Dental office payroll in Canada: how to pay associates, hygienists, and front office teams

You’ve registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), figured out who you’re hiring, and now you need to actually run payroll. Depending on who’s on your team, it works a little differently for each role, and a dental practice usually has more variety than most small businesses.

Note: This guide covers payroll for dental practices operating outside Quebec. Quebec has its own rules, including QPP instead of CPP, QPIP premiums, and provincial tax remittances to Revenu Québec rather than the CRA. If your practice is in Quebec, Revenu Québec’s employer resources are a good starting point.

Your team at a glance

The first thing to sort out is how each person on your team is classified, because that determines everything: whether you’re making source deductions, which remittance obligations apply, and which year-end slip you’re issuing.

Classification must reflect the actual working relationship, not the label on the contract. See RC4110: Employee or self-employed for the CRA’s full framework.

How payroll works for each role

Hourly employees: hygienists and dental assistants

For hygienists and assistants, earnings is based on hours worked, so accurate time records matter every pay period. From there, income tax, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) for those under 65, and Employment Insurance (EI) come off the top, with you contributing the employer shares of CPP and EI additionally. The net amount goes to the employee; the deductions and employer contributions go to the CRA on remittance day. Payroll software handles the deduction calculations automatically using current CRA rates, which update each year.

Salaried employees: office managers and coordinators

Your office manager or front desk coordinator earns the same gross amount every pay period. Source deductions work identically to hourly employees, but because the number doesn’t change, this is the most straightforward payroll to set up and the easiest to — once it’s configured, tools like Wagepoint’s auto-run can handle it without you touching it each cycle.

Associate dentists as employees

Payroll runs the same as for any other employee. The fact that an associate is paid a percentage of billings rather than a flat salary doesn’t change the mechanics. Percentage-based pay is just how you calculate gross, and once you have that number, everything proceeds normally.

True contractors: associates and visiting specialists

If a team member genuinely operates independently, meaning they have multiple clients, use their own tools, and carry real financial risk, you pay the gross amount with no deductions or remittances on your end. Keep documentation that supports their independent status, including incorporation details, GST/HST registration information where applicable, and invoices for services rendered. In many cases, you’ll need to issue a T4A for fees for services over $500 in the calendar year, excluding GST/HST.

The associate dentist risk

Many dental practices pay associates as contractors, which is fine if the working relationship genuinely supports it. But the CRA looks at the substance of the arrangement rather than the contract label, and being paid a percentage of billings doesn’t settle the question. An associate who works exclusively at your practice, uses your equipment, sees your patients, and follows your schedule may be considered an employee depending on the overall working relationship, regardless of what the contract says.

For a full breakdown of how the CRA assesses classification, see Hiring your first employee at a Canadian dental practice.

Source deductions: what you’re withholding

Every time you pay an employee, you’re responsible for three types of deductions before the net amount reaches their account:

• Income tax is based on each employee’s TD1 forms — one federal, one provincial — completed at hire. If an employee doesn’t submit one, withhold based on the basic personal amount.
• CPP contributions require both an employee and employer portion. You deduct the employee’s share and match it. Since 2024, a second tier called CPP2 applies to earnings above the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE) up to the CPP2 ceiling — both employee and employer contribute to this as well.
• EI premiums are deducted from each paycheque and remitted to the CRA. As of 2026, your employer contribution is 1.4 times the employee’s premium amount, though this rate is subject to change annually.

Pro tip: Wagepoint calculates income tax, CPP, CPP2, and EI automatically using current CRA rates and remits to the CRA on your behalf.

CRA remittances: the deadlines and what happens if you miss them

Every pay period, the source deductions you’ve withheld, plus the employer shares of CPP and EI, need to go to the CRA. Most new businesses are monthly remitters, meaning amounts collected in a given month are due by the 15th of the following month.

Interest compounds daily from the due date with no grace period. Wagepoint tracks your remittance schedule and submits on your behalf as part of each payroll run, removing the manual step where things tend to go wrong.

Provincial employment standards

Your obligations depend on which province your practice operates in. Overtime thresholds, vacation pay rules, and stat holiday calculations all vary, and the differences matter more than most employers expect.

• Ontario: The overtime threshold is 44 hours per week, and vacation pay and vacation time are two separate obligations under the Employment Standards Act (ESA). Paying out vacation pay doesn’t satisfy your obligation to schedule actual vacation time.
• Alberta: Overtime applies to both daily and weekly hours. An employee who works nine hours in a single day is owed overtime for that extra hour even if their weekly total stays under 44 hours.
• All provinces: Stat holiday rules vary significantly in terms of both eligibility and pay calculations. For a full breakdown, see our guide to [statutory holidays pay rules and eligibility in Canada].

Pro tip: If your hygienists work across multiple practices, your obligations only apply to the hours they work for you.

Records of Employment

A Record of Employment (ROE) is required whenever an employee has an interruption of earnings: leaving the practice, going on parental leave, being laid off, or a significant reduction in hours. For electronic ROEs, you generally have five calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption occurs to file through Service Canada, though the exact timing depends on your pay cycle. Dental practices tend to encounter this more often than owners expect, particularly with hygienists on casual or per diem schedules. Payroll software that supports electronic ROE submission through Service Canada’s ROE Web system takes most of the manual work out of it.

Year end

By the last day of February, you need to file and distribute T4 slips for all employees and T4A slips for any contractors you paid more than $500 in fees during the year. Both go to the CRA and to each individual. Dental practices are likely to be filing both in the same cycle, given how common it is to have a mix of employed staff and contracted associates or visiting specialists on the same team. It’s worth confirming well before December which workers fall into which category so there are no surprises at year end. Payroll software that handles both T4 and T4A generation as part of the year-end process makes this considerably more straightforward.

Wagepoint is built for exactly this kind of payroll. Source deductions, remittances, ROEs, and year-end T4s and T4As, handled at a straightforward monthly price. See plans and pricing.

Frequently asked questions