Canadian Tax Slips and Receipts: When Your T4 and Other Slips Arrive at Tax Time

When it is time to do your taxes, slips come from different places on different dates, and nobody sends you a checklist. This guide is the recipient’s map: what each common slip reports, where the Canada Revenue Agency posts copies, what to do when one is missing, late or wrong, and how the agency checks your return against every slip after you file.

Key Takeaways

• Payers issue slips, not the agency, and a slip appears online only after the payer files it.
• Most slips are due to you by the last day of February; trust and partnership slips can take until March 31.
• Auto-fill My Return downloads only what has posted, so a late slip will not appear in your software.
• A missing slip does not change the date your return is due. Estimate the income and explain how you are getting the slip.
• If a slip turns up after you file, request a change instead of filing a second return.
• Leaving out $500 or more in one year, and again in any of the three years before it, can add a federal penalty of up to 10% of the missed amount, and a provincial or territorial penalty of up to 10% more.

Common Tax Slips in Canada and What Each One Reports

The CRA website’s tax slips page lists more than a dozen slips, and the ones that reach you depend on your tax situation. This table covers the slips most individuals receive, who sends each one, and when it is due to reach you.

The same list includes the T4FHSA for a First Home Savings Account and the T2202 Tuition and Enrolment Certificate from your school. A T4 comes from an employer that paid you a wage, while a T4A covers most other payments. If your T4A shows commissions or fees because you work for yourself, our guide to self-employment tax forms covers that income from the business side. If you live in Quebec, you also receive RL slips, such as the RL-1, for the provincial return you file with Revenu Québec.

When Tax Slips Are Issued: The Filing Deadline for Each Slip

Payers file each slip with the agency and send your copy on the same schedule. Section 205 of the regulations under the Income Tax Act (ITA) makes the last day of February after the calendar year the default due date for information returns, and section 209 requires each payer to send you your copies on or before that date.

When that day falls on a weekend, it moves. For 2025 slips, the last day of February was a Saturday, so the CRA’s employer guide set the due date at Monday, March 2, 2026, under its rule that a due date on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday moves to the next business day. By our own reading of that rule, slips for 2026 should be due Monday, March 1, 2027, because February 28, 2027 falls on a Sunday. Treat that date as our calculation, subject to change once the agency publishes the next set of guides. Employers that miss the date face penalties of their own, which our guide to employer slip deadlines and penalties covers.

Two kinds of slip run on different clocks:

• Trust slips. A trust’s information return is due within 90 days after the end of its taxation year (section 204 of the regulations). For a December 31 year end, that works out to March 31, which is why the T3 from a mutual fund trust can arrive weeks after everything else.
• Partnership slips. If every partner is an individual, the partnership return and your slip are due by March 31 after the calendar year its fiscal period ended. If every partner is a corporation, the deadline is five months after the fiscal period ends, and a mix of partners uses whichever date comes first.

Some government benefit slips reach you faster online: Service Canada’s Tax information slips online service lets you access tax slips for Canada Pension Plan benefits earlier, so you can file sooner.

How to Access Your Tax Slips in CRA My Account and Auto-fill My Return

Once tax slips are available, you can access them online in two places. If you use My Account, you may be able to view each slip a payer has filed, and Auto-fill My Return downloads the same slips into your tax software. Neither can show a slip early: the CRA does not issue slips and cannot post them to your CRA Account until the payer sends them.

The agency expects to receive most slips from payers by the end of February, then to have them processed and ready for Auto-fill by mid-March. Beyond the available slips, the service brings in information from previous tax returns and the agency’s own records, such as your RRSP deduction limit, Home Buyers’ Plan and Lifelong Learning Plan repayments, and carryforward amounts. Check that limit before your next contribution, because an RRSP over-contribution of more than $2,000 is taxed at 1% a month.

Auto-fill fills in only what the CRA has on file. In the agency’s own words, any slips that may be missing won’t auto-populate, so you enter those yourself from the copy the payer sent. It also leaves out rent, medical expenses, child care and moving expenses, and the donation tax receipt from a charity, so keep those receipts and documents handy.

The official advice is to wait until you have every slip before you file, because that can help you avoid errors, reassessments or delays. In our personal tax practice, the timing trap is predictable: an Auto-fill download in the first week of March picks up the employment and bank income slips, and the T3 for a fund held in a non-registered account arrives weeks later. For 2025 returns, the tax filing deadline was April 30, 2026, or June 15 if you or your spouse or common-law partner was self-employed, with any balance still due April 30. Waiting a few weeks for the last slip rarely costs anything.

