T4 slip
A T4 reports an employee’s annual employment income and the amounts withheld from it, and must be issued and filed by the last day of February following the year.
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Key facts
| Category | Payroll |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Statement of Remuneration Paid |
| Issued by | The employer, to the employee and the CRA |
| Deadline | The last day of February following the calendar year |
| Reports | Employment income, deductions withheld, pensionable and insurable earnings, taxable benefits |
| Québec counterpart | Relevé 1 |
| Authority | Canada Revenue Agency |
What it means in practice
Employers give each employee a T4 and file the full set with the CRA by the last day of February. Québec employers issue a matching RL-1 to Revenu Québec on the same deadline. The T4 covers employment income, taxable benefits, and the CPP/QPP, EI, QPIP and income tax withheld. Taxable benefits — a company vehicle, employer-paid insurance premiums, parking — are the boxes most often missed, and they surface on audit. Late filing penalties are charged per slip, so a small payroll filed a month late can still be expensive.
Taxable benefits are where slips go wrong
Most T4 errors are not in the salary figure but in the boxes around it. Personal use of a company vehicle, employer-paid parking, group life insurance premiums, gift cards and some allowances are taxable benefits that must be added to employment income and, in many cases, are pensionable and insurable as well. Missing them understates the employee's income and the employer's remittances, and the correction lands on both. Where the omission is found in a later year the employer amends the slip and the employee's return is adjusted, which is a slower process than getting it right in February. A late T4 filing carries its own penalty, calculated per slip and rising with the number of slips and the length of the delay.
FAQ
My T4 is wrong. What now?
I never received a T4. Can I still file?
Need this applied to your situation?
A definition only gets you so far. Talk to a Montréal CPA about what this means for your return — in English or French.