T4A Slips in Canada: When to File and How
A practical guide for Canadian small businesses on what a T4A is, who receives one, the $500 reporting threshold, the last-day-of-February deadline, filing methods, late-filing penalties, and how to keep the year-end records you will actually need.
Last updated October 2026
At a glance
- A T4A slip (Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income) reports amounts the payer paid outside of a T4 employment relationship — most often fees for services to self-employed contractors, commissions, and similar payments.
- The CRA's general reporting rule applies when total payments exceed $500 in the calendar year per payee, or when any income tax was deducted. Some payment types have different rules. See below for the CRA's different wording on service fees totalling exactly $500.
- The filing and distribution deadline is the last day of February following the calendar year, with the CRA's weekend and public-holiday rules applying. For 2026 T4As, the last day of February 2027 falls on a Sunday, so the deadline moves to Monday, March 1, 2027.
- More than 5 slips must be filed electronically. Common CRA methods are Internet File Transfer (XML) and Web Forms. Both can be accessed through CRA accounts or with a Web Access Code.
- Late-filing penalties depend on the number of late slips and days late, with a $100 minimum and a maximum for each slip-count band. The CRA also charges interest on unpaid penalties at the prescribed rate.
What is a T4A?
A T4 reports employment remuneration and related deductions. A T4A reports certain other payment types, including contractor service fees, pensions, annuities, and scholarships. Some T4A payments require income tax withholding; report tax deducted in Box 022. A payer may file both T4 and T4A returns for the same year, and each return is filed separately with the CRA.
The most common situation for a small business is paying an independent contractor resident in Canada for services. Most such payments have no CPP, EI, or income tax source deductions. An unincorporated self-employed individual reports these service fees as business income on their personal T1 return, generally using Form T2125. An incorporated contractor reports the fees on the company's T2 corporation income tax return; salary or dividends paid by the company to the individual have separate tax and reporting treatment.
Who receives a T4A
The T4A has numbered boxes and codes for its "Other information" area. Selected boxes and codes include:
| Box or code | Name | What it reports |
|---|---|---|
| 016 | Pension or superannuation | Payments from a pension plan or retirement arrangement outside the T4 system. |
| 018 | Lump-sum payments | Taxable lump-sum payments from a pension plan or deferred profit-sharing plan, subject to the CRA's transfer rules. |
| 020 | Self-employed commissions | Commissions paid to a self-employed salesperson — for example, a real estate agent or an outside sales contractor who is not on the payroll. |
| 022 | Income tax deducted | Income tax withheld from reportable T4A payments during the year. |
| 024 | Annuities | Reportable annuity payments. Some pension annuities belong in Box 016 instead; check the CRA's instructions for the plan. |
| 028 | Other income | A catch-all box used when no other box applies. Document the nature of the payment for the payee and the CRA. |
| 032 | Registered pension plan contributions (past service) | Past-service contributions a former employee made to a registered pension plan. |
| 040 | RESP accumulated income payments | Accumulated income payments made to a registered education savings plan subscriber. |
| 046 | Charitable donations | Donations to registered Canadian charities deducted from a recipient's earnings. Self-employed commissions belong in Box 020. |
| 048 | Fees for services | Reportable service fees paid outside an employment relationship, including payments to individuals and corporations. Exclude GST/HST and PST. |
| 105 | Scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, and artists' project grants | Education awards and artists' project grants reportable under this code. |
| 122 | RESP accumulated income payments paid to other | Certain RESP accumulated income payments made to someone other than the subscriber; these are also reported under code 040. |
This is a selected list. Use the CRA's T4A box and code instructions for the payment type, including any special reporting rules.
The $500 reporting threshold
Box 048: fees for services
Most Canadian-resident contractor service fees are reported in Box 048. The CRA's general administrative rule requires a slip when total payments to a payee exceed $500 in the calendar year, or when income tax was deducted from any payment. The total is not calculated separately for each invoice or box.
For exactly $500 in service fees, the CRA's service-fee checklist says $500 or more, while its general T4A guidance says more than $500. Issuing a slip at exactly $500 is the conservative approach; confirm with the CRA before relying on an exemption at that boundary.
A few practical points on the $500 threshold:
- The threshold is per payee, per calendar year, not per invoice or per engagement. A contractor paid $300 in March and $250 in September is over the threshold on a combined basis.
- HST/GST is not counted toward the threshold. The threshold is on the fee itself, before tax. When in doubt, keep the gross amount before HST on the T4A and record HST separately.
- Combine reportable payments to the same payee across boxes. For example, $300 in service fees plus $250 in commissions totals $550. Some payment types, such as RESP payments, have different thresholds; tax deducted also triggers a slip regardless of the payment amount.
- Corporate status does not exempt a contractor from T4A reporting. The service-fee rules cover individuals, trusts, partnerships, and corporations. Check whether another return applies: construction subcontractor payments may require a T5018, and fees for services in Canada paid to a non-resident generally require a T4A-NR.