What to Do When You Don’t Receive Your Tax Slips

If you have not received a slip by the expected deadline, start with the payer. The agency’s page on getting a copy of your tax slips says to ask your employer or the issuer of the slip, and to check My Account. For employment income, the agency’s advice is to contact your employer if your slip has not arrived by early April. If you call the CRA instead, it still cannot post a slip the payer never filed.

If you still do not receive a tax slip by the time your return is due, you can estimate the income from pay stubs or financial statements. Include a note with the name and address of the issuer, the type of income, and what you are doing to get the slip. If you file electronically, keep the note and statements in case the agency asks for them; with a paper return, attach them. For tax purposes, the income is reportable whether or not a slip ever arrives, and that includes interest under $50 that never produced a slip.

Filing late to wait for a slip is the expensive choice. Under ITA 162(1), a late return costs 5% of the balance unpaid on the due date plus 1% of it for each full month late, up to 12 months, and interest runs on the balance as well, as our guide to interest and penalties explains.

Example. Sam’s employer closed in December, and his employment slip never came. His final pay stub shows year-to-date gross pay of $41,200 and $6,050 of tax deducted, so he reports those figures and includes a note naming the employer, its address and his two written requests for the slip. The slip finally arrives in June showing $41,450, because a $250 vacation payout ran after his last pay stub. Once his assessment arrives, he requests a change to add the $250 rather than filing a second return.

Wrong or Amended Slips and Fixing Your Tax Return

Only the payer can correct a slip. The Auto-fill page puts that job on you: contact the payer about any missing or incorrect slip and wait for the corrected version. Payers mark a corrected slip AMENDED at the top, and you report its figures in place of the original, never alongside it. Amended tax slips may arrive after you file.

If you have already filed, do not file a new return. Wait for your notice of assessment (NOA), then request a change to your return. Online requests, through Change my return in My Account or ReFILE in your tax software, are processed within 2 weeks, and a paper Form T1-ADJ within 16 weeks. Online changes cover most prior tax years, older years go by mail, and no refund can be issued for an adjustment request beyond 10 calendar years.

A slip can be correct and still disagree with your records: the T5008. Its guide tells brokers that the cost or book value in box 20 may or may not reflect the investor’s adjusted cost base (ACB), the tax cost you use to work out a gain, and that the investor may have to adjust it. In our practice, a common cause is shares transferred in from another broker, so rebuild your cost before you report the capital gain or loss.

How the CRA Matches Your Slips After Tax Season

Every slip you receive has a twin at the agency. In its matching program, the agency compares the information on your return with information from third parties such as employers and financial institutions, and those reviews take place after your NOA has been issued. For scale, the agency’s filing season statistics on canada.ca show more than 33 million individual returns received between February 6 and early September 2026, with 94% filed electronically.

When a slip is missing from your return, the result can be a letter or reassessment that adds the income, with interest. The larger risk is the repeated failure to report income penalty in ITA 163(1). It applies when you fail to report $500 or more in a year and also failed to report $500 or more in any of the three preceding years. Under subsection 163(1.1), the federal penalty is the lesser of 10% of the unreported amount and 50% of the difference between the tax understated on it and any tax withheld on it. A provincial or territorial penalty worked out the same way is added wherever provincial or territorial tax is payable, so the two together can reach 20% of the missed amount. For the 2025 tax year, that means a miss on your 2025 return combined with a miss on your 2022, 2023 or 2024 return.

Example. Suppose the matching program caught $900 of bank interest you left off your 2023 return. Two years later you miss $6,000 of income. For illustration only, assume the federal tax on that $6,000 is $1,560, at a federal rate of 26%, and look at the federal penalty alone.

• An investment slip with nothing withheld. The 10% test gives $600. The 50% test gives $780, half of $1,560. The federal penalty is the lower figure, $600, on top of the tax and interest.
• A withdrawal slip with tax withheld. If the $6,000 was a T4RSP withdrawal and, for the same illustration, $1,000 of the tax withheld counts against that federal tax, the 50% test is half of the $560 gap between $1,560 and $1,000, which is $280. The federal penalty drops to $280.

