Most businesses don’t intentionally ignore T4A rules. Problems usually creep in quietly—through shortcuts, assumptions, and ad‑hoc processes that feel fine until the CRA starts asking questions.
Here are five big red flags that your business might be mishandling T4As, plus what to do if you see yourself in any of them.
Red flag #1: “We pay a lot of contractors, but we’ve never issued a T4A.”
If contractors are a major part of how you operate—coaches, referees, drivers, consultants, freelancers—but you’ve never issued a T4A slip, it’s worth pausing.
This doesn’t automatically mean you’re non‑compliant, but it does mean:
• You may not have reviewed T4A rules recently
• You may be assuming “they’re self‑employed, so we don’t do anything”
• CRA might expect more reporting than you’re currently doing
What to do:
• Make a list of everyone you paid as a non‑employee last year
• Pull the total amounts paid to each person or entity
• Review that list with your accountant or CRA guidance to confirm whether slips should have been issued
Red flag #2: “We decide who gets a slip at the last minute from memory.”
If your T4A “process” looks like a few people sitting around in January thinking, “Who did we pay again?”, that’s a classic process risk.
Relying on memory leads to:
• Missed recipients
• Inaccurate amounts
• Inconsistent treatment from year to year
What to do:
• Track contractor payments throughout the year in a central system
• Use reports (not memory) to see who was paid and how much
• Keep a running “T4A candidate” list that you update as you go
Tools like T4ASlip can turn this from a guessing game into a simple report.
Red flag #3: “We don’t collect tax info until we’re filing slips—if at all.”
Scrambling for SINs, business numbers, or addresses at the last second is a huge warning sign that your process starts far too late.
This can lead to:
• Incomplete or incorrect slips
• Delays that push you past CRA deadlines
• Frustrating back‑and‑forth with contractors
What to do:
• Add tax information collection to your onboarding checklist
• Make it clear to contractors that you may need to issue T4A slips
• Store tax info securely in one system instead of scattered across emails
Red flag #4: “We’re not sure who is an employee vs a contractor.”
If there are people working for you where no one can confidently say whether they’re employees or contractors, that’s more than a T4A issue—it’s a classification risk.
Misclassifying workers can result in:
• Wrong slips (T4A instead of T4, or vice versa)
• Payroll remittance issues
• CRA reassessments and penalties
What to do:
• Review key roles using common factors like control, tools, chance of profit, and risk of loss
• Document why you’ve treated someone as a contractor instead of an employee
• Involve your accountant or legal advisor for ambiguous cases
Red flag #5: “Our T4A data lives in seven different places.”
When your contractor information is split across:
• Spreadsheets
• Email threads
• Accounting software
• Personal notes
• Messaging apps
…it’s almost impossible to be sure you’re filing complete and accurate slips.
What to do:
• Choose one system as your “source of truth” for T4A‑relevant data
• Consolidate contractor info and payment summaries there
• Use that single source to drive your T4A process each year
What to do if you recognize these red flags
If you read this list and thought, “That’s us,” don’t panic. The goal isn’t perfection overnight; it’s to reduce risk over time.
A simple improvement plan:
1. Pick one recent tax year and make sure your T4A records are as strong as possible.
2. Start collecting better data for new contractors right now.
3. Set up a basic calendar and checklist for next T4A season.
4. Move away from purely manual processes where you can.
How T4ASlip can help you course‑correct
T4ASlip is built to help organizations move from “we kind of wing it” to “we have a clear, reliable T4A process.” It can:
• Centralize contractor profiles and tax data
• Pull in payment information from your existing systems
• Highlight missing or inconsistent data before you file
• Generate and organize T4A slips in a repeatable way
If these red flags feel familiar, the good news is they’re fixable—and the earlier you adjust, the less likely you are to run into problems with the CRA down the road.