UPDATED: How Bill 148 affects your organization

There have been a number of changes to employment standards in Ontario since the passing of Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017. As there are more changes becoming effective as of next month, it is a good time for organizations to review what’s already changed and what changes are still to come. We have highlighted some significant changes as of November 2017, December 2017, January 2018, April 2018, and upcoming in 2019.

November 2017

As of November 27, 2017, your organization should have already reviewed its classification of employee vs. contractor. We have noticed an uptick in the number of payroll audits among nonprofits. With stricter enforcement around classifications of who is an employee vs. who is an independent contractor (aka freelancer) now in effect with Bill 148, it is important that organizations thoughtfully review their decision-making process around defining an individual as an employee or as a contractor. Organizations should be prepared to  implement necessary changes. 

Factors to consider include:

• Control. An employee is directed by an employer; a contractor has a measure of control over what and how work is done (although they don’t have to exercise that control).
• Tools & Equipment. Employees who use tools and equipment do not own those items. Their employer should provide, maintain, and insure most of those tools. Employers can also reimburse employees for tools and equipment they have acquired for the job. 
• Subcontracting / hiring assistants. An employee cannot subcontract tasks or hire an assistant to do their work. A contractor can subcontract or hire help without approval of the payer.
• Financial risk. An employee’s expenses are reimbursed and generally has no financial risk. A contractor is self-employed and takes on financial risk with each engagement, should the contract go incomplete/unpaid.
• Responsibility for investment and management. An employee does not have a capital investment in the employer’s business. A self employed person generally has an established business, or a capital investment in the payor's business. 
• Opportunity for profit. An employee doesn’t gain profit or incur loss while doing their work, whereas self-employed individuals can take a loss or a profit in the course of a contract. 

Also as of November 2017, your organization should have updated its crime-related child death or disappearance leave. A child is defined as under 18 and can be a step-child or foster child. Employees qualify for this leave after 6 months of employment. It is an unpaid but protected leave of up to 104 weeks.

Employers should note that as of November 2017 the EI waiting period has been reduced from 2 weeks to 1 week, for those who have a reduced EI rate due to an STD (short-term disability) program. The government has provided employers 4 years from January 1, 2017 to have plans to accommodate the reduced wait period or the organization will risk losing the reduced EI rate. 

December 2017

As of December 3, 2017 employers need to have begun preparing to accommodate the following family-related job leaves: employees can now opt to take an extended parental leave (increased by an additional 26 weeks (61 weeks total). This could prove to be a popular option for parents in Ontario, where childcare availability and affordability are a huge challenge, especially for children under 18 months of age. It is important to note that once an employee chooses the parental benefit path (extended or non-extended) they cannot change paths at a later date. Also note that the EI coverage for parental leave is for the same amount, no matter the path chosen. In other words, the recipient will receive the same overall dollar amount whether the leave is 35 weeks or 61 weeks, but their biweekly payments will be more or less respectively. 

Also as of December 1, 2017, women can now take maternity leave up to 12 weeks prior to the birth of a child, and employees who are family caregivers are now able to take up to 15 weeks of unpaid, job protected leave.

January 2018

As of January 1, 2018, several changes related to wages and paid time off have come into effect, as well overtime, job leaves, and holiday pay, and record-keeping obligations. 

Your organization should now be accomodating the following changes related to wages and PTO:

• Minimum wage. Employees have a minimum wage of $14/hour. Student employees have a minimum wage of $13.15 (but if school is in session, they must work less than 28 hours / week to be eligible for this wage). So, if a student is working full time hours while school is in session, they are considered an employee, not a student employee, and are entitled to the full $14/hour minimum wage. The 28 hour per week limit does not apply on school holidays or during summer break.
• Vacation pay. New legislation means that every employee in Ontario is now entitled to 3 weeks (6%) vacation after 5 years of consecutive employment with a single employer.
• Overtime. Overtime pay must be paid out at the rate at which an employee was being paid at the time the overtime occurred. For employers, this means that overtime can no longer be calculated at a blended pay rate, and overtime pay cannot be paid out at, for example, the lower of an employee’s two pay rates. 
• Public holiday pay calculation. To determine the amount of stat holiday pay to pay out to an employee, an employer should now use the single pay period directly prior to the stat holiday to calculate the average daily wage (total gross earnings/number of days worked in that period). Some scenarios require employers to consider some additional factors:
  • For new hires, employers should use the current period to to determine the average daily wage, and pay that. UPDATE: The Ministry of Labour has announced that effective July 1, 2018, the ESA will be reverting back to the former statutory holiday calculation of 1/20 of the prior 4 weeks earnings as an interim measure while the public holiday changes to the ESA continue to be reviewed. This change is due to concerns arising from the Changing Workplaces Review, which found that "public holiday rules were the source of the most complaints under the ESA and needed to be simplified."  More info.
  • For anyone on approved leave in the pay period  prior to the stat, employers should use the pay period in which the individual last worked to determine the average daily wage.
  • When determining average daily wage use the gross earnings before statutory deductions. Do not include overtime pay, termination pay, severance and premium pay, vacation pay, personal emergency leave pay, domestic or sexual violence leave pay or pay for other public holidays.
  • The Statutory Holiday Calculator can be found here.

