CRA Remittances & T4s

Understanding what you owe CRA, remittance deadlines, and T4 preparation.

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Payroll comes with two sets of obligations to the CRA: regular remittances throughout the year, and T4 slips at year-end. ExpenseFlow helps you calculate both.

What Is a CRA Remittance?

Every time you run payroll, three amounts must be sent to the CRA: the employee CPP contributions deducted from their pay, the employee EI premiums deducted from their pay, and the employer's share — matching CPP contributions plus 1.4× the employee EI premiums. You also remit the federal and provincial income tax withheld from each employee. ExpenseFlow's pay run detail page shows the exact remittance amount after each run.

Remittance Deadlines

Most small businesses are regular remitters — remittances are due by the 15th of the month following the month the wages were paid. For example, wages paid in October are due to the CRA by November 15. New employers and very small payrolls may qualify as quarterly remitters (due the 15th of the month following each quarter). Check your remittance frequency in CRA My Business Account.

Late remittances attract penalties of 3–10% plus daily compound interest. Always remit on time even if you can't file the full paperwork.

How to Remit

Log in to CRA My Business Account and use the Payroll Remittances section to make a payment. You can also remit through your bank's bill payment system using your 15-digit business number as the payee account. ExpenseFlow does not make payments on your behalf — it calculates what you owe and you initiate the transfer.

T4 Slips

At year-end (deadline: last day of February) you must issue a T4 slip to every employee who was paid during the year and file a T4 Summary with the CRA. T4s report the employee's total employment income, CPP contributions, EI premiums, and income tax deducted for the year.

T4 generation in ExpenseFlow is coming. To prepare T4s now, use the year-to-date totals from your approved pay runs — each employee's T4 box 14 is their YTD gross, box 16 is YTD CPP, box 18 is YTD EI, and box 22 is YTD income tax withheld.

Adding SINs for T4s

You need each employee's Social Insurance Number to file T4 slips. If you didn't enter SINs when adding employees, edit each employee record under Payroll → Employees and add their SIN before year-end.

CPP and EI Maximums

CPP and EI contributions have annual maximums set by the CRA. Once an employee reaches the maximum for the year, deductions stop automatically. ExpenseFlow tracks year-to-date CPP and EI totals across all approved pay runs in the same tax year to apply the maximums correctly.