T4 Slip
Feuillet T4 in French
Quick definition
A T4 slip is the statement your employer must issue by the end of February, reporting your previous year's employment income and everything withheld from it: income tax, CPP or QPP contributions, and EI premiums. Its numbered boxes flow directly into your tax return.
What the T4 reports
Every employer that paid you employment income must issue a T4 for the prior calendar year by the last day of February, sending one copy to you and one to the CRA. It is the master record of your job income for taxable income purposes, and tax software fills your return from it, box by numbered box.
The box guide
A T4 has dozens of possible boxes, but a handful do almost all the work.
| Box | What it shows |
|---|---|
| 14 | Employment income: salary, wages, bonuses and taxable benefits |
| 16 / 17 | CPP (box 16) or QPP (box 17) contributions withheld |
| 18 | EI premiums withheld |
| 20 | Registered pension plan (RPP) contributions, deductible |
| 22 | Income tax deducted, the main driver of refund vs. balance owing |
| 40 | Taxable benefits, already included in box 14 |
| 44 | Union dues, deductible |
| 46 | Charitable donations made through payroll |
| 52 | Pension adjustment (not income, but it cuts RRSP room) |
Two boxes worth a second look
Box 16 or 17 is filled depending on whether you contributed to the CPP or, for employment in Québec, the QPP. And box 52's pension adjustment is the value your workplace pension accrued during the year: it is neither income nor a deduction, but it reduces your RRSP contribution room for the following year.
Multiple T4s, and the T4's cousins
Changed jobs during the year? Each employer issues its own T4, and all of them get filed. Forgetting one is a classic cause of reassessment, since the CRA already holds its copy of every slip.
The slip family is easy to confuse. The T4 covers employment income. The T4A covers most other amounts paid to a person: pension income, self-employed commissions, scholarships, some contract work. The T5 covers investment income such as interest and dividends. Different slips, same destination: your return.
Missing or wrong slip
If a T4 has not arrived by early March, check CRA My Account, which displays the slips the CRA has already received, and ask your employer, who faces penalties for filing late. If the slip truly cannot be obtained, file on time anyway using your final pay stub of the year as an estimate, then adjust once the T4 surfaces.
In Canada
For employees in Québec, the T4 arrives alongside its provincial twin, the RL-1 slip, which feeds the Revenu Québec return. The amounts overlap but are not identical, and each slip serves its own return.
Worked example
Jordan changed employers in July, so the following February brings two T4s: box 14 of $38,000 with $5,900 of tax withheld at the first job, and box 14 of $34,000 with $4,700 withheld at the second (illustrative figures). Both slips go in one return, reporting $72,000 of employment income.
Each payroll withheld tax as if its own salary were Jordan's whole income for the year, so the combined withholding comes up a little short of the tax owed on $72,000, and Jordan ends up with a small balance owing: the classic job-changer surprise. The consolation is CPP and EI, where two employers each deducted toward the annual maximums; any combined overpayment comes back through the return automatically.
Related terms
Reviewed by Alexandre Bernier, CFP®, CIM®, PFP®·Updated July 2026