Amend, cancel, add, or replace slips and summaries

It is the obligation of the taxpayer, the employer and the payee to report the income accurately. The employer can correct a reporting error.

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Amend or cancel slips

You may notice that you made an error when preparing the slips.

  • When to send amended slips

    You must send the CRA amended or cancelled slips if you already filed the slips and you want to correct them because you know the information in any box or code is incorrect.

    If you want to correct your business address or your business name, you must make changes to your CRA business account.

  • When not to send amended or cancelled slips

    Do not send amended or cancelled slips if:

    • You are only changing the employee's address.
    • You receive a pensionable and insurable earnings review (PIER) report.
    • Your original return is not processed.
    • You did not send the slips to the CRA. You can correct them by preparing new slips and removing any incorrect copies from the return. If you do not prepare a new slip, initial any changes you make on the slip. You also need to correct the summary.
    • You are amending slips to change the nature of the income.
Recalculate a pension adjustment

If you are amending a slip, you may need to recalculate a pension adjustment

Learn more: Pension adjustment (PA).

Which method to use

You can amend or cancel slips using Web forms, internet file transfer or on paper, regardless of how the information return was originally filed.

  • Web forms and internet file transfer: Option 1

    Learn more on how to amend or cancel slips: Filing Information Returns Electronically (T4/T5 and other types of returns)

  • On paper: Option 2

    If you send the amended or cancelled paper slips:

    • Identify the slips by writing AMENDED or CANCELLED at the top of each slip
    • Fill out all necessary boxes, including the information that was correct on the original slip
    • Do not amend a summary (the adjustment will be done once the slip has been processed)
    • Send two copies of the amended or cancelled slips to the employee
    • Send one copy of the amended or cancelled slips to any national verification and collection centre with a letter explaining the reason for the amendment or cancellation

You cannot amend slips to change the nature of the income

 

You cannot change the nature of the income paid (for example, from salary to dividends).

If the payments you made to a shareholder were recorded as salary payments (in your books and records) and deductions at source were required, you cannot do any of the following:

  • Retroactively change your records and convert the payments to dividends
  • Decrease the shareholder loan account
  • Transfer the earnings to another employee or contractor
  • Divide taxable income between the shareholder and their spouse (income splitting)

When an amount has been deducted or withheld from a payment, the amount must be remitted to the Receiver General by the appropriate deadline.

You also cannot change the nature of the payments after the financial statements and information returns have been filed (including the T4).

Depending on your situation, this may be considered retroactive tax planning and is inaccurately changing the reporting of the income.

Add slips

You may discover that you need to send the CRA additional slips. Any additional slips which are filed after the due date may result in a penalty.

Which method to use to add slips

You can add slips using Web forms, internet file transfer or on paper, regardless of how the information return was originally filed. You must send a new original return if you need to send additional slips after you have filed your information return.

  • Web forms and internet file transfer: Option 1

    Learn more on how to amend or cancel slips: Filing Information Returns Electronically (T4/T5 and other types of returns)

  • On paper: Option 2

    If you send the additional paper slips:

    • Identify the new slips by writing ADDITIONAL at the top of each slip
    • Fill out all necessary boxes
    • Do not amend a summary (the adjustment will be done once the slip has been processed)
    • Send two copies of the additional slips to the employee
    • Send one copy of the additional slips to any national verification and collection centre with a letter explaining the reason for the addition

Replace slips

Your employees may have lost or destroyed their slips and request replacements.

If you issue paper slips:

  • Identify the replacement slips by writing DUPLICATE at the top of each slip
  • Issue the replacement slips to the employee and keep a copy for record keeping purposes
  • Do not send the replacement slip to the CRA

You can also suggest to your employee to use My Account for Individuals to get a copy of the slips (T4, T4A, T4A(P), T4A(OAS) and T4E).

Cancel an entire return

If you want to cancel an entire return, you must send your request by mail or fax to your Tax Centre, to the attention of Employer Services.

To find your Tax Centre, go to: Tax services offices and tax centers - Addresses, office hours, and fax numbers

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