T4A Canada: Filing Guide for Employers

The T4A is the information slip that Canadian payers use to report fees for services, pension income, annuity payments, and other specific income types paid to recipients who are not employees. CRA requires payers to file T4A slips by the last day of February for payments made during the preceding calendar year. This guide covers what payments require a T4A, how T4A differs from T4, filing deadlines, penalties, and how proper T4A compliance prevents CRA misclassification issues. Quebec employers filing Releve slips operate under Revenu Quebec rules not covered here.

What a T4A slip reports

The T4A (Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income) is an information return filed with CRA. It reports amounts paid to recipients during a calendar year for specific categories of income. The most common T4A reporting categories for businesses are fees for services paid to contractors and self-employed individuals, but the slip also covers pension and superannuation payments, lump-sum payments from registered pension plans, retiring allowances, annuity payments, patronage allocations, research grants, and several other income types.

The T4A is not a payroll document. It does not involve source deductions. The payer reports the gross amount paid without withholding CPP, EI, or income tax. The recipient is responsible for reporting the income on their own tax return and paying any applicable taxes, including self-employment CPP contributions if the income is from self-employment.

Each T4A slip identifies the payer, the recipient, the type of income, and the amount paid during the calendar year. The payer files the T4A information return with CRA and provides a copy to each recipient so they can include the income on their personal or corporate tax return.

Who must issue a T4A

Any individual, business, trust, or organization that makes payments in a T4A-reportable category must file T4A slips with CRA if the total payment to a single recipient meets the reporting threshold. For fees for services, which is the category most relevant to businesses engaging contractors, the threshold is $500 per recipient per calendar year. If you paid a contractor $500 or more in total during the year, you must issue a T4A.

Payments to corporations for services are also reportable on a T4A. This surprises many businesses that assume T4A reporting only applies to individual contractors. If you paid an incorporated contractor $500 or more in fees for services during the calendar year, a T4A is required for the corporation.

Common payers who must file T4A slips include businesses paying contractors and freelancers, pension plan administrators, insurance companies paying annuity income, educational institutions paying scholarships and research grants, cooperatives paying patronage allocations, and estates and trusts making distributions.

Employers who pay employees through regular payroll report those amounts on T4 slips, not T4A slips. The distinction between T4 and T4A is central to understanding your reporting obligations and avoiding misclassification risk.

T4A vs T4: the critical distinction

A T4 (Statement of Remuneration Paid) reports employment income. The employer withholds CPP contributions, EI premiums, and income tax from each payment and remits those source deductions to CRA on the employer's remittance schedule. The employee receives a T4 at year-end showing gross employment income and amounts withheld.

A T4A reports payments where no source deductions are made by the payer. The recipient receives the gross amount and manages their own tax obligations. No CPP or EI is withheld. No income tax is withheld unless the recipient specifically requests voluntary withholding.

The type of slip you issue reflects how you classified the working relationship. Issuing a T4A signals to CRA that you treated the recipient as an independent contractor, not an employee. If CRA later determines that the relationship was actually employment, the consequences fall on the payer. A full analysis of how CRA distinguishes employees from contractors is available in the employee vs contractor Canada guide.

The T4 filing process, including deadlines and employer obligations for employee slips, is covered in the T4 deadline Canada guide.

What payments require a T4A

Fees for services (Box 048). This is the most common T4A box for businesses. Any payment for professional, consulting, freelance, or contract services of $500 or more to a single recipient in a calendar year must be reported. This includes payments for IT consulting, legal services, accounting, marketing, design, construction subcontracting, and any other fee-for-service arrangement.

Pension and superannuation (Box 016). Payments from employer pension plans, including defined benefit and defined contribution plans, are reported on T4A when not reported on a T4.

Retiring allowances (Box 026 and 027). Lump-sum payments made to an employee or former employee on or after retirement, loss of employment, or in recognition of long service.

Annuity payments (Box 024). Income from annuity contracts.

Patronage allocations (Box 030). Payments from cooperatives to their members.

Research grants (Box 104). Payments to individuals for research, net of expenses.

Self-employed commissions (Box 020). Commissions paid to self-employed sales agents or brokers.

Not every payment to a non-employee requires a T4A. Payments for goods (inventory, raw materials, finished products) do not require a T4A. Rent payments to a landlord do not require a T4A. Reimbursement of expenses at cost without a markup does not require a T4A. The T4A obligation is triggered by payments for services and the other specific income categories listed above.

Filing deadlines and electronic filing

T4A slips must be filed with CRA and delivered to recipients by the last day of February of the year following the calendar year the payments were made. For the 2026 tax year, all T4A slips are due by February 28, 2027.

