T4 Deadline 2026: How Employers Can File Without the February Rush

Every February, small employers across Canada discover the same thing: the T4 slips are due before anyone has checked whether the payroll numbers actually add up. A bonus was paid in December, a taxable benefit was never added, or a remittance was short, and now it all has to be fixed in a few weeks.

The CRA sets the T4 deadline, and its penalties start the day after. Here is when the 2026 slips are due, what the CRA expects to receive, and what we recommend sorting out before the rush.

The CRA requires T4 slips and the T4 Summary by the last day of February following the calendar year the slips cover. For wages paid in 2026, that would be February 28, 2027.

That date falls on a Sunday. Under the CRA’s rules, when a filing due date lands on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the return is due on the next business day. That moves the deadline for T4 slips covering 2026 to Monday, March 1, 2027.

The same thing happened last season: the 2025 slips were due on March 2, 2026, because February 28, 2026 was a Saturday. The CRA confirms each year’s date in its employer payroll guide (RC4120), so check the 2026 edition once it is released. Treat the extra day as a buffer, not a plan.

The CRA expects employees to receive their copies by the same deadline, and it gives employers three ways to deliver them:

• By email, but only with the employee’s written consent first
  
• Through a secure electronic portal, with paper copies for anyone who asks
  
• On paper, two copies per employee, handed over in person or mailed

Employees who need their T4 to file their own return will notice when it is late, and so will the CRA. Its penalty for not giving a slip to an employee is $25 per day for each slip, with a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $2,500.

If you’re an employee waiting on your T4, your employer issues it. Your Modern Accountant can’t see or send your slip.

T4 filing means sending the CRA one slip for every person you paid employment income to during the year, along with the T4 Summary, which totals the slips. The two go together as one return. If the summary arrives without the slips, the CRA treats the return as not received.

Each slip reports the employee’s earnings for the year and the deductions withheld from them, including CPP contributions, EI premiums and income tax. The summary totals have to match what was actually remitted to the CRA during the year. When they don’t, the difference usually turns into a balance owing or a request from the CRA to explain it.

The CRA requires electronic filing if you file more than 5 slips of a type for the year. Filing on paper when electronic filing is required carries its own penalty, starting at $125 for 6 to 50 slips and rising with the number of slips.

Not everyone you paid last year gets a T4. The T4 is for employees on payroll. Payments to independent contractors for services, along with items like certain commissions and other non-employment income, are reported on a T4A instead.

The CRA sets the same last-day-of-February deadline for T4A slips and the T4A Summary, so for 2026 they are also due March 1, 2027. Many small businesses run payroll for a few staff and pay contractors for everything else, which means two sets of slips to prepare at once. If you have both, we recommend sorting out who belongs on which slip early in January.

The CRA’s penalty for filing T4 information returns late depends on how many slips are late:

There is a $100 minimum whatever the size of the business. For a small employer with a handful of staff, a few weeks of delay can reach the $1,000 cap, on top of any penalty for not giving employees their copies.

Most T4 problems start with payroll records that were never checked during the year. Before preparing the slips, it is worth working through a short year-end review:

1. Match gross pay to the books. Total wages on the payroll reports should agree with the wage accounts in your bookkeeping.
2. Check every remittance. Compare the CPP, EI and income tax you deducted with what you remitted to the CRA during the year.
3. Add taxable benefits. Personal use of a company vehicle, group insurance paid by the employer and gift cards are common benefits that have to be reported on the T4.
4. Review year-end payments. December bonuses, retroactive pay and final pay for anyone who left need to be in the right year.
5. Confirm employee details. Names, addresses and Social Insurance Numbers have to be correct for every slip.

Doing this in January leaves time to correct mistakes before the deadline. Doing it in the last week of February usually means filing with errors and amending later.

Mistakes still happen, and the CRA lets employers correct them. If a slip goes out with the wrong amount, a missed benefit or an incorrect SIN, you file an amended slip with the CRA for that employee and give them a corrected copy.

Only the slips that changed need to be amended, so the rest of the return stays as filed. Employees who have already filed their own return may then need to adjust it, which is one more reason to get the numbers right the first time.

If you own an incorporated business and pay yourself a salary, you are an employee of your own corporation, and you need a T4 like anyone else on payroll. Owners who pay themselves in dividends instead receive a T5, which has its own reporting rules. Many owners use a mix of the two, and both have to agree with what the corporate books show. Our guide to corporate bookkeeping explains how salary and dividends are recorded once you incorporate.

T4 season goes smoothly when payroll is reconciled month by month through the year. That means remittances checked monthly, benefits recorded as they happen and records that match the bookkeeping. Our post on bookkeeping and payroll covers why the two need to stay in step.

Your Modern Accountant runs payroll for small businesses across Canada, from monthly remittances to year-end T4s and summaries filed electronically and on time. If you would like the T4 deadline handled before it arrives, our payroll services take care of the full cycle.