Draft income tax legislation would implement budget proposals • Manitoba WCB to review assessment rate model • Quebec employers expect 2014 raises to mirror 2013: Employers Council • 2011 census data shows Ottawa-Gatineau region has highest median family income: StatsCan • Canadians with more than $1 million better off today than pre-recession: BMO • Number of Ontario minimum wage earners more than doubles in 8 years: Study
Draft income tax legislation would implement budget proposals
OTTAWA — Draft amendments to the Income Tax Act have been released by the Ministry of Finance that would implement some of the proposals put forward in this year’s federal budget.
The draft legislation includes a proposal to phase out the federal tax credit for labour-sponsored venture capital corporations (LSVCCs) over the next few years. When calculating federal income tax deductions, payroll practitioners subtract the LSVCC tax credit for the year, if applicable, from an employee’s annual basic federal tax.
The credit is the lesser of $750 and 15 per cent of the amount deducted or withheld during the year for the acquisition by the employee of approved shares of the capital stock of a prescribed LSVCC. The proposed amendments would reduce the amounts to $500 and 10 per cent in 2015, followed by $250 and five per cent in 2016. The tax credit would be fully eliminated by 2017.
The draft amendments would also allow registered pension plan (RPP) administrators to refund contributions to employers to correct “reasonable errors” without first needing the Canada Revenue Agency’s approval, as is now the case. Budget documents described reasonable errors as those where, for example, an employer erred in calculating a member’s or an employer’s contributions for a certain year.
The proposal would only apply if the administrator refunds the amount by Dec. 31 of the year after the year in which the contribution in question was made. If there is a refund of a member’s contributions, the draft amendments propose the refund be excluded from an employee’s income if the refund is made as a result of a reasonable error. It could also be excluded to avoid the revocation of registration of the RPP. The original contribution amount would not be deducted for the tax year in which the refund is made or for any earlier tax year.
Manitoba WCB to review assessment rate model
WINNIPEG — The Manitoba Workers Compensation Board (WCB) is setting up an advisory panel to review possible changes to the way in which the board sets employer assessment rates.
The panel, which will include employer representation, will look at changes such as reducing the gap between the upper and lower limits of the assessment rate range and reducing the speed at which an employer’s rate can move within the assessment rate range.
The WCB will also carry out what it calls a “comprehensive review” of the assessment rate model over the next year and a half.
Quebec employers expect 2014 raises to mirror 2013: Employers Council
MONTREAL — Quebec employers expect to award wage increases similar to what they were in 2013, according to a report published by the Quebec Employers Council (QEC).
The average wage increase employers expect is 2.8 per cent, while salary structures are expected to rise on average by 1.9 per cent, the report says.
Global economic uncertainty has led managers to be cautious from a remuneration standpoint, but the need to be able to rely on a quality, available labour force remains an issue as employers struggle to attract and hold on to employees with specific key competencies in certain sectors.
From a regional and sectoral standpoint, the expected wage increases in Alberta and Saskatchewan, along with the anticipated salary hikes in the oil and gas sector, remain the highest. However, the comparative gap is not overly significant, according to the QEC.
2011 census data shows Ottawa-Gatineau region has highest median family income: StatsCan
OTTAWA — Ottawa–Gatineau had the highest median total family income of all census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in 2011, according to Statistics Canada data derived from personal income tax returns. The median total family income in Ottawa-Gatineau was $93,440, before tax.
Calgary followed closely behind with a median total family income of$93,410. In Edmonton, the median was $91,860. This ranking has remained the same since 2009, but the gap between Ottawa–Gatineau and Calgary shrank considerably between 2010 and 2011.
At the national level, median total family income rose 0.5 per cent, with the majority of CMAs seeing a change of less than one per cent. This mirrors what happened in 2010.
Canadians with more than $1 million better off today than pre-recession: BMO
TORONTO — High-net-worth Canadians — with investible assets of $1 million or more — believe they are more financially secure today than they were before the 2008 recession, according to a study released by BMO Harris Private Banking.
The majority of affluent Canadians (54 per cent) feel they are better off now than they were before September 2008, with only 11 per cent saying they are worse off and 36 per cent reporting their financial situation is unchanged, the study found. This compares with 61 per cent of high-net-worth Americans reporting they are better off and only seven per cent stating they are worse off.
Number of Ontario minimum wage earners more than doubles in 8 years: Study
TORONTO — Major shifts in the economy have pushed more of Ontario’s workforce into minimum wage jobs — more than double the share from nearly a decade ago, an October study shows.
Nine per cent of Ontario workers earned the minimum wage in 2011, up from 4.3 per cent in 2003, according to the Wellesley Institute, a Toronto policy research organization that based its study on Statistics Canada data.
The other factor is the after-effects of the 2008 recession in the labour market, it said.
Certain population groups — such as women, recent immigrants and visible minority workers — were more likely to be working for minimum wage eight years later, according to the study.
