December 1 Benefits and Pensions Monitor Daily News Alerts

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Work-From-Home Tax Approach Streamlined

The federal government fall economic statement has eliminated a burden for payroll professionals and employers, says the Canadian Payroll Association. With more than six million Canadians working from home in 2020 due to government-mandated lockdowns and closures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it says employers were worried that they would be required to complete T2200 forms to enable these new remote workers to claim work-from-home expenses, a task which would have generated countless hours of work and cost employers more than $194 million collectively. Instead, the government announced a streamlined approach for claiming work-from-home expenses for both employees and employers. Employees working from home with "modest expenses" will be able to claim up to $400 in the 2020 tax year without the need to track detailed expenses. And employers will, generally, no longer be required to confirm the status of employees by completing a T2200 form for each remote worker.

Access To Drugs Questioned With New Rules

Canada is just weeks away from new federal regulations that will see prices drop for patented medicines, yet uncertainty still clouds key aspects of the new rules, says a Telus ‘Health Benefits Hub.’ It says opponents ? including pharmaceutical manufacturers who have gone to court twice so far ? are raising questions about access to new drugs in the near future. The regulatory pricing framework from the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) will change in two main ways. Pricing will be benchmarked against countries that PMPRB has determined to be more like Canada economically. Two countries will be dropped from the current basket of seven: the U.S. and Switzerland, where drug prices are among the highest in the world. Six countries will be added: Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Manufacturers have until January 1, 2022, to adjust prices on medications already available in Canada based on this basket. As well, new medicines that are expected to exceed a certain annual treatment cost and/or annual market size of $50 million are designated as ‘Category 1’ drugs. They will be subject to an additional maximum rebated price (MRP) ceiling that will take into account therapeutic criteria, pharmacoeconomic value, and market size. Canada will be the first country in the world to incorporate these factors into pricing regulation. These two factors ? the MRP and value assessments ? have raised the most opposition from patented drug manufacturers and some patient groups, who argue that the complexity alone could delay or stop the launches of new, high-cost medications that could potentially be breakthrough therapies for patients. “Cost savings are a noble goal, but let’s not do that at the price of causing so much uncertainty that I know for a fact it has meant Health Canada filings have been delayed and clinical trials not started,” says Kimberly Robinson, director, pricing and market access, PDCI Market Access. “PMPRB has taken a bludgeon to a problem that needs a scalpel.” Manufacturers are concerned the guidelines will essentially be impossible to implement. The amended Patented Medicines Regulations will take effect on January 1.

For details on these stories, visit www.bpmmagazine.com

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