Employer Levies covers the two payroll costs that are never withheld from anybody and never appear on a T4: workers' compensation premiums and the employer health tax. Because nothing on a payslip shows them, they are easy to forget until an assessment arrives with interest. This screen works out what each costs for the year, province by province, from the rates you enter. It also shows any share of an EI premium reduction that your employees are owed.
This screen is available in Canadian companies only.
Open it
- Employees ▸ Employer Levies
The screen is titled Employer levies, with the current year as its subtitle.
How the levies are worked out
Workers' compensation
The premium is your board's rate per $100 of assessable payroll. Assessable earnings are capped per employee at the province's maximum for the year, so one employee on $200,000 counts only up to the ceiling, while two employees on $100,000 each count in full. Your board classifies you by industry and sends you the rate in writing; SeroBooks cannot look it up.
Employer health tax
Only five provinces levy one: Ontario (Employer Health Tax), British Columbia (Employer Health Tax), Manitoba (Health and Post-Secondary Education Tax Levy), Quebec (Health Services Fund contribution) and Newfoundland and Labrador. Each has its own shape:
- Ontario grades the rate by total payroll and gives an exemption to eligible employers. The rate is chosen from payroll before the exemption and applied to payroll after it.
- British Columbia and Manitoba charge nothing up to the exemption, a higher rate on the excess through a notch, and a flat rate on the whole payroll above the ceiling.
- Quebec has no exemption; the rate is graded on total payroll and applied to all of it.
Exemptions are tested on the associated group, not only on your company: two companies under common control each with $700,000 of payroll are a $1.4 million group. Where the group figure matters and has not been recorded, SeroBooks does not assume an exemption.
The health tax is calculated only when Registered for the employer health tax is ticked for the province.
The levies table
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Where | The province. A row appears for each province you have payroll in. |
| Assessable payroll | Payroll assessable for workers' compensation, after each employee's cap. |
| WCB rate | Your rate per $100, or a dash if none is set. |
| WCB owed | The workers' compensation premium for the year. |
| EHT owed | The employer health tax for the year. |
| Total | WCB plus EHT. |
If no rates are set, the table reads No rates are set. Add them under Setup.
Double-click a row to open Employer levy rates for that province with its current figures filled in.
The table has the usual search, sorting, filters, Columns, Email and Export controls.
Set the rates for a province
- Press Set rates (or double-click the province's row).
- Fill in the Employer levy rates window.
- Press Save, or Cancel to close without saving.
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Province (required) | The two-letter code: BC, ON, AB and so on. |
| WCB rate per $100 | From your board's assessment notice, for example 1.85. Left blank, workers' compensation is not calculated for the province. |
| WCB account number | Your account number with the board. |
| EHT account number | Your employer health tax account number. |
| Registered for the employer health tax | Tick if you are registered in this province. Off, the health tax is not calculated at all. |
If Province is empty when you save, SeroBooks says Which province is this rate for?
EI premium reduction owed to employees
An employer with a short-term disability (wage-loss) plan approved by Service Canada pays EI at a reduced rate. Five-twelfths of that saving belongs to the employees the plan covers; returning it is a condition of the program. Nothing else in a payroll would notice it being kept, because it shows up only as a smaller cost.
When any share is owed, a red banner above the levies table says how many employees are owed their share, followed by a table:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Employee | The employee's name. |
| Share owed | Their share of the reduction. |
| From run | The pay run it arose in. |
| (button) | Returned |
To record that you returned a share:
- Press Returned on the employee's row.
- In Record the share returned to name, choose Returned as: Paid in cash, As an enhanced benefit, or Another way.
- Press Record it. SeroBooks records it with today's date.
Recording how each share was returned is what makes it provable at an audit. Most employers have no approved plan, and for them this section never appears.
What happens in the books
The figures on this screen are what you owe the board and the province for the year. Recording rates here does not post anything to the ledger; pay the board and the health tax as they bill you, and record those payments in your books as you normally would.
Permissions
| Action | Permission |
|---|---|
| Set rates | Set Levy Rates under Payroll ▸ Employer Levies |
| Returned (EI premium reduction) | Record a Remittance under Payroll ▸ Remittances |
Without the permission, SeroBooks asks someone whose role has it to approve.
Common problems
- A province is missing from the table. Nobody paid in the year's pay runs is employed there. Rows follow the provinces you have payroll in.
- WCB owed is zero. No rate is entered for that province. Press Set rates.
- EHT owed is zero. You are not marked as registered for the province, your payroll is under the exemption, or the province has no health tax.
- The screen shows an error. The message says why, with a Setup button that opens Payroll Setup.