T4A Slip Guide: Reporting Subcontractor and Other Income
T4A is for non-employment payments — similar to US 1099-NEC/MISC. Complete 2026 guide for Canadian small business.
April 24, 2026 1 min readby TinSuite Team
canadian tax canadian-t4a-slip payroll
The T4A (Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income) is used for payments to self-employed contractors, pension income, retiring allowances, and scholarships.
Essential details
- Required for payments of $500+ to individual contractors for services
- Deadline: Distribute by last day of February
- Common box: Box 48 — fees or other amounts for services
- CRA has flagged enforcement of T4A filing in recent years
- Corporations receiving payments don't need T4A (T2 return covers them)
How to file correctly
1. Collect the data from your payroll records — don't reconstruct at year-end
2. Use official CRA forms — free downloads from canada.ca
3. File electronically when required (50+ slips)
4. Distribute copies to recipients by the deadline
5. Keep records for 6 years — CRA audit window
Common mistakes
- Missing the distribution deadline (last day of February for most slips)
- Using wrong box for income type
- Forgetting to remit source deductions monthly (PD7A)
- Not reconciling year-end to the T4 Summary
- Quebec employees: not filing the separate RL-1 slip
How TinSuite handles this
- Auto-generates T4, T4A, T5, RL-1 slips from your payroll data
- CPP, EI, and income tax calculated automatically
- Quebec-specific forms (QPP, QPIP) supported natively
- PD7A remittance reminders and calculations
- Bilingual EN/FR-CA interface
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