The CRA currently has a moratorium on penalties for failure to complete Box 048 outside the trucking-industry exception; this does not remove the reporting requirement. For 2025 and later years, trucking businesses can be penalized for not reporting service fees exceeding $500 paid to Canadian-controlled private corporations in that industry. See the CRA's trucking-industry compliance guidance.
Filing deadlines
Key date for 2026 T4As
- March 1, 2027 — File the 2026 T4A return with the CRA and distribute copies to payees. The normal last day of February falls on a Sunday in 2027, so the deadline moves to the next business day.
Use the CRA's due-date rules each year rather than hard-coding February 28. When the last day of February falls on a weekend or a federal public holiday, the deadline rolls forward to the next business day. Late-filing penalties depend on the number of slips and the length of the delay.
Two related obligations share this deadline:
- File the T4A return with the CRA (the consolidated return including a T4A Summary that totals all slips).
- Distribute copies of the T4A slip to each payee, so they have it in hand before they file their personal tax return. The CRA's preferred distribution date is the same as the filing date.
How to file T4As
Internet File Transfer (XML)
The CRA accepts T4A XML files uploaded through Internet File Transfer. The format is the same one the CRA publishes in its T4A specifications and is compatible with payroll software, accounting suites, and the CRA's own test tools. Most payers with more than a handful of slips use XML because it scales cleanly to hundreds or thousands of payees.
Web Forms
For smaller returns, the CRA's Web Forms lets a payer enter each slip directly into a web form and submit it without building an XML file. Web Forms is well suited to returns of a handful of slips, but the entry work grows linearly with the number of payees.
Paper filing
Payers filing 1 to 5 slips may use CRA-approved paper T4A slips and a T4A Summary, although electronic filing remains available. The CRA continues to encourage electronic filing because paper returns take longer to process and errors are caught later.
Web Access Code (WAC)
Both Internet File Transfer and Web Forms can be accessed through My Business Account or Represent a Client without a WAC. For direct access outside those accounts, use the business or program account number and its associated WAC; XML filing does not require a separate credential. See the CRA's filing access instructions.
The CRA requires electronic filing when the return contains more than 5 slips. The choice between XML and Web Forms is generally a question of volume and tooling — both are CRA-accepted electronic channels.
Late-filing penalties
The CRA sets the late-filing penalty using the number of T4A slips filed late and the number of days late. The daily rate applies to the T4A return as a whole, not separately to each slip. The minimum penalty is $100, and each slip-count band has a maximum:
| Number of slips | Penalty per day for the return | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | Not applicable — fixed penalty | $100 |
| 6 to 10 | $5 | $500 |
| 11 to 50 | $10 | $1,000 |
| 51 to 500 | $15 | $1,500 |
| 501 to 2,500 | $25 | $2,500 |
| 2,501 to 10,000 | $50 | $5,000 |
| More than 10,000 | $75 | $7,500 |
Source: CRA RC4157, late-filing penalties. Confirm the current rates for the filing year. The CRA may grant taxpayer relief from penalties or interest in qualifying circumstances; relief is not automatic.
Records to keep throughout the year
The hardest part of a T4A return is not the filing — it is having the records to file. The T4A needs the contractor's name, address, and either a Social Insurance Number (SIN) or a Business Number (BN), plus the payment amounts and the boxes they go in. Most year-end scrambles come from missing one of those fields. Capture them at the time of payment, not in late January.
| Record | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Contractor's legal name | Appears on the slip; needs to match the contractor's CRA records. |
| Mailing address | Used to distribute the payee's copy of the slip. |
| SIN or recipient's program account number, as applicable | Keep evidence of reasonable efforts to obtain an individual's SIN. A sole proprietor may provide a valid program account number instead. If the SIN is unavailable, file on time with nine zeros in Box 012; do not use a SIN for a partnership or corporation. Missing a SIN does not trigger automatic withholding on the next payment. See CRA RC4157's recipient-identification instructions. |
| Payment dates and amounts | Per-invoice detail so the year-end total reconciles to the books. |
| Nature of the service | Needed to pick the right box: service fees for a freelance graphic designer go in Box 048, while self-employed commissions go in Box 020. |
| HST treatment | HST is not on the T4A, but tracking whether the contractor charged HST helps reconcile the year. |
A note on Beanflow and T4A
Manual T4A processing for now
Beanflow's current version automates T4 slips and the T4 Summary for employees on the payroll. T4A slips for independent contractors are not generated by Beanflow today — they need to be prepared manually for the contractors the business has paid during the year. Track each contractor's name, SIN or BN, and cumulative payments for the calendar year, then file the T4A return using one of the CRA channels above.
If you are running your contractor payments through Beanflow because they are mixed in with regular payroll transactions, separate the contractor invoices from the payroll roster at the time of payment. The two paths end up on different CRA returns with different deadlines, and a clean separation at the source avoids reconciliation work in late January.