When our Firm sees a spike in Ontario Employer Health Tax (“EHT”) files, we know that something is up. And this may not bode well for employers that have traditionally viewed Ontario’s relatively low-rate EHT as an unimportant tax, delegating its compliance to payroll providers, staff members, and others.
Background
Ontario’s EHT is an employer liability payroll tax imposed on total Ontario remuneration paid to current and former employees. With the employer’s “exemption amount” (recently raised to $1,000,000 for most “eligible employers” until 2029), the effective rate is exceedingly low. For example, a payroll of $2,000,000 would give rise to less than $20,000 in annual EHT. Not really enough to keep anyone up at night and definitely not enough to build a fabulous law practice out of!