax return (T1)from $125; self-employed or rental $275–$500
- Catch-up bookkeepingfrom $2,200 per year of records
- Controller or CFO supportcontroller from $1,650, CFO from $2,750 a month
- One-off advice call with a CPA$225 plus GST
