By OptiVal Editorial Desk
T4A Slips for Contractors in Canada: CRA Rules, Deadlines and Filing Guide
If you paid contractors in 2026, February brings a filing obligation most small business owners have never heard of. T4A slips for contractors are the CRA’s way of tracking fees paid to self-employed workers, and the reporting rule catches far more businesses than you would expect. Pay one freelancer more than $500 in a calendar year and you are in scope. Miss the filing and the penalties run per day, per slip count, into the thousands. Here is exactly who needs a T4A, what goes in which box, and the deadlines that matter.
What is a T4A slip?
A T4A, formally the Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income, reports income that does not fit on a T4. The T4 covers employees: employment income with income tax deducted and CPP and EI handled. The T4A covers everyone else you paid: self-employed contractors, pensioners, scholarship recipients, and more.
For contractors, the key box is Box 048, “Fees for services.” Report the total fees you paid the contractor in the calendar year, net of GST/HST. (Our guide to T4 and T5 slips in Canada covers the employee and dividend side of year-end filing.)
When T4A slips for contractors become mandatory
The CRA calls it Reporting Fees for Service. The rule: businesses and organizations must report fees for services exceeding $500 in a calendar year paid to another business for services, in prescribed form, usually the T4A slip. (Source: CRA, Reporting fees for service.)
In practice that means:
- Add up everything you paid each contractor during the calendar year. If the total tops $500, that contractor gets a T4A.
- Report the fees net of GST/HST. Do not include the sales tax in the reported amount.
- One slip per recipient per year, summarizing all payments to them.
The $500 threshold is per contractor, per calendar year, not per invoice. Ten $60 invoices to the same designer still trigger a slip.
Who gets a T4A, and who does not
A T4A goes to unincorporated individuals and sole proprietors you paid $500 or more for services in the year. Your freelance designer, your contract bookkeeper, the marketing consultant on a monthly retainer.
Generally no T4A is needed for contractors who operate through a corporation. Payments to a corporation are not reported on a T4A, with one new exception covered below.
Some payments need a different slip entirely:
- Construction subcontractors fall under the Contract Payment Reporting System: T5018 slips, not T4A. (Payments for non-construction services, like bookkeeping or legal work for a construction company, still go in T4A Box 048.)
- Non-resident contractors are reported on NR4 slips, not T4A.
- Actual employees get T4 slips, with CPP, EI and income tax handled through payroll.
The trucking exception
Starting with the 2025 tax year, the CRA lifted its long-standing penalty moratorium for the trucking industry. Businesses where more than 50% of income comes from trucking must now report fees for services over $500 paid to Canadian-controlled private corporations in the industry, in Box 048, and face penalties if they do not. (Source: CRA announcement, December 2025.) If you are in trucking, the incorporated-contractor exemption no longer protects you.
The filing deadline: last day of February
T4A slips must be filed with the CRA and given to recipients by the last day of February following the calendar year. For payments made in 2026, that date is February 28, 2027, which falls on a Sunday. Under the CRA’s weekend rule, a return received or postmarked on the next business day counts as on time, so March 1, 2027 is the real deadline for 2026 payments.
Two parties to satisfy by that date: the CRA (file the slips plus a T4A Summary) and each recipient (their copy of the slip). Filing method matters too: if you file more than 50 information returns for the year, electronic filing is mandatory (Internet file transfer or CRA Web Forms). Fifty or fewer can still go on paper.
Penalties for late or missing T4A slips
Late-filing penalties scale with the number of slips (per the CRA Employers’ Guide):
| Slips filed late | Penalty | Maximum |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | $100 flat | $100 |
| 6 to 10 | $5 per day | $500 |
| 11 to 50 | $10 per day | $1,000 |
| 51 to 500 | $15 per day | $1,500 |
| 501 to 2,500 | $25 per day | $2,500 |
| 2,501 to 10,000 | $50 per day | $5,000 |
| 10,001 or more | $75 per day | $7,500 |
A word on the Box 048 penalty moratorium. In 2011 the CRA announced it would not assess penalties for failing to complete Box 048, to give businesses time to adapt. That was meant to be temporary, but it was never lifted generally. Do not read that as permission to skip filing: the reporting obligation is still law, and the 2025 trucking crackdown shows which direction enforcement is moving.
How to file: five steps
- Make sure you have a CRA payroll (RP) account. You need one to file information returns, even if you have no employees.
- List every contractor paid $500 or more in the year. Separate the incorporated ones (no T4A, outside trucking) from the unincorporated ones.
- Total each recipient’s fees, net of GST/HST. Get their SIN and current address now, not in February.
- Prepare one T4A per recipient. Fees go in Box 048. Box 022 is for any income tax you withheld (rare for contractors). Complete a T4A Summary covering all slips.
- File with the CRA and distribute recipient copies by the deadline. Then keep everything for six years.
The trap: is your contractor really a contractor?
A T4A does not settle the employment question. If the CRA decides your “contractor” is actually an employee, you are on the hook for the employer’s share of CPP and EI you never remitted, plus penalties and interest. The T4A you filed becomes exhibit A that the working relationship existed. If any of your contractors work only for you, follow your schedule, or use your equipment, read how the CRA decides contractor vs employee before February.
What to do this month
October is the right time to get ahead of this. Pull your 2026 contractor payments, confirm which contractors are incorporated, and collect any missing SINs and addresses. February you will thank October you.
Paying contractors and dreading the paperwork? Our payroll service starts at $29 per employee per month plus a $149 setup, and year-end slip filing is part of the package. Book a free consultation and we will sort your contractor reporting before the deadline does it for you.