Electronic filing is mandatory for payers who file more than 5 T4A slips for the same calendar year. Electronic filing is done through CRA's Internet file transfer service or compatible payroll and accounting software. Payers who file 5 or fewer slips may file on paper, though CRA encourages electronic filing for all volumes.

Amended slips. If you discover an error on a filed T4A after the deadline, you must file an amended slip. Amended T4A slips are filed electronically through the same channel as the original filing. CRA does not charge a penalty for amended slips filed voluntarily, but if the error caused a tax shortfall for the recipient and CRA discovers it before you correct it, penalties may apply.

Summary return. Along with individual T4A slips, the payer files a T4A Summary (T4ASUM) that reports the total number of slips and the total amounts across all T4A categories. The summary must reconcile with the individual slips.

Penalties for late or incorrect filing

CRA enforces T4A filing deadlines with a tiered penalty structure based on the number of slips filed late.

For 1 to 5 slips: $100 per complete month late, maximum $500. For 6 to 10 slips: $250 per month, maximum $2,500. For 11 to 50 slips: $500 per month, maximum $2,500. For 51 to 500 slips: $1,500 per month, maximum $7,500. For 501 to 2,500 slips: $2,500 per month, maximum $12,500. For 2,501 or more slips: $5,000 per month, maximum $25,000.

Repeated failures to file on time can result in higher penalties. CRA has discretion to increase the penalty amount for payers who have been penalized for late filing in prior years.

Failure to provide T4A slips to recipients by the deadline is a separate offence. Recipients need their slips to file their own tax returns, and CRA treats failure to provide slips as a compliance issue independent of the filing with CRA.

Incorrect T4A slips that misstate the amount paid, report income in the wrong box, or use an incorrect recipient identifier can trigger CRA inquiries and potential reassessment of the recipient's tax return. If the error is material and systematic, CRA may audit the payer's T4A filing practices.

How T4A errors trigger CRA misclassification audits

Issuing a T4A to a worker who should have been classified as an employee is one of the most direct paths to a CRA worker misclassification audit. CRA cross-references T4A filings with other data to identify patterns that suggest misclassification. A business that issues dozens of T4A slips for fees for services but has very few T4 employees may attract scrutiny.

If CRA determines that a T4A recipient was in substance an employee, the consequences for the payer are significant. The payer is reassessed for the employer portion of CPP contributions for the entire period of misclassification. The payer is reassessed for the employer's 1.4x share of EI premiums. The payer may be assessed for income tax that should have been withheld. Penalties and arrears interest apply on all amounts from the original due dates.

The misclassification risk is compounded when the contractor's corporation is classified as a personal services business under section 125(7) of the Income Tax Act. A T4A issued to an incorporated contractor whose corporation is subsequently classified as a PSB triggers both the payer's source deduction liability and the contractor's loss of the small business deduction. The full scope of PSB risk for incorporated contractors is covered in the personal services business Canada guide.

Proper T4A compliance starts with correctly classifying each working relationship before the first payment is made. A business that engages 15 independent contractors should be able to demonstrate that each relationship has the characteristics of a genuine contractor arrangement, not just a T4A slip instead of a T4. The CRA payroll account registration process and the compliance framework for maintaining proper records are covered in the CRA payroll account registration guide.

Best practices for T4A compliance

Maintain a contractor register that tracks every individual and corporation you pay for services. Record the total amount paid per calendar year and flag any recipient approaching the $500 threshold. This prevents year-end scrambles to reconstruct who was paid what.

Collect the recipient's legal name, address, and Social Insurance Number (or Business Number for corporations) before the first payment. CRA requires this information on the T4A slip, and requesting it months after the work is completed creates delays and errors.

Issue T4A slips by mid-February, not the last day of February. Recipients need time to review the amounts and raise discrepancies before filing their own returns. A disputed T4A amount that is not resolved before the recipient files creates unnecessary amended returns.

Review your T4A population each year for workers who may have shifted into an employment relationship. A contractor who started as a project-based engagement but is now working full-time exclusively for your business for over 12 months may no longer qualify as an independent contractor. The payroll deductions Canada guide covers the source deduction obligations that apply when a worker is properly classified as an employee.

Quick Answers

What is a T4A? An information slip reporting fees for services, pension income, and other payments to non-employees. Filed with CRA and provided to recipients annually.

When is it due? Last day of February following the calendar year. For 2026 payments, the deadline is February 28, 2027.

What is the $500 threshold? Fees for services totalling $500 or more per recipient per calendar year require a T4A. Below $500, no T4A is required.

T4 vs T4A? T4 reports employment income with source deductions withheld. T4A reports contractor and other income with no source deductions.

Can a T4A trigger a CRA audit? Yes. Issuing T4A slips to workers who should be classified as employees is a common trigger for misclassification audits.

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