T4 deadline 2026: dates, penalties and how to file on time

T4 season is the one payroll deadline that catches otherwise organised employers, because it lands in the same weeks as personal tax prep and year-end. The rule is simple: slips must be filed with the CRA and in your employees' hands by the last day of February following the calendar year.

For the 2025 year that means March 2, 2026 — February 28 falls on a Saturday, so the CRA accepts the next business day.

• March 2, 2026 — T4, T4A and the T4 Summary for the 2025 calendar year due to the CRA and to employees
• Same date — T4A slips for subcontractors and other reportable payments
• January 15, 2026 — December source deductions due for regular monthly remitters
• March 2, 2027 — T4 slips for the 2026 calendar year

The late-filing penalty is per information return and scales with the number of slips and the delay, starting at $100. Filing on paper when you have more than five slips of a type carries a separate penalty.

The more expensive problem is usually not the slip itself. When the CRA matches your T4 summary against what you actually remitted through the year, any shortfall becomes a remittance assessment with its own penalties — 3% to 10% depending on lateness — plus daily compound interest. Employers who fell behind on remittances in the summer often discover it here in February.

• Total gross pay per employee against your payroll register, not the bank
• CPP, EI and income tax withheld against every remittance you actually made
• Taxable benefits — vehicle use, allowances, insurance premiums, gifts over the CRA limits
• Bonuses, retroactive pay and vacation payouts recorded in the correct calendar year
• Shareholder wages, if you paid yourself through payroll rather than dividends
• Subcontractor payments that belong on a T4A rather than a T4

Taxable benefits left off the slips. A truck available for personal use, a phone allowance, or paid parking are benefits the CRA expects to see reported, and they are almost never in the payroll software by default. Adding them at year-end is routine; explaining them two years later in a review is not.

The second is timing. Pay dated January 2 belongs to the new year even if the work happened in December. Getting that wrong shifts income between years for both you and the employee.

File the slips anyway, as soon as you can — the penalty grows with the delay and stops growing when you file. If remittances are short as well, file the slips and get on a plan for the balance rather than waiting until both are resolved.

We prepare T4s and T4As as part of monthly payroll for our clients, so February is a review rather than a scramble. If your payroll records need reconciling before the deadline, call or text 250-261-9879 and we will tell you plainly what it takes.