Brown Envelope Relief

A helpful reader points out that on the Canada Revenue Agency’s Late remitting / Failure to remit page has been updated with a new penalty structure:

For remittances and payments that are due after February 26, 2008 and under proposed changes, the 10% penalty below will be replaced by a graduated penalty as follows:

• 3% if the amount is one to three days late;
• 5% if it is four or five days late;
• 7% if it is six or seven days late; and
• 10% if it is more than seven days late.

This means, for example, that a $4000 payment that’s a day late will now exact a $120 penalty instead of a $400 penalty. Which is welcome relief for someone like me who is inevitably late with payroll remittances at least once a year.