Employers also, as of January 2018, need to be prepared to provide to eligible employees 10 days of Personal Emergency Leave, the first two of which are paid. Employees are eligible after 1 week of consecutive employment. Employers are no longer allowed to to ask the employee for a physician’s note to validate the leave.

As well, employers should be prepared to accommodate Domestic and Sexual Violence leave to eligible employees. Employees are eligible after 13 weeks of employment. This is a job protected leave of up to 10 individual days, the first 5 of which are paid, and up to 15 weeks per calendar year for employees, or children of employees, who have experienced or been threatened with domestic or sexual violence.

As of January 2017, all organizations are now obliged to follow several new employee-related record-keeping measures. They should record:

• Dates and times employees are scheduled to work and changes to on call schedules
• Dates and times employees worked
• If an employee has two or more pay rates for worked performed in a pay week
• Any cancellations of scheduled days or work or on call periods and dates and times of those cancellations
• Vacation records for 5 years (instead of 3 years)

April 1, 2018

Upcoming as of April 1, 2018, organizations need to be prepared to issue equal pay for equal work. Part-time, casual, temporary, and seasonal employees must be paid the same as full-time permanent employees if they are doing essentially the same job. All organizations, including nonprofits, often with stretched budgets, will need to think carefully about how they rely on these types of workers and what they budget to pay them. A permanent, full-time employee cannot be paid more for the same task or set of tasks. Exceptions exist jobs paying by quantity or quality of work, or for merit or seniority systems, but these systems must be applied consistently. 

Possible changes coming in 2019

Although not yet confirmed by the government, organizations in Ontario should be prepared for the following in 2019:

WSIB review, which is proposed to 

• Update the 34 industry classifications
• Establish premium rates based on the collective experience of employers in the industry classification
• Set an employer’s actual premium based on individual employer experience based on individual company level of risk 

CPP Enhancements

• Starting in 2019 CPP contribution rate will increase each year until 2023 when it reaches 5.95%
• There will also be an additional enhanced earnings percentage of 4% for earnings between the yearly maximum and the new upper earnings beginning in 2024

Scheduling requirements

• Employees can request a location or schedule change after three months of employment, without penalization
• Employees can refuse shifts that an employer requests they take with less than 96 hours notice, without fear of retaliation
  • exceptions are made for dealing with an emergency, remedy, or reducing a threat to public safety, or continued delivery of an essential public service
• Employers must pay 3 hours wages to anyone who
  • regularly works more than 3 hours but has their shift is cut short
  • whose shift is cancelled without 48 hours notice from scheduled start time
  • is scheduled on call and is available to work but does not work at least 3 hours

An exception will be made when any of these situations arises from an event that is out of the employer’s control (eg. power failure, fire,) or if the employee works in a weather-related industry (eg. snow removal).

This tip sheet was created by Alicia McGuire of Young Associates. Founded in 1993, Young Associates delivers technical expertise and advisory services to support operational effectiveness of nonprofit and creative organizations. We invest in transformative technology and expert human capital to provide our customers progressive solutions in financial, data and information management, human resources, and strategic planning.

Disclaimer
 

Save yourself some pain: collect Tslip data and secure consent for e-distribution upon contract

One of the most painful parts of Tslip season is tracking down any missing information for recipients (e.g. SIN, address, email address) so that you can submit their tslip to the CRA and distribute their copy by the February 28 deadline. 

This can be particularly difficult with T4A recipients who are engaged on a short-term basis,  or who are living elsewhere and not in regular communication with your organization. Sometimes contract workers don’t file their income taxes on an annual basis, and therefore do not feel the same sense of urgency in regards to receiving their T4A on time… but when they’re ready to catch up, they don’t want to be delayed! 

The best way to avoid the pain is to collect all the necessary data upon engagement of the individual. Consider making full name, SIN, phone number, address, and email address standard fields on a contract, letter of agreement, or other initiating document so that you are ready for T-slip season before you pay the individual. 

And, since e-distribution of T4As, T4ANRs, and T5s (as well as certain T4s - click here for more info) requires consent from the recipient, add another standard field on your contracts to allow each individual to confirm their email address and opt in to receiving their tslip via e-distribution. 

Taking a bit of extra care at the contracting phase will save you a lot of frustration when February rolls around.  
 

New URL required on tax receipts

News from the CRA - Registered charities in Canada have until March 31, 2019 to update their tax receipt templates. As of then, all tax receipts must include the new web address for the charities directorate: canada.ca/charities-giving

Get more information from the CRA on how to format tax receipts here. 

How do I record a US$ or other foreign currency transaction?

Staff Post
By Heather Young

Accounting logic says that your financial statements must be denominated in one currency. Many organizations make regular payments to foreign artists, suppliers and others – so how can they record the transactions correctly?