In this example, the same forgotten $6,000 carries less than half the federal penalty when tax was withheld at source, because the formula subtracts the withholding before it halves the understated tax. The provincial or territorial penalty follows the same steps with the provincial or territorial figures. In our representation work, the repeat penalty rarely starts with a large slip. It starts with a small interest or trust slip from an account the person had forgotten, missed in two years out of four. If a matching letter proposes income you do not recognize, contact the CRA and the payer, and get tax advice before you agree. Our audit representation team can take on that correspondence, and if a reassessment still gets it wrong, a notice of objection is the formal route.

Common Mistakes With Your Tax Documents

• Filing in early March with trust units or a partnership interest. Those slips may not exist yet.
• Treating Auto-fill as complete. It shows only slips that have posted, and never income that no payer reports.
• Skipping income that came without a slip. Interest under $50, a client who never issued a T4A, and cash paid for your work are all still taxable.
• Entering a slip twice. Downloading slips and then keying in the paper copy as well doubles the income.
• Reporting an original and its amended version. The AMENDED slip replaces the first one.
• Accepting the T5008 cost figure as your ACB. Its own guide says you may have to adjust it.

Action Checklist Before You File Your Taxes

1. List every employer, bank, broker, fund, pension and benefit program that paid you during the year.
2. Gather the relevant tax slips, documents and receipts as they arrive, and note the ones still to come.
3. Check My Account after mid-March and tick each slip off your list.
4. Ask the payer for any slip that has not arrived by the expected date.
5. Estimate the income and prepare a note for any slip that will not arrive before your return is due.
6. Compare every downloaded figure with the slip itself before you submit.
7. Request a change, not a new return, if a slip turns up after you file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I view my tax slips on CRA?

Yes, once the payer has filed the slip. If you use My Account, you may be able to view your tax slips online, and tax software can download the same slips through Auto-fill My Return. A slip the payer has not sent will not appear, so an empty list in early February can simply mean it is still on its way.

When do tax slips come out?

Most slips must reach you by the last day of February following the year they cover, and a due date that falls on a weekend moves to the next business day. Trust slips are due within 90 days of the trust’s year end, which works out to March 31 for a calendar-year trust. Receipts for retirement plan contributions made early in a year can take until May.

What is the deadline to receive T5 slips?

The payer has to file your T5 and send you a copy by the last day of February after the year the income was paid. You may not get one at all if the payer’s total for you was under $50 for the year, but you still have to report that income.

What should I do if I haven’t received a tax slip?

Ask the payer for a copy and check My Account. If it still has not arrived when your return is due, estimate the income from your pay stubs or statements and include a note with the payer’s name and address, the type of income, and what you are doing to get the slip. File on time either way, because the late-filing penalty starts at 5% of any balance owing.

What is the difference between a T4 and a T4A slip?

A T4 reports employment income from an employer, along with the CPP or QPP contributions, EI premiums and tax deducted from your pay. A T4A reports other income, such as pensions, lump-sum payments, annuities, scholarships, RESP educational assistance payments, and commissions or fees for services paid to self-employed people.

What happens if I file my taxes without all my tax slips?

The CRA assesses the return you filed, and its matching program later compares that return with the slips payers sent. A missing slip can lead to a reassessment that adds the income, plus interest. If you also missed $500 or more in any of the three previous years, the repeated failure penalty can apply, so request a change as soon as a late slip turns up.

How do I get my CPP and OAS tax slips?

Service Canada issues the T4A(P) for Canada Pension Plan benefits and the T4A(OAS) for Old Age Security. Its online slips service lets you see the T4A(P) earlier, and you can also view the T4A(OAS) in My Account once it has been made available to the agency.

What is a T5008 tax slip?

A T5008 reports securities you sold or redeemed during the year, with the proceeds in box 21 and the cost or book value in box 20. The CRA’s guide says that cost figure may or may not reflect your ACB, so check it against your own records before you report any gain or loss.

The Bottom Line

Slips are the agency’s copy of your income, sent to you so your return can match it.

• Most slips are due by the last day of February, and trust and partnership slips by March 31.
• A missing slip calls for an estimate and a note, not a late return.
• A repeat omission of $500 or more can cost up to 10% of the missed amount federally, and up to 10% more provincially or territorially, on top of the tax.

Reconciling slips is simple with one employer and slow with three accounts, a fund and a partnership. Our personal tax return team can check every slip against a list of your accounts before filing your personal income tax return, and a tax advisor’s second look is worth most once a matching letter has arrived. Contact us if your slips and your records have stopped agreeing.