Ever since we’ve been paying the people who work with Oliver after school and on weekends, and making Canada Revenue Agency payroll remittances for them, I’ve been confused about one thing: what pay periods to include in my monthly remittances.

Take this week, for example: we paid Oliver’s workers last Friday, we’ll pay them this coming Friday, and the end of the month is today, in the middle. Do I include last week’s pay? This week’s pay? Only a part of this week’s pay?

The answer, helpfully explained over the phone by a CRA customer service agent, is really simple: you remit for the pay you paid out in the month you’re remitting for.

So today I’ll remit for the weeks ending February 2, 9, 16 and 23, because those all fell in February.

But I won’t include the week of March 2. Because that’s in March.

Problem solved.