# Setting up an employee - payroll question



## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I'm hiring an employee who used to be a contractor. I'm going to set up the whole payroll stuff with the government to make remittences for taxes, CPP etc.

My question is - I've already made a couple of payments to this person earlier this year. Can I backdate the "hiring date" for this employee to Jan 1, 2010 and then include those payments so I can pay taxes, CPP on them?

I had intended to do this near the beginning of the year but I didn't.


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## JAV (Mar 14, 2010)

I hired my first employee about six months ago, so I'm new, but here is what I know.

You can remit taxes/CPP/EI etc, but you will liable to penalties for lateness. Taxes for January were due Feb 15th, for Feb it was March 15th, etc. You might get lucky and plead that you are new, first time, whatever, but I've noticed that Rev Can is pretty hungry these days. Don't forget that WSIB for Jan-Mar was due April 30.

Good luck!


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

JAV said:


> I hired my first employee about six months ago, so I'm new, but here is what I know.
> 
> You can remit taxes/CPP/EI etc, but you will liable to penalties for lateness. Taxes for January were due Feb 15th, for Feb it was March 15th, etc. You might get lucky and plead that you are new, first time, whatever, but I've noticed that Rev Can is pretty hungry these days. Don't forget that WSIB for Jan-Mar was due April 30.
> 
> Good luck!



Thanks. I still haven't done it yet. 

If I get around to it this year then I'll look at the penalties and decide if it's worth trying to include the older payments as an "employee".

Otherwise I'll just start doing the payroll deductions etc when I convert her over. It might not even happen this year.


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## Alexandra (Apr 3, 2009)

From another perspective...

It might make only a slight difference to you in terms of late penalties, but the difference can be huge for her. If she is laid off for some unforseen reason (something even you as her employer can't forsee), and she'd like to be paid EI, she needs to have a certain number of weeks as an employee (not a contractor) under her belt. Your delay could be what makes or breask that situation. It also (very minimally) will affect her CPP payouts later on when she retires.

It's not a big deal to get her set up - I was assigned my employer number online, and got the actual paperwork within a week or two. I can't imagine that the late fees would be very punative. There's a toll-free number you can call right on the government website, and the people there can answer all your questions for you.


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