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Opportunities: Taxation and financial reporting
No action recommended
Review annual Employer Health Tax reconciliation reporting
Status: No action recommended
What we heard
Companies must take time to re-submit Employer Health Tax (EHT) premium information through an annual reconciliation form, despite filing monthly records. This is also true of companies that use a third-party payroll service (e.g. Ceridian). As well, it is a burden for businesses to go to the effort of determining whether they owe EHT, only to discard the information if they find they do not need to submit as there is no opportunity for nil reporting.
Our plan
Annual returns are necessary since monthly reports may not capture all payments and do not provide essential information, such as exemption amounts claimed.
Where companies use payroll service providers, the provider can file returns on behalf of the company. The provider can file returns for multiple employers in a bulk file or individually for each employer, using Ontario’s online tax service ONT-TAXS online.
Current laws would have to be amended to require the filing of nil returns, which would increase complexity and red tape for businesses.
No further action will be taken on these items.