February 28 is the deadline for T4 slips every year. Miss it and you face CRA penalties that increase with the number of slips filed late. Here is a complete rundown of what is required, what the penalties are, and how to get it done quickly.
Who needs to file T4s
Every employer who paid employment income, taxable benefits, or other remuneration to an employee during the calendar year must file T4 slips. This applies even if:
- The employee earned below the basic personal amount and paid no income tax
- The employee only worked briefly
- The business has closed
If you paid someone as an employee (not a contractor), you need to file a T4.
What the T4 must include
A T4 slip captures the full year of employment income and deductions for each employee. Key boxes include:
- Box 14: Total employment income
- Box 16: CPP contributions (employee)
- Box 17: CPP2 contributions (where applicable)
- Box 18: EI premiums
- Box 22: Income tax deducted
- Box 24: EI insurable earnings
- Box 26: CPP pensionable earnings
If you have run all your payroll through PayCub, all of these boxes are automatically populated from your pay run data. No manual calculation or lookup required.
Filing with the CRA
If you have 6 or more employees, you are required to file electronically through My Business Account. Employers with 5 or fewer employees may file paper slips by mail, but electronic filing is faster and recommended regardless.
You must also file a T4 Summary alongside the individual slips. The T4 Summary consolidates the totals across all employees and is what the CRA uses to cross-reference your remittances throughout the year.
Late filing penalties
Penalties are calculated based on the number of slips filed late:
- 1 to 5 slips: $100 minimum
- 6 to 10 slips: $200 minimum
- 11 to 50 slips: $300 minimum
These are minimum penalties. The actual amount scales with how many days late the filing is and increases further for repeated non-compliance.
Distributing T4s to employees
You must give each employee a copy of their T4 by February 28. You can deliver by mail or email (with the employee's written consent). PayCub generates individual T4 PDFs for each employee that you can download and email directly.
How to generate T4s in PayCub
Go to Reports and select T4. PayCub compiles your full calendar year of pay run data into completed T4 slips with all key boxes populated. Review each slip, download the PDFs, and distribute to employees. The T4 Summary is also generated automatically, ready to file with the CRA.