Question 1

What do payroll services cost in Ottawa?

Accepted Answer

A single flat monthly amount, scaled to how many people you pay and how often, locked in writing before the first cycle, with HST inside the price and nothing billed by the hour. Setup comes free with ongoing service, T4 season and ROEs sit inside the fee, and bookkeeping can be added from $150/month. Our pricing calculator produces your exact quote; please give it two minutes.

Question 2

We are behind on payroll remittances. How do we come back from that?

Accepted Answer

In a sequence, and starting it yourself is worth real money. First we establish the true arrears from your records and the CRA's, because the two rarely agree. Second, the outstanding amounts are remitted to stop the daily interest. Third, the penalty and interest exposure gets priced honestly so nothing surprises you. Fourth, where illness, disaster or events beyond your control played a part, a Taxpayer Relief request asks the CRA to waive some of the cost. Last, the calendar is rebuilt so the account stays current permanently.

Question 3

The CRA letters have been piling up unopened. How bad is this?

Accepted Answer

Less catastrophic than the pile suggests, and worse every month it grows. Most of those envelopes are statements, mismatch notices and demands that each had a cheap answer when sent. We open everything, build the actual position from the CRA's own records, deal with each item in order of consequence, and put you back to a state where mail from the agency is boring. The recovery is routine work for us; the avoidance is what compounds.

Question 4

What is a Taxpayer Relief request and do we qualify?

Accepted Answer

A formal application asking the CRA to cancel or waive penalties and interest where circumstances beyond your control caused the failure: serious illness, death in the family, disaster, CRA error or delay, or severe financial hardship in limited cases. It does not erase the tax itself, and it is not granted for simple oversight. We assess your facts honestly before filing, prepare the submission where grounds exist, and tell you plainly when they do not.

Question 5

What is a PIER review?

Accepted Answer

The CRA's annual Pensionable and Insurable Earnings Review, which recalculates whether the CPP and EI reported on your T4s match what the rules required and bills you for shortfalls, employer and employee shares alike. PIER letters usually trace to configuration errors: wrong exemptions, missed pensionable benefits, mid-year setup mistakes. We respond to the review, fix the cause, and run the reconciliation that stops the next one before it starts.

Question 6

What happens in a payroll trust examination?

Accepted Answer

A CRA examiner reviews whether the source deductions you withheld were actually remitted, on time and in full, working through your registers, bank records and the payroll account. Because withheld amounts are trust money, shortfalls escalate quickly toward director liability. We represent you through the examination, produce the records in the form examiners expect, settle what is genuinely owed and push back on what is not.

Question 7

Can the CRA pursue me personally for the company's payroll arrears?

Accepted Answer

For unremitted source deductions, yes. Those amounts belong to the Crown from the moment they come off an employee's pay, and directors can be assessed personally for the full shortfall plus penalties and interest when the corporation does not remit, an exposure that survives dissolving the company. It is precisely why arrears are worth fixing on your initiative rather than the CRA's timeline.

Question 8

Who sets how often we remit, and can it change?

Accepted Answer

The CRA sets it from your average monthly withholding: under $25,000 remits by the 15th of the following month, $25,000 to $99,999 twice monthly on the 25th and 10th, $100,000 and above within three business days of each pay date, and clean small employers under $3,000 can qualify for quarterly. It changes each January when the CRA re-averages, usually without effective notice, so we verify your band from the account every year.

Question 9

What penalties attach to a late remittance?

Accepted Answer

3% at one to three days late, 5% at four to five, 7% at six to seven, 10% beyond a week, and 20% where the failure repeats or is wilful, each late payment counting as its own event, with interest compounding daily at a prescribed rate that resets quarterly. The arithmetic is exactly why an account a few months behind needs the arrears remitted first and questions answered second.

Question 10

What is the PD7A and why does it matter to a business in recovery?

Accepted Answer

The CRA's own statement of your payroll account, and in a cleanup it is the ground truth we reconcile everything against. Going forward it becomes the early-warning system: pulled monthly, matched line by line against the register, differences resolved while they are five-minute fixes. Accounts that stay reconciled do not drift back into arrears, which is the entire point.

Question 11

When are T4s due, and what if past years were never filed?

Accepted Answer

Current-year T4s are due the last day of February, with late filing penalized per slip from $100 upward. Missing past years get filed as part of the cleanup: we reconstruct the wage history from bank records and registers, prepare the outstanding slips and summaries, and reconcile them to what the CRA actually received. Old slips filed with a plan cost far less than the same facts surfacing in an examination.

Question 12

Some staff were paid partly in cash. Can that be repaired?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and repairing it early is dramatically cheaper than defending it later. We rebuild the true wage history, quantify and remit the source deductions that should have come off, file the missing or amended slips, and move everyone onto documented direct deposit. The CRA treats voluntary correction very differently from discovery, and the difference is measured in penalties.

Question 13

An employee's SIN or TD1 was never collected. Does it matter?

