When Do T4 Slips Come Out and What If Mine Is Missing?

Most T4 slips reach employees between late January and mid February, though the legal cutoff is the last day of February, which for 2026 income means March 1, 2027. CRA My Account runs behind that, so slips often do not appear there until mid March. A slip that has not arrived by the first week of March is late, and the fix depends on why.

Some people are waiting for a slip that will never exist, because the pay fell under $500 or the work was contract rather than employment. This guide shows how to tell which case you are in.

When Do T4 Slips Come Out?

Three separate dates matter, and people confuse them constantly. The first is when your employer releases the slip, which is usually late January or early February once payroll finishes year end processing. The second is the legal cutoff of March 1, 2027 for the 2026 tax year, covered in our guide to the T4 filing deadline for employers. The third is when CRA posts it, which comes later still.

That third date catches people out. CRA receives the employer’s electronic filing, processes the batch, and only then publishes the figures to your account. A slip filed on February 25 may not be visible to you until the second or third week of March, even though your employer met every obligation on time.

Auto fill my return depends entirely on that posting date. The service pulls whatever CRA holds at the moment you use it, so filing in early March with Auto fill can produce a return that silently omits a slip CRA has not processed yet. CRA tells filers to check the imported data against their own records, and that warning exists for exactly this reason.

Why Your T4 Might Be Missing?

The table below matches the most common situations to what is actually happening.

Situation	What Is Going On	Your Next Step
Early February, nothing yet	Normal, the deadline has not passed	Wait, or ask payroll
Slip issued, nothing in My Account	CRA has not processed the batch	Wait until mid March
You moved during the year	Mailed to your old address	Call payroll, update address
You left the job mid year	Portal access ended, slip mailed	Contact former employer
You earned under $500 there	No slip is required at all	Use pay records, report anyway
You were paid as a contractor	A T4A applies, not a T4	Expect a different slip
Employer closed or went under	Trustee or receiver handles it	Contact the trustee

How to Track Down a Missing T4?

Work through three sources in order, since each one rules out a different cause.

1. Ask Payroll or Your Former Employer

Payroll can reprint a slip in minutes in almost any system, and nothing stops them from emailing a copy the same day. Send the request in writing so a record exists, and confirm the mailing address and personal email they hold while you have their attention.

Former employees have the harder version of this. Portal access usually ends on the last day of work, so the request has to go to a general HR address or a former manager. Keep that message, because it becomes your evidence if CRA later asks what steps you took.

2. Check CRA My Account

Sign in and open the tax information slips section, which lists every slip CRA holds under your social insurance number for each year. What appears there is exactly what CRA will match your return against, so it is the authoritative version rather than a convenience copy.

An empty section before mid March proves nothing. The absence only becomes meaningful once the employer deadline has passed and CRA has had two weeks to process filings. Our guide to common mistakes when filling out line 10100 covers what happens when the figures there disagree with what you report.

3. Contact CRA After the Deadline

Once March 1, 2027 has passed and the employer has not produced a slip, CRA will follow up with them directly. Have the business name, the business number from an old pay stub if you have one, your dates of employment, and the gross pay you believe applies.

CRA can assess the employer for failing to issue slips, but that process takes months and does not put a document in your hands before April 30. Treat the call as a parallel step rather than a solution, and start reconstructing the figures at the same time.

When No Slip Will Ever Come?

Some people chase a document that was never required. An employer does not have to file a T4 where total pay for the year sat at or below $500 and no income tax, CPP, or EI was withheld. A two week summer job or a single weekend shift can fall under that line, and no slip will ever be issued for it.

The income is still taxable. CRA expects the amount on your return whether or not a slip exists, and a bank deposit record or a final pay stub supports the figure. Omitting it because no paperwork arrived is a common and avoidable error.

Contract work is the second false alarm. A genuine contractor receives a T4A with the payment in Box 048, not a T4, and that slip may arrive from a different department on a different schedule. Our comparison of T4 vs T4A vs T5 slips explains which form applies to which relationship. Anyone unsure which they were should check whether CPP and EI came off their pay, since deductions point to employment.

How to File Without Your T4?

The April 30 deadline does not move because a slip went astray. Late filing costs 5 percent of the balance owing plus 1 percent for each full month the return stays outstanding, up to 12 months, and CRA applies it regardless of the reason.

Your final pay stub of 2026 carries almost everything you need. Year to date columns give gross pay for Box 14, income tax deducted for Box 22, CPP contributions for Box 16, and EI premiums for Box 18. Check those totals against the annual ceilings in our guide to CPP and EI rates for 2026, since a figure above the maximum signals an error in either the stub or your arithmetic.

Attach a note naming the employer, the period worked, and the fact that no slip was received. Estimate on the conservative side, since understating income invites a reassessment with interest. People reporting several employers in one year should follow our guide on how to report multiple T4 slips on line 10100, and we prepare these returns through personal income tax in Calgary.

What to Do If It Arrives After You File?

CRA matches every slip against the return already on file, so a late arriving T4 surfaces on its own within months. Fixing it yourself costs less than waiting for the reassessment, since interest accrues from the original due date on any additional tax.

ReFILE handles most corrections through certified software or CRA My Account, covering the current tax year and the three before it. Form T1-ADJ covers what ReFILE cannot, including older years and returns needing supporting documents. Processing takes a few weeks either way, and no penalty applies to a voluntary correction of a single slip.

Repetition changes that. Failing to report $500 or more of income in a year, after a similar failure in any of the three preceding years, triggers a repeated failure to report income penalty of 10 percent federally plus a matching provincial amount on the unreported sum. Our step by step guide to personal tax returns in Canada covers the full process for getting it right the first time.

Build a Slip Checklist in January

Anyone who held more than one job in 2026 should write the employers down in January and tick each slip off as it arrives. Short contracts, seasonal shifts, and jobs that ended early are the ones people forget, and they are also the ones most likely to go to an old address.

A gap noticed in February gets solved with a phone call. The same gap noticed on April 25 means estimating from stubs, filing a note, and probably amending later. The eight weeks between the employer deadline and your filing deadline exist for this, and they disappear quickly.

Tax Return Filers PC reconstructs missing slips from pay records and files the return either way, including personal income tax in Toronto for clients with several employers in one year. Businesses that want their own slips produced on time use payroll services in Mississauga.