Startups move fast: new hires, new contractors, rapid growth. In all that chaos, T4A compliance can easily slip down the priority list—until year-end, when it suddenly becomes urgent.
This checklist is designed specifically for Canadian startups so you can get ahead of T4A season instead of scrambling at the last minute.
1. Map your worker types
☐ List all the people and entities you’ve paid this year:
• Employees
• Contractors and freelancers
• Advisors and consultants
• Other service providers
☐ Confirm who is on payroll (T4) vs who is paid as a contractor (potential T4A).
2. Centralize contractor information
☐ For each contractor or service provider, make sure you have:
• Full name or business name
• Address
• SIN or business number (as applicable)
• Email for sending slips
☐ Store this in a consistent system—HR tool, shared sheet, or a T4A tool like T4ASlip—not scattered across emails.
3. Reconcile payments
☐ Pull a report from your accounting system showing all payments to each contractor for the tax year.
☐ Verify that:
• No contractors are missing
• Amounts match invoices and bank records
• Refunds or adjustments are handled correctly
4. Flag non-resident situations
☐ Identify any non-residents you paid for services performed in Canada.
☐ Talk to your accountant about whether T4A-NR and withholding tax apply in these cases.
5. Review T4A requirements with your accountant
☐ Review CRA rules on:
• Which types of payments require T4A slips
• Any relevant thresholds or exceptions
• Deadlines for filing and sending slips
☐ Create a simple internal rule, such as:
“If we pay this type of service provider more than $___ in a year, they go on the T4A list.”
6. Generate draft T4A slips
☐ Use your data to prepare draft T4A slips:
• Check names and addresses
• Confirm amounts per recipient
• Ensure the correct boxes are used for each type of income
☐ Use a tool like T4ASlip if you have many contractors; this reduces manual entry and the risk of typos.
7. Quality-check your drafts
☐ Spot-check a sample of slips:
• Do totals match your payment reports?
• Are there any obvious typos or missing info?
☐ Confirm that T4A recipients are not accidentally duplicated as employees on T4s (unless there’s a specific reason and your accountant approves).
8. File and distribute
☐ File the T4A information returns with CRA by the required deadline.
☐ Send copies to recipients so they can prepare their own returns.
– Email, secure portal, or other agreed-upon method all work, as long as they get the information.
9. Document your process for next year
☐ Write down your T4A workflow in a simple internal document:
• How you identify T4A recipients
• How you collect their info
• How you track payments
• Who is responsible for each step
• What tools you use (for example, accounting software + T4ASlip)
☐ Store this playbook where finance and operations staff can find it easily.
10. Learn and improve after tax season
After tax season, take 20–30 minutes for a quick retrospective:
☐ What went smoothly?
☐ Where did you scramble?
☐ What steps could you automate or start earlier?
Update your onboarding forms, payment tagging, and T4ASlip configuration based on what you learned. That way, each year gets easier rather than repeating the same chaos.
How T4ASlip fits into the checklist
At multiple points in this checklist—centralizing information, reconciling payments, generating drafts, and saving records—a dedicated tool like T4ASlip can:
• Reduce manual data entry
• Automatically flag missing or inconsistent information
• Generate CRA-aligned slips on demand
• Help you keep a clean history of what you filed and why
For a fast-moving startup, that’s the difference between “T4A season is under control” and “we’re firefighting every February.”