An entrepreneur wishing to obtain a license from the Régie du bâtiment must first start a business and therefore register with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec. There are several options available to you, but what happens when you choose the option of sole proprietorship or a general partnership if the goal was to work in the new residential construction or commercial sector?
Self-Employed or General Partnership (G.P.)
First, self-employed workers work for themselves and not for someone else. They work for clients who pay them an agreed amount.
Self-employed workers therefore have a lot of freedom in the choice of their clients and the way they do their work. They usually have their own clients and are not employees of these clients. Self-employed workers are sometimes called “independent contractors”.
In other words, self-employed workers are not “employees” because they do not work under the direction and control of an employer.
The courts have developed tests to decide whether a person is self-employed and not an employee:
- The worker controls her work.
- The worker provides her own work tools.
- The worker can make a profit or have losses.
In the sense of the law, the sole proprietorship, unlike a business incorporation, is the employer and the employee at the same time therefore, the person is the company.
The sole proprietorship cannot withdraw wages. An employee receives a T4 statement at the end of the year but the self-employed person pays himself a wage from the business bank account during the year and, it is not until December 31 of each year that he will have to produce a TP80-V statement. Its accounting will be done to have the total amount of sales for the year less expenses (including purchases, vehicles, rent and other eligible expenses) and thus will be deducted in one time all deductions (taxes and other payroll deductions) when annual taxes will be produced.
As for the general partnership, the principle is the same. The only difference is that in a general partnership there are at least two people who do not pay themselves a wage and will have a TP80-V statement to produce at the end of the year.
CCQ competence cards
Now that we understand the principle, what if the self-employed person or an individual in the general partnership wishes to obtain an Apprentice Competency Card?
In the case of the self-employed, despite the fact that they cannot pay themselves a wage, they can obtain their apprenticeship card and declare their hours.
For persons forming the general partnership, one of the persons may obtain their apprenticeship card and declare their hours. But for the second person, he cannot be a designated representative since to be a designated representative, he must have a guarantee of hours from the company and therefore be an employee, and this is where it blocks since the company cannot issue wages. The second person will therefore not be able to obtain an apprenticeship card.
In the event that two or more people from a company wishes to obtain competence cards … incorporation is essential.
We just went around the designated representative and the obtaining of apprenticeship cards being assigned according to the choice of company registration.
But as everything is never black or white, what happens when we add to the choice of company and competency card, the restrictions coming from the choice of the specialized or general contractor license? This will be the subject of another blog.
For any questions, we are at your disposal to untangle the subject.
