Payroll Software for Quebec Accounting Firms
Remitter types, remittance schedules and slip season tracked per client.
Payroll software for Quebec accounting firms means tracking the work rather than keeping the books: Quebec clients carry GST + QST at 14.975% combined, and every corporate file runs a T2 six months after its fiscal year-end with the balance due earlier. SpidNums puts those obligations on one colour-coded board, hosted in Canada.
Combined GST + QST rate in Quebec
CRA
Quebec small-business rate on the first $500,000
TaxTips.ca, 2026
Federal small-business rate on the first $500,000
CRA
Small employer businesses in Quebec
ISED, December 2024
How does payroll software work for firms in Quebec?
Revenu Québec administers both the GST/HST and the QST in Quebec under an agreement with the federal government — the only province where the provincial revenue agency collects the federal tax. Quebec registrants report GST and QST together to Revenu Québec, not to the CRA.
Payroll is where Quebec's two-administration structure bites hardest. Quebec employers remit provincial source deductions to Revenu Québec alongside the federal remittance to the CRA, so a single Quebec payroll client generates two remittance relationships on two schedules — and the firm needs both modelled as separate obligations with their own reminders.
What is different about running a practice in Quebec?
Four things a firm working Quebec files should be able to state without looking them up. Each is verified against a primary source, linked at the foot of this page.
Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec is the provincial body; 228,622 of Quebec's 233,235 employer businesses were small businesses as of December 2024.
- Two tax administrations, every client — A Quebec corporation files a T2 with the Canada Revenue Agency and a CO-17 with Revenu Québec. A Quebec individual files a T1 with the CRA and a TP-1 with Revenu Québec. Every Quebec engagement carries two filing relationships instead of one.
- Revenu Québec collects the GST too — Quebec is the only province where the provincial revenue agency administers the federal GST/HST alongside its own QST, so Quebec registrants report both taxes to Revenu Québec.
- A lower personal instalment threshold — Quebec residents must pay personal tax instalments when net tax owing exceeds $1,800, against $3,000 for residents of every other province and territory — so more Quebec clients are instalment clients.
- Bill 96 francization obligations — Under Quebec's Law 14 (Bill 96), businesses with 25 or more employees in Quebec for six months must register with the OQLF and undergo francization, covering workplace communications, tools and IT systems. Non-compliance carries fines and exclusion from Quebec government contracts.
Which CRA deadlines apply?
These rules are federal and apply in every province and territory. Where a due date falls on a weekend or public holiday, the CRA treats the next business day as on time — compute the shifted date each year rather than carrying the calendar forward.
| Filing | Applies to | Filing deadline | Payment | If it is late |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll source deduction remittances | All employers. Frequency is set by the average monthly withholding amount (AMWA) from two years prior. | Quarterly remitters (AMWA under $3,000 with a clean compliance record, and eligible new small employers) remit by the 15th of the month after each calendar quarter. Regular remitters (AMWA under $25,000) remit by the 15th of the month following the month deductions were made. Accelerated Threshold 1 remitters (AMWA $25,000 to $99,999.99) remit by the 25th for pay periods ending the 1st to 15th, and by the 10th of the following month for periods ending the 16th to month-end. Accelerated Threshold 2 remitters (AMWA $100,000 or more) remit within three working days after each of four weekly periods, through a Canadian financial institution. | Not applicable | 3% for amounts one to three days late, 5% for four to five days, 7% for six to seven days, and 10% where more than seven days late or not remitted. A second or subsequent failure in the same calendar year, made knowingly or through gross negligence, carries a 20% penalty. |
| T4, T4A and T5 information returns | Every employer (T4), payers of pensions, annuities and fees for services (T4A), and payers of investment income (T5). | File the slips and summary with the CRA and distribute copies to recipients by the last day of February following the calendar year. Where that date falls on a weekend or public holiday, the next business day applies — compute the shifted date rather than assuming it. | Not applicable | A graduated late-filing penalty based on the number of slips and days late: a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $7,500, on a per-day scale that rises by tier. It is not a flat per-slip amount. |
Managing payroll software across a client book in Quebec
Payroll compliance is a scheduling problem before it is a calculation problem: the CRA assigns each employer a remitter type, the type sets the deadline, and the type changes.
A six-person Montreal practice models every corporate client as three obligations rather than one: the federal T2, the Quebec CO-17, and a combined GST/QST return filed with Revenu Québec. Personal clients carry two returns, T1 and TP-1. The failure mode is not forgetting a deadline — it is maintaining two calendars that quietly disagree, so the practice keeps both administrations' dates on a single board and sends client correspondence in the client's language on the firm's own letterhead.
How SpidNums handles it
SpidNums models the firm as clients, services and work. Assigning a typed service to a Quebec client is what generates the recurring projects, the stages and the reminders — the cadence is recorded once rather than remembered each period.
Every open obligation is then ranked by how close its due date sits and coloured accordingly, so the morning question — what is late, what is close, what is fine — is answered by looking.
- Remitter type modelled as the client's payroll service cadence
- Recurring remittance projects generated on the right schedule
- Slip-season projects opening in January for the February deadline
- Assignment per payroll clerk with live workload
- Reminders that fire before, not after, the remittance date
- One-field cadence change when the CRA reassigns a client
Where this goes wrong
Payroll failures are almost always calendar failures rather than calculation failures — the number was right and the date was wrong.
- The CRA reassigns a client's remitter type and the firm keeps remitting on the old schedule.
- A remittance lands three days late — the difference between a 3% and a 10% penalty.
- Slip season starts in February instead of January, so December payroll data is chased against a deadline instead of ahead of it.
- A seasonal employer's payroll service stays active out of season, or worse, stays inactive when the season starts.
What SpidNums does not do
SpidNums does not calculate payroll or file remittances. It tracks which client owes what and when, so the work reaches your payroll system on time.
If your firm already runs a tracking system it trusts, the honest answer is that you do not need this one. The pages on this site are written to help you decide, not to pretend every firm has the same problem.
Payroll Software in nearby provinces
Also for Quebec firms
Related guides
Quebec overview
Frequently asked questions
What is the GST + QST rate in Quebec?
Quebec charges 5% GST plus 9.975% provincially, for 14.975% combined. Revenu Québec administers both the GST/HST and the QST in Quebec under an agreement with the federal government — the only province where the provincial revenue agency collects the federal tax. Quebec registrants report GST and QST together to Revenu Québec, not to the CRA.
What corporate tax rates apply in Quebec?
Quebec's provincial small-business rate is 3.2% on the first $500,000 of active business income, and its general provincial rate is 11.5%. Those sit on top of the federal rates — 9% federally on the first $500,000 and 15% federally on general income. Quebec's small-business rate falls from 3.2% to 2.2% for taxation years beginning after April 29, 2026.
What happens when the CRA changes a client's remitter type?
The remitter type is modelled as the client's payroll service cadence, so changing it is a one-field edit. Next period's remittance projects and reminders are generated from the corrected rule rather than from a list someone wrote down last year.
Is client data stored in Canada?
Yes. SpidNums hosts client data in Canada, in the ca-central-1 region, with row-level tenant isolation, an append-only audit log and staff roles that support confidential-client gating.
Does SpidNums run payroll or file the remittance?
No. SpidNums does not calculate payroll and does not file remittances or slips. It models each client's remitter type as a service cadence, generates the work on the right schedule and assigns it — the calculation and the filing happen in your payroll system.
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