Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is a return to oral questions asked by Mr. Dent and Mr. Ballantyne on February 18, 1994. It concerns tax return forms and payroll tax calculations. Both Members raised questions concerning the wording used on the annual return to be filed by employers under the Payroll Tax Act.
Firstly, Mr. Dent was quite correct in stating that the form asks for the total amount of tax collected from each employee. Although this is a payroll tax form and the information requested was for payroll tax purposes only, it is understandable that this request might be misunderstood. It is also correct that the word "remuneration" is misspelled twice on this form. Madam Speaker, the spelling will be corrected and the wording on the forms will be revised to state, "Total amount of payroll tax collected from each employee."
Mr. Dent also questioned the purpose of asking for the name of each employee who worked in the NWT in the year. As I indicated on Friday, it is necessary to obtain payroll information on each employee to enable the government to cross-reference employee tax information and to report back to this Assembly on the effectiveness of the tax initiatives. The individual payroll tax information requested should be readily available from employer payrolls and is considerably less than employers have to report federally for income tax purposes.
Mr. Ballantyne also quite rightly noted that the payroll tax calculations described on the annual payroll tax return may be confusing. Although the annual return identifies that the "gross annual remuneration" is that remuneration subject to payroll tax, it may not be clear to some employers that this would be the earnings for the period July 1 to December 31, 1993, only. We will clarify this request on any follow-up correspondence and on any new forms issued to employers who have not already reported correctly. Thank you, Madam Speaker.