Voluntary Termination Compensation

The official signing of the CRPEG collective agreement occurred on 2012 October 25.

Members should expect to see their statement of entitlement from Human Resources within the next 3 months (by 2013 January 25).  Members have 6 months from the date of official signing (2013 April 25) to decide on which option to exercise.  As a reminder, the three options are as follows:

1. Take it all now at salary rate as of 2012 June 30.
2. Take it all at retirement or departure from AECL at the salary rate at time of departure.
3. Take some now and some later.

If you do nothing, then you are deemed to have chosen option 2.

CRPEG does not provide financial advice to members, nor will CRPEG be sponsoring any financial seminars.

The following information is from Canada Revenue Agency (www.cra.gc.ca):

Retiring Allowances:

There are situations when a person can transfer all or part of a retiring allowance to a registered pension plan (RPP) or a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). For more information, go to Transfer of a retiring allowance.

Transfer of a retiring allowance Employees with years of service before 1996 may be able to directly transfer all or part of a retiring allowance to a registered pension plan (RPP) or a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP). This part is commonly referred to as the eligible portion or the amount eligible for transfer. A retiring allowance may include an eligible portion and a non-eligible portion.

A retiring allowance may be paid over one or more years. The amounts paid in any particular year may be transferred to an RRSP or an RPP. The amounts transferred cannot exceed the employee’s eligible portion of the retiring allowance minus the eligible portion transferred by you in a prior year.

The amount that is eligible for transfer under section 60(j.1) of the Income Tax Act is limited to:

• $2,000 for each year or part of a year before 1996 that the employee or former employee worked for you (or a person related to you); plus
• $1,500 for each year or part of a year before 1989 of that employment in which none of your contributions to the RPP or deferred profit sharing plan (DPSP) were vested in the employee’s name when you paid the retiring allowance. To determine the equivalent number of years of vesting, refer to the terms of the particular plan. The number can be a fraction.

You can only transfer the eligible portion of the retiring allowance under paragraph 60(j.1) of the Act to the employee’s own RRSP or to an RPP under which your employee is the annuitant. The eligible portion cannot be directly transferred to a spousal or common-law partner’s RRSP under paragraph 60(j.1) of the Act. If you transfer the amount to an RPP, you may have to report a pension adjustment (PA). For information, contact your plan administrator.

Your employee may choose not to use all or any portion of the amount eligible for transfer under paragraph 60(j.1) of the Act. If your employee has available RRSP deduction limit, your employee may transfer some or all of the retiring allowance to a spousal or common-law partner RRSP up to his or her RRSP deduction limit.

Your employee may also ask you to transfer some or all of the non-eligible portion of the retiring allowance to his or her RRSP, or to a spousal or common-law partner’s RRSP. The non-eligible portion of a retiring allowance is the amount that exceeds the amount eligible for direct transfer. The part that you transfer cannot be more than the employee’s available RRSP deduction limit for the year.

You do not have to deduct income tax on the amount of eligible retiring allowance that is transferred directly to an employee’s RRSP or to an RPP on behalf of the employee. You also do not have to deduct income tax on any part of the retiring allowance that your employee transfers to a spousal or common-law partner’s RRSP if you have reasonable grounds to believe your employee can deduct the RRSP contribution when filing his or her personal income tax and benefit return. For more information, see the section called “RRSP contributions you withhold from remuneration” in Chapter 5 of Guide T4001, Employers’ Guide – Payroll Deductions and Remittances.

The portion of the retiring allowance paid in each year that is eligible for transfer should be reported in the “Other information” area, using code 66 (code 68 in the case of an Indian). Amounts not eligible for transfer are reported in the “Other information” area using code 67 (code 69 in the case of an Indian). For example, if an employee receives $60,000 payable in instalments of $10,000 over 6 years and has an eligible amount of $40,000, the employee can choose how they want the eligible and non-eligible portions applied to the instalment payments in each year.

CRPEG Executive
Working Together For The Public Good

CRPEG Stewards: