How to File a T4 Slip for Your Nanny in Canada
Learn how to file a T4 slip for your nanny or caregiver in Canada. Covers CRA deadlines, box codes, and how to calculate gross pay and deductions.
Nick at RoostPay
February 28 comes around fast. That is the annual CRA deadline to file T4 slips for every employee you paid in the previous calendar year — including your nanny, au pair, or caregiver.
If you have been tracking payroll in a spreadsheet, this is the moment those accumulated formula errors compound into a real problem. Missing boxes, miscalculated CPP, an EI total that does not match ROE records — even a small discrepancy can trigger a CRA review.
This guide walks you through exactly what a T4 is, which boxes you need to fill out as a domestic employer, how to calculate the right amounts using 2026 rates, and what to do if you switched payroll systems mid-year. If you are still confirming whether you are a domestic employer at all, start with our guide to nanny tax obligations in Canada.
What Is a T4 Slip?
A T4 (Statement of Remuneration Paid) is the Canadian tax document that summarizes an employee’s annual earnings and deductions. You, the employer, give a copy to the employee and file the T4 slips plus a T4 Summary with CRA.
Do Household Employers Need to File T4 Slips?
Yes. You must issue a T4 if you deducted CPP contributions, EI premiums, or income tax from their pay. Under CRA administrative policy, you also have to issue one if you paid your nanny or caregiver more than $500 in the calendar year, even if you withheld nothing. In either case you must:
- Issue a T4 slip to your employee by the last day of February
- File the T4 slips and T4 Summary with CRA by the last day of February
This obligation applies regardless of whether your employee is full-time, part-time, or works irregular shifts.
What Information Goes on a T4?
Here are the boxes that matter most for domestic employers:
| T4 Box | Label | What to Enter |
|---|---|---|
| Box 14 | Employment income | Total gross wages paid in the calendar year, plus taxable allowances and benefits |
| Box 16 | Employee’s CPP contributions | CPP withheld from each paycheque, totalled (not including CPP2) |
| Box 16A | Employee’s CPP2 contributions | Second additional CPP withheld, if earnings crossed the first ceiling |
| Box 18 | Employee’s EI premiums | EI withheld from each paycheque, totalled |
| Box 22 | Income tax deducted | Federal + provincial income tax you remitted (except Quebec provincial tax) |
| Box 24 | EI insurable earnings | Usually the same as Box 14, capped at the EI maximum ($68,900 in 2026) |
| Box 26 | CPP/QPP pensionable earnings | Usually the same as Box 14, up to the additional CPP maximum ($85,000 in 2026) |
| Box 45 | Employer-offered dental benefits | A code from 1 to 5. Most household employers enter 1 (no dental coverage offered) |
Box 45 is mandatory for 2025 and later, even if you do not offer dental benefits. The earlier CRA waiver for code 1 no longer applies.
For Quebec employers, you will also need to prepare a RL-1 slip through Revenu Québec in addition to the federal T4. Quebec employees contribute to QPP (and QPP2) instead of CPP, and they pay a lower EI rate because of the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan.
How to Calculate Each Amount
Every figure on the T4 is a year-to-date (YTD) total pulled from your payroll records. If you have been keeping clean records, each number is just a sum across all pay periods.
Box 14 — Employment Income
Add every gross paycheque you issued in the calendar year. Do not subtract CPP or EI — those are separate boxes. Include vacation pay, statutory holiday pay, and any taxable allowances or benefits you paid (for example, room and board for a live-in nanny).
Do not include bona fide expense reimbursements. If your nanny paid for a kids’ outing, museum tickets, or lunch on a field trip and you repaid the exact amount against receipts, that is generally not taxable employment income and should stay out of Box 14. Keep those reimbursements separate from wages so they do not inflate CPP, EI, or income tax. RoostPay’s expense tracker lets your caregiver submit a receipt photo from their phone, you approve it, and the reimbursement hits the next pay run without being treated as wages.
Box 16 — CPP Contributions
In 2026, employees contribute 5.95% of pensionable earnings above the $3,500 basic exemption, up to the first earnings ceiling of $74,600. As the employer, you match this amount dollar-for-dollar.
The simplest way to think about it: apply 5.95% to earnings between $3,500 and $74,600. The maximum employee CPP contribution in 2026 is $4,230.45.
Box 16A — CPP2 Contributions
CPP2 is a second layer of Canada Pension Plan contributions that started in 2024. It is not deducted on every paycheque. It only starts once your nanny’s pensionable earnings for the year go above the first ceiling ($74,600 in 2026).
From that point, you deduct 4% on earnings between $74,600 and the second ceiling of $85,000. The maximum employee CPP2 contribution in 2026 is $416. You match that amount too. Report the employee total in Box 16A. If they never crossed $74,600, leave Box 16A blank.
Most nannies will not hit that threshold. A high-wage live-in arrangement, or a nanny whose taxable benefits push pensionable earnings over the first ceiling, is when CPP2 shows up.
Box 18 — EI Premiums
The 2026 employee EI premium rate outside Quebec is 1.63% of insurable earnings, up to a maximum of $1,123.07. If your nanny earned more than the maximum insurable amount ($68,900 in 2026), Box 18 is capped at $1,123.07. You pay 1.4 times the employee premium as the employer share, but only the employee amount goes on the T4.
Quebec employees pay a lower EI rate (1.30% in 2026, maximum $895.70) because parental benefits are covered separately under QPIP.
Box 22 — Income Tax Deducted
This is the sum of all federal and provincial income tax you withheld from each paycheque using the CRA payroll deductions tables (Quebec employers remit provincial tax to Revenu Québec, not on the T4). If you used the RoostPay nanny tax calculator or a TD1-based table throughout the year, your records should show this figure broken down per period.
What If You Switched Payroll Systems Mid-Year?
This is one of the most common T4 headaches we hear about from new RoostPay users. If you switched from a spreadsheet (or another provider) partway through 2026, you need to combine the YTD totals from both systems before filing.
Specifically, you will need from your prior system:
- YTD gross pay (for Box 14)
- YTD CPP withheld (for Box 16)
- YTD CPP2 withheld (for Box 16A, if any)
- YTD EI withheld (for Box 18)
- YTD income tax withheld (for Box 22)
RoostPay accepts these opening balances when you onboard mid-year, so your year-end totals stay accurate across the full calendar year. Join the RoostPay waitlist and we will walk through the transition with you.
The February Deadline — and What Happens If You Miss It
The CRA T4 filing deadline is the last day of February of the year following the tax year. If that date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or a holiday recognized by the CRA, you have until the next business day. For the 2026 tax year, February 28, 2027 is a Sunday, so the deadline is Monday, March 1, 2027.
If you file late, the CRA may charge a penalty. For most household employers (one to five slips), that is a $100 flat penalty under the CRA’s relieving administrative policy. The legislated scale is $10 per day for one to 50 slips (maximum $1,000), but T4s are assessed under the reduced policy for small filers. Failing to give your employee their T4 on time is a separate offence: $25 per day per slip, minimum $100 and maximum $2,500.
If you realize you filed an incorrect T4, you can amend it through CRA My Business Account using Web Forms, or by filing a T4 Amendment.
How RoostPay Handles Your T4s
If you run payroll in RoostPay all year, February is not a scavenger hunt. Every pay run already has the Box 14, 16, 16A, 18, and 22 totals, so the T4 is assembled from those records instead of rebuilt from a spreadsheet.
RoostPay does not file the return for you. It prepares the files you need to finish the job in a few minutes:
- XML for CRA: A CRA-ready T4 / T4 Summary file you upload through Internet file transfer in My Business Account — no typing boxes into Web Forms and no building XML by hand.
- PDF for your employee: A print-ready T4 slip you can send or hand over so they have it before they file their personal return. Missing that handoff is a separate CRA penalty.
Year-end T4 XML and PDF generation is included in your flat monthly plan. No extra year-end processing fee, and no last-week scramble to remember which boxes go where. See how T4 management works in RoostPay if you want the full walkthrough.
How to File T4 Slips With CRA
You have two options:
1. CRA My Business Account (Web Forms): Log into CRA My Business Account and file up to 100 T4 slips using Web Forms. This is the recommended route for household employers who have only one or two employees. You can also sign in to Web Forms with your payroll account number and web access code.
2. XML file upload: CRA also accepts a bulk XML upload (Internet file transfer). RoostPay generates that file from your year-to-date payroll so you can upload it as-is — the T4 data is already structured correctly because every pay run was calculated using CRA-approved rates from day one.
After you upload, CRA shows a confirmation of receipt with a submission number. Keep a copy for your records.
Why Spreadsheets Break at T4 Time
If you built your payroll in a spreadsheet, the end-of-year reconciliation is typically where it all comes apart. A formula that pulled the wrong TD1 exemption in June compounds silently through December. Variable shifts — a week at 32 hours, a week at 20 — make the CPP pro-ration calculation especially fragile. CPP2 only appears after the first earnings ceiling, which is easy to miss if you are totalling cells by hand.
T4 season is the moment those silent errors surface as a CRA discrepancy.
A purpose-built payroll tool calculates the correct CPP, CPP2, EI, and income tax on every pay run, tracks the YTD totals in real time, and populates your T4 data automatically at year-end. That is the gap RoostPay was built to close for domestic employers in Canada.
Ready to take T4 stress off your plate? Join the RoostPay waitlist to be first in line when automatic T4 preparation for Canadian household employers launches.