Alan Friesen here certified Employee Benefits specialist with another tip to help you get the best value out of your employee benefit program. This one I guess is more of a cautionary tale than a tip. the Canada Revenue Agency has some rules that they use to determine if somebody is an employee or somebody on contract. So why does that matter to you? Here's why. If you add people on to your employee benefit program, who you regard as a contractor, they regard themselves as a contractor.

That might be something that tips the the scale in terms of Canada Revenue Agency saying no, no, you're an employee, he not a contractor. Basically, they have a list of 10 items that they look at, who controls the work, who owns the tools, who decides where to go where those kind of things, one of those is it If that individual is on the Employee Benefit Program of the employer. So here's the concern. you regard the person as being a contractor. They regard themselves as a contractor. Later on Canada Revenue Agency does a review, and they tick off their little list.

And then the one about them being on the Employee Benefit Program means that they regard the person as an employee, not a contractor. Now it happens, they go back 234 years and say you owe you owe CPP. So, obviously, that's a situation you want to avoid. So you can include contractors on your employee benefit program, but the question is, will CRA still buy the argument that they are a contractor if they are on your employee benefit program? So if I can help you with any additional information, look me up. I'm on LinkedIn and Google Plus, or give me a call and I would gladly help you.

Thank you much.