CRA Payroll Remittances: Deadlines, Rates, and What Happens If You Miss One

Payroll source deductions are unlike any other business obligation. The CRA considers unremitted source deductions to be money held in trust — meaning it's treated as theft from employees, not a missed bill. Directors of corporations can be held personally liable for unpaid source deductions, even after the corporation is dissolved.

That's not to scare you — just to explain why this category deserves more attention than most business owners give it.

What you're remitting

Every pay period, you must withhold three things from employee pay and remit them (plus employer contributions on two of them):

Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

• Employee portion: 5.95% of pensionable earnings above the basic exemption ($3,500/year)
• Employer match: Equal to the employee's CPP contribution (i.e., you pay double)
• CPP maximum pensionable earnings for 2026: $68,500

Employment Insurance (EI)

• Employee portion: 1.66% of insurable earnings
• Employer portion: 1.4× the employee's EI premium (you pay 2.324%)
• EI maximum insurable earnings for 2026: $63,200

Federal and Provincial Income Tax

• Withheld based on the employee's TD1 form (personal amounts and credits claimed)
• No employer match — you remit exactly what was withheld from the employee

Remittance schedules

The CRA assigns you a remittance schedule based on your average monthly withholding from two years ago:

Avg. monthly withholding	Remittance type	Due date
Under $3,000	Regular (new employers)	15th of the following month
Under $25,000	Regular	15th of the following month
$25,000–$99,999	Accelerated Threshold 1	25th of the same month
$100,000+	Accelerated Threshold 2	Within 3 business days of each payroll

New employers are always Regular remitters for the first year.

Important: Your schedule is based on what you owed two years ago — so a growing business may move up a tier before they realize it. Check your CRA My Business Account to confirm your current category.

How to remit

1. Online via CRA My Business Account — fastest and most reliable. Use "Make a payment" → "Payroll deductions"
2. Online banking — add the CRA (Business – Payroll deductions) as a payee; use your business number + "RP0001" as the account
3. At your bank in person — use the remittance voucher from your payroll register

Always include your Business Number and the tax year and period covered in your remittance. Misapplied payments are frustratingly common.

Penalties for late or short remittances

The CRA is not lenient here:

Days late	Penalty
1–3 days	3% of amount owing
4–5 days	5%
6–7 days	7%
8+ days	10%
Repeat offence (second+ time in a year)	20%

Plus interest at the CRA's prescribed rate (currently around 9–10% annually) compounded daily.

Real cost example: A $15,000 remittance that's 10 days late = $1,500 penalty + interest. That's on top of whatever staffing error caused the delay.

T4 slips: your year-end obligation

By the last day of February, you must:

• File T4 slips with the CRA for every employee who received employment income
• Provide a copy of the T4 to each employee

The T4 summarizes the full year's employment income, CPP, EI, and income tax for each employee. If you use payroll software (QBO Payroll, Wagepoint, Payworks), this is generated automatically. If you're doing it manually, use the CRA's online T4 filing tool.

Record of Employment (ROE)

When an employee's employment ends (resignation, termination, layoff, or leave of 5+ days), you must issue an ROE within 5 calendar days (if filed electronically). ROEs are filed via Service Canada's ROE Web, not the CRA.

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Payroll compliance has zero-tolerance margins. If your current setup makes you uncertain about any of the above, talk to us — payroll is one of the areas where getting a second opinion before something goes wrong is genuinely worth it.