You’ll often hear people say, “Our T4A forms need to be CRA-ready.”
It sounds good—but what does “CRA-ready” actually mean in practice? It’s more than just filling in boxes and hitting submit. It’s about making sure your slips are complete, accurate, timely, and defensible if the CRA ever takes a closer look.
Let’s break down what “CRA-ready” really looks like for T4A forms.
1. The right people are getting slips
First, CRA-ready means you’re issuing slips to the right recipients. That includes:
• Contractors and service providers whose payments fall under T4A reporting rules
• Specific types of “other income” the CRA expects to see on T4A slips
• Non-residents in separate T4A-NR situations (when applicable)
If you’re missing entire categories of recipients—because records are incomplete or you’re relying on memory—you’re not CRA-ready yet.
2. The amounts are complete and reconciled
A CRA-ready T4A slip doesn’t just contain “a number”; it contains a number that:
• Reflects all relevant payments to that recipient for the year
• Has been reconciled against your accounting records
• Excludes non-reportable items that don’t belong on a T4A
In a well-run process, you can answer questions like:
• “Show me how you arrived at this total.”
• “Which invoices and payments does this number represent?”
If you can’t tie the slip amount back to your own books, CRA won’t be impressed.
3. Recipient details are accurate and up to date
CRA-ready also means getting the basics right:
• Correct legal name or business name
• Valid address
• SIN or business number (where required)
• Clarity on whether the recipient is an individual or a corporation
Typos happen—but a pattern of sloppy or missing details suggests weak processes. That’s the kind of thing that can prompt deeper questions.
4. The correct boxes and slip types are used
T4A isn’t just one box labelled “miscellaneous income.” Different types of income belong in different boxes. CRA-ready forms:
• Use the appropriate T4A boxes for each type of payment
• Distinguish between T4A, T4, and T4A-NR where appropriate
• Reflect your actual relationship with the recipient (employee vs contractor vs non-resident)
This is an area where professional advice is especially valuable; the “ready” part includes being on solid ground about which slip you chose in the first place.
5. Everything is filed on time
Even perfect slips aren’t CRA-ready if they arrive late without a good reason. CRA-ready includes:
• Meeting CRA deadlines for filing and distributing slips
• Having internal cut-off dates so you’re not doing everything at the last possible moment
• Avoiding patterns of habitual lateness that can attract penalties
A CRA reviewer cares about both what you file and when you file it.
6. There’s a clear audit trail
One of the most overlooked aspects of “CRA-ready” is documentation. If the CRA ever asks how you arrived at your numbers, can you show them? A strong audit trail includes:
• Invoices and contracts that support the amounts
• Payment records from your bank or accounting system
• Summaries that tie individual transactions to the amounts on each slip
• Notes explaining unusual adjustments or exceptions
A dedicated system like T4ASlip makes this much easier than trying to piece together a story from old emails and spreadsheets.
7. Your process is repeatable, not heroic
CRA-ready is a property of your process, not just the end result in a lucky year. Ask yourself:
• Could another staff member follow our steps and arrive at the same numbers?
• Do we have checklists or is everything in one person’s head?
• Do we rely on last-minute heroics, or do we have a structured workflow?
If your compliant year depends on one superstar’s memory, that’s not truly CRA-ready—it’s just fortunate.
How T4ASlip supports “CRA-ready” T4As
T4ASlip is built to help organizations move closer to true CRA-readiness by:
• Centralizing contractor information and payment summaries
• Highlighting missing data before slips are generated
• Helping you group and reconcile payments at the contractor level
• Organizing outputs so they’re easy to review, file, and defend
Used properly, it becomes part of your compliance infrastructure—not just a form-filling tool.
Practical steps to get closer to CRA-ready
You don’t have to fix everything at once. Focus on:
• Cleaning up contractor records (names, addresses, tax IDs)
• Making sure all contractor payments can be reported and reconciled
• Setting internal deadlines that give you time to review, not just rush
• Introducing tools and checklists that make your process consistent
Each improvement reduces your risk and makes T4A season less stressful.
In short
“CRA-ready” T4A forms are:
• Going to the right recipients
• Backed by reconciled amounts
• Filled with accurate details in the correct boxes
• Filed on time, with supporting records and a repeatable process
It’s not about perfection—but it is about being able to show, with confidence, that you took reasonable steps to get things right. Tools like T4ASlip exist to make that standard easier to meet, year after year.