Let’s take two cases.

In the first instance, let’s assume you only have a Canadian dollar bank account. That means you’re purchasing foreign currency (e.g. bank drafts or wire transfers) as needed. The bank calculates the cost in Canadian dollars by applying today’s exchange rate. This becomes your expense.

Suppose you’ve engaged an American soloist and agreed to pay them $2,500. The day you purchase the US draft, the US dollar is trading at 1.23. Your artist fee expense becomes 2,500 x 1.23 = $3,075.00, and you’ll see that amount being withdrawn from your Canadian bank account.

In this instance, the $2,500 US dollars don’t appear in your accounting records: the only value that counts is the Canadian equivalent. And, yes, that amount depends on the day! Yesterday the US dollar might have been worth 1.22 and tomorrow it might be 1.24! That doesn’t matter: what counts is the prevailing rate on the day of the transaction, because that determines how many Canadian dollars came out of your account. It is important to add a memo/note to the journal entry to indicate that the fee was $2,500 US dollars. This will create a link between the original fee agreement and the amount withdrawn from the bank, in case it is ever in question.

The process is different – and a little more complicated – if your organization owns a US dollar bank account. Now, the $2,500 US dollars must be part of your accounting entry, because that’s the number of US dollars you’re expending. Your accounting system must accomplish the following:

Record the number of units of the foreign currency you hold. (So, if you have $3,456 US dollars in the US bank account, that’s the number you should be looking at on your balance sheet.)
Record the correct value of that asset. (So, if you have $3,456 US dollars and today’s rate is 1.23, those US dollars are presently worth $3,456 x 1.23 = $4,250.88 Canadian.)
Record US revenues and expenses at the Canadian equivalent. (So, if you’re using $2,500 of those US dollars to pay your soloist, you must record an expense of $3,075 as calculated above.)

Many organizations deal with the problem by pairing the US bank account with a second asset account, named “Revalue US Dollars” or something similar. The foreign bank account captures the number of units of the foreign currency you hold. The paired account captures the difference in value to the Canadian dollar.

Thus, if your organization held $3,456 US dollars and the exchange rate was 1.23, the Revalue US Dollars account would contain $794.88.

Your entry to pay the American soloist would look like this:

This entry states the true cost of the soloist; it updates your US bank balance correctly; and it revalues your asset (those US bucks) according to today’s exchange rate.

Let’s take another example – a deposit. Suppose an American visitor paid for their ticket in US dollars. If they paid $45.00 US a day when the US dollar was worth 1.23, your entry would look like this:

Now: the face value of that ticket may have been some other amount. But, as a matter of fact, at today’s exchange rate you made $55.35 Canadian – so that becomes your revenue. 

As the month proceeds, you might have any number of transactions, each valued at the day’s exchange rate. Because the rate floats up and down, the amount in your “Revalue US Dollar” account eventually becomes inaccurate. For that reason, it’s important to “true up” the value of your US dollars from time to time. 

Many organizations would make a separate entry on the last day of the month to update their US currency to the month-end rate. 

Using the examples above, we started with $3,456.00 US dollars. We spent $2,500.00 and deposited $45.00 – bringing the account balance to $1,001.00. 

And, the Revalue US Dollar account started at $794.88; we subtracted $575.00 and added 10.35, bringing the account balance to 230.23.

Let’s say that the exchange rate on the last day of the month was 1.25. At that rate, our $1,001.00 is actually worth $1,251.25. Our month-end balance sheet misstates the value of the US dollars. The following entry “trues up” to the current Canadian equivalent. 

Note that this adjustment isn’t tied to any particular transaction: it simply corrects for the month-end exchange rate. The “pick-up” is allocated to a revenue account that specifically captures currency gain or loss. In months when the US dollar increases in value, you show a gain, because your “greenbacks” are worth more. But, when the Canadian dollar surges, you show a loss on your American currency.

These techniques allow you to have a foreign currency bank account – while still ensuring that your asset, and your revenues and expenses, are properly stated at their Canadian values. 
 

ONCA on track for 2020

The Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act (ONCA), the proclamation of which has been delayed over the past several years, is in track to come into force in early 2020. 

According the the Government of Ontario, they are upgrading technology to support the changes and service delivery, and aiming for proclamation of the Act in early 2020. An announcement now gives not-for-profits 24 months' notice before enforcement.

The Government promises to provide further details and a 3 year transition period after ONCA is in force, for organizations to make necessary changes to their governing documents. They also promise to help support a smooth implementation.

Source: Government of Ontario Rules for not-for-profit and charitable corporations

New Creative Facilities Tax Class in Toronto

On December 6, 2017, Toronto City Council voted to establish a new property tax class for "Creative Co-Location Facilities". This is intended to provide some arts facilities (e.g. 401 Richmond, Artscape) in Toronto significant relief against property taxes pegged to market values, and to ensure that creative hubs are able to maintain their activity in vibrant and developing neighbourhoods. The new property tax class is in effect as of the 2018 taxation year. 

Read more here, here, here, and here.