Accepted Answer

It matters at exactly the wrong moment: reviews, PIER letters and slip filing all assume the basics exist. Part of any cleanup, and every fresh setup, is the boring foundation: SINs verified, federal and Ontario TD1s signed and stored, banking confirmed, addresses current. Five minutes per employee at hire, or hours per employee in an examination.

Question 14

Several of our staff live in Gatineau. Whose rules apply?

Accepted Answer

Payroll follows the province of employment, not the employee's home. Staff who report to your Ottawa establishment are on Ontario payroll even if they live across the river; their Quebec residency is their personal tax matter, and they may adjust their own withholding position accordingly. Only when you operate an establishment in Quebec and people report to work there do Revenu Quebec's parallel accounts, remittances and slips enter the picture. We set each situation up correctly from the start.

Question 15

What does an employee cost beyond the wage?

Accepted Answer

Wages plus the employer layer: matching every CPP dollar, EI at 1.4 times the employee premium, WSIB premiums on insurable earnings in most industries, and Employer Health Tax once Ontario payroll passes the exemption, which associated corporations share as one group. We put the loaded figure in front of you before the hire, so the budget reflects the whole commitment.

Question 16

Is WSIB something an Ottawa office or shop must carry?

Accepted Answer

Most Ontario industries are mandatory-coverage from the first hire, with registration due promptly, premiums by classification, and an annual reconciliation to actual earnings. Some sectors sit outside it, so we confirm your classification rather than assume, register where required, and keep clearance certificates ready where contracts demand them. Lapsed WSIB accounts get caught up inside the same cleanup.

Question 17

When does Employer Health Tax reach us?

Accepted Answer

Once Ontario remuneration passes the exemption available to eligible private employers, with returns to the Ontario Ministry of Finance, not the CRA. It is the obligation most often discovered by assessment letter, because nothing federal ever mentions it. We monitor the threshold through the year, register when the numbers cross it, and file the annual return even in nil years.

Question 18

Can you run the owner's pay properly too?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and in a cleanup the owner's pay is often the messiest thread: informal transfers, no T4, no deductions. We put a documented wage through payroll where salary is the right answer, coordinate it with dividends where the blend serves better, and remodel the split annually beside the corporate return. Lenders, RRSP room and CPP credits all flow from getting this one right.

Question 19

Salary or dividends, which way should the owner lean?

Accepted Answer

On numbers, annually. Salary deducts corporately, builds RRSP room and CPP entitlement, and reads cleanly for mortgage lenders; dividends skip payroll costs and build neither. Age, cash needs, the corporation's income and the retirement picture all move the split, which is why we rerun it each year rather than inheriting last year's answer.

Question 20

Which payroll platform do you put clients on?

Accepted Answer

Wagepoint for most, or QuickBooks Online or Xero payroll where the books already live there. What matters is the configuration underneath: current tables, correct province per person, benefits valued monthly, and every run posting automatically to the ledger so the books and the slips can never drift apart again.

Question 21

How are bonuses and irregular payments handled?

Accepted Answer

Inside the payroll system, in the cycle paid, with correct withholding, every time. Side payments are how clean accounts start drifting: they skip the deduction math, miss the slips, and surface as February mismatches. One rule, no exceptions, keeps the reconciliation trivially true all year.

Question 22

Do taxable benefits really need monthly attention?

Accepted Answer

They do, because the alternative is reconstruction. Personal vehicle use, parking, allowances, certain premiums and more-than-token gifts each carry a value belonging in income, the withholding math and the right slip box. Valued in the month provided, they are a line item; assembled in February, they are the error source PIER reviews feed on.

Question 23

What paperwork follows a departure or layoff?

Accepted Answer

A Record of Employment to Service Canada within the required window on any interruption of earnings: quits, dismissals, layoffs, illness, leaves. Errors delay the employee's EI and return as follow-up. ROEs generate straight off our payroll data as departures happen, including the backlog cleanup when we inherit unfiled ones.

Question 24

Can we switch to you mid-year without disruption?

Accepted Answer

Smoothly, if the order of operations is respected. Year-to-date figures come across first and get proven against the CRA's account before any new cycle runs, so February's slips reconcile across both providers' portions. After that verification, your staff experience nothing but payday on schedule.

Question 25

How fast can a rescue engagement start?

Accepted Answer

The assessment starts the week you engage us: authorization filed with the CRA, the account position pulled, the arrears quantified and the sequence agreed. Regular cycles resume in parallel within days once employee details, TD1s and banking arrive. Momentum matters in a cleanup, because the interest clock never pauses.

Question 26

How do employees receive their pay?

Accepted Answer

Direct deposit on your chosen dates, digital statements each person accesses independently, and a bank trail that matches the register to the penny. In recovery situations that trail is what proves, cheaply, exactly who was paid what, which is precisely the question examinations ask.

Question 27

Who at your firm sees our payroll information?

Accepted Answer

Only the engagement team. Files travel through encrypted systems and our secure portal, never as loose attachments, and SINs, banking and compensation sit under CPA Ontario's confidentiality rules, which bind licensed firms beyond ordinary practice. Discretion holds equally for the cleanup work and the routine cycles after.

Question 28

Which parts of Ottawa do you serve?

Accepted Answer

All of them, from our Neepawa Avenue office: ByWard Market, Kanata, Nepean, Orleans, Barrhaven, Westboro, Hintonburg, The Glebe, Centretown, Gloucester, Vanier, Stittsville, Alta Vista and Sandy Hill, plus the wider National Capital Region. The engagement runs through our secure portal with evening availability, so distance never enters it.

Question 29

Is bundling bookkeeping with payroll worthwhile after a cleanup?

Accepted Answer

Especially after one. Payroll journals land automatically in books we keep, slips agree with accounts we prepared, WSIB and EHT filings pull from the same records, and the owner's remuneration is planned beside the corporate return. The drift that created the arrears becomes structurally impossible, and the bundle costs less than separate providers.

Question 30

How do we get started?

Accepted Answer

Please book a free consultation and tell us the honest state of things: headcount, pay rhythm, how far behind the account is if at all, and whether CRA letters are waiting. We pull the real position, sequence the fix if one is needed, and send a written flat-fee quote with HST included. Onboarding starts the same week you accept. Book Free Consultation

Band	Average Monthly Withholding	Remittance Deadline
Quarterly	Under $3,000, clean history	15th after the quarter ends
Regular	Under $25,000	15th of the month after
Accelerated Threshold 1	$25,000 to $99,999	25th and 10th by pay-period timing
Accelerated Threshold 2	$100,000 plus	Within 3 business days of each pay date

How Late	Penalty
1 to 3 days	3% of the amount due
4 to 5 days	5% of the amount due
6 to 7 days	7% of the amount due
Over 7 days	10% of the amount due
Repeated or wilful	20% of the amount due

Included	What We Do
Rescue assessment	CRA account position pulled, arrears quantified, cleanup sequenced in writing.
Payroll cycles	Current tables, ESA formulas, direct deposit, digital statements every run.
Remittances	Band verified from the account, deadlines met, PD7A reconciled every month.
Reviews and exams	PIER responses and trust examination representation, causes fixed after.
Slip season and ROEs	T4s tied to CRA records and filed by February's close; ROEs per departure, backlogs cleared.
WSIB, EHT and owner pay	Provincial layer maintained; the salary-dividend split remodelled each year.

Service	Fee	Frequency	Details
Setup or Takeover	FREE	One-time	Account registration or takeover, TD1s, band verification, YTD proof.
Payroll Service	Flat monthly, quoted upfront	Monthly	Every cycle, remittance window, PD7A match, ROE and provincial filing covered.
Monthly Bookkeeping Add-On	From $150/month	Monthly	Books that absorb every payroll journal automatically.
Slip Season	Included	Annual	T4s reconciled to the CRA's records and transmitted before February closes.
Rescue, Relief & Exam Work	Quoted upfront	As needed	Arrears cleanup, Taxpayer Relief submissions, PIER responses, trust exam representation.

#	Strategy	Why It Pays
1	Open every CRA envelope the week it arrives	Nearly every payroll disaster was once a letter with a cheap answer.
2	If behind, remit the arrears before negotiating anything	Interest compounds daily; stopping the clock outranks every other move.
3	Document the hardship as it happens	Taxpayer Relief runs on contemporaneous evidence, not recollection.
4	Answer PIER letters on the math, then fix the cause	Paying without fixing guarantees the same letter next year.
5	Confirm the remitter band from the account each January	Recovering employers on the wrong schedule rebuild the debt they just cleared.
6	Reconcile the PD7A monthly, forever	Reconciled accounts do not drift, and drift is how arrears begin.
7	Keep every payment inside the payroll system	Off-system wages are tomorrow's reconstruction project.
8	Hire Gatineau residents without fear	Reporting to an Ottawa workplace means standard Ontario payroll applies.
9	Put the owner's pay through payroll properly	Documented wages build RRSP room, CPP credits and lender-ready income.
10	Treat trust money as untouchable	It is the one liability that follows directors past the corporation's end.

Payroll Services Ottawa

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Our Ottawa Payroll Services

Payroll Rescue & Arrears

Taxpayer Relief Requests

PIER & Trust Exam Defence

Payroll Processing

Remittances & PD7A

Slips, ROEs, WSIB & EHT

From Behind to Boring: How the Engagement Runs

The Honest Position

Stopping the Clock

Clawing Back What the Facts Allow

The Steady Cycle

The Calendar That Holds

February and the Provincial Layer

Free Ottawa Payroll Consultation

Free Ottawa Payroll Consultation

Ottawa Payroll Case Studies

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Why Ottawa Employers Choose Gondaliya CPA

Rescue Experience

Licensed CPA Ontario

AFFORDABLE Flat Fee

An Ottawa Address

Transparent Ottawa Payroll Pricing

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Our Ottawa Office

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Meet Your Ottawa Payroll Team

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Vandana Goel, CPA

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