Before we jump into the steps to create and file your T4s, we want to provide you with some helpful information. If you're already a pro, you can skip this section and jump to the "Run your T4s in Humi" section.
Helpful Information
Every tax year, employers in Canada who have paid out remunerations to employees throughout the year are required to fill out and issue T4 slips to their employees. The deadline for filing your T4 information return to the CRA and issuing T4 slips to employees for the 2022 tax year is February 28, 2023.
If you're new to payroll or the year-end process, here's some background on T4s and the requirements that go with them. Most amounts paid by an employer to an individual are referred to as "remuneration," and T4 slips cover the following types of remuneration:
- Salary, wages (including pay in lieu of termination notice), tips or gratuities, bonuses, vacation pay, employment commissions, gross and insurable earnings of self-employed fishers, and all other remuneration (see Box 14 – Employment income, for a detailed list) you paid to employees during the year
- Taxable benefits or allowances
- Retiring allowances
- Deductions you withheld during the year
- Pension adjustment (PA) amounts for employees who accrued a benefit for the year under your registered pension plan (RPP) or deferred profit-sharing plan (DPSP)
Generally, compensations like "salary and wages," as well as additional income types like "bonus, tips and vacation pay" processed through Humi Payroll, are automatically assigned to the corresponding boxes on the T4 slip.
Benefits are reported in all required boxes on T4 slips
Sometimes, taxable allowances and benefits may have additional T4 reporting requirements.
For example, in addition to reporting a housing allowance in Box 14 as employment income, it must be reported again in the T4 slip's "Other Information" section with code 30.
It's important to ensure all benefits are reported correctly in the T4 slips by specifying the T4 code that the benefit should be reported in.
For more information about benefits reporting, see Step 2: Review Records.
Verify YTD records are accurate
Employers who started using Humi Payroll mid-year were required to upload Year-To-Date (YTD) payroll records.
When T4 slips are prepared, the YTD amounts are added to the amounts processed through Humi Payroll to provide a full year's context on payroll.
It's important to review and update the records if necessary to ensure they accurately represent payrolls processed through previous payroll providers.
Learn more about updating payroll YTD records.
Now that you've read those helpful tips, let's dive into this article where we'll explain the following steps to create and file your T4s:
- Run your T4s in Humi
- Review and make pension adjustments (if applicable)
- Finalize T4s in Humi
- Send T4s to employees
- Download the Tax Package from Humi
- File slips and summaries with the CRA
1. Run your T4s in Humi
We've made is simple to run your T4s in Humi. If you're unsure how to do this, check out this detailed article, "How to generate employee T4s."
2. When reviewing T4s, make "Pension Adjustments" (if applicable)
If you've used any of the "Defined Benefit Pension Plan, Defined Contribution Pension Plan, or Profit Sharing Plan" benefit types, then you will need to fill in Box 50 with the pension plan registration
number, and Box 52 with the Pension Adjustment amount. Humi will display a warning message if this is required:
To fill in boxes 50 and 52, follow the steps outlined in the generate employee T4’s article.
3. Finalize T4s in Humi
By clicking "Finalize T4s," you're telling Humi that you've verified all T4s are correct, and the T4s are now locked.
Employers must provide T4 slips to all employees by the end of February. Humi Payroll makes this process easier by allowing employers to send all T4s directly to employees.
4. Send T4s to employees
Once you’ve finalized the T4s, you can click "Email All T4s" to send the password-protected T4 email to all employees who require a T4.
On the "Tax package" page in Humi, click "Email All T4s" to send a secure PDF T4 file to each employee's email address which is based on the contact information save in Humi.
Tip
To ensure the email address in Humi, you can ask them to verify their email on their employee profile and update it if necessary.
5. Download the tax package from Humi
The tax package contains a PDF copy of all T4s for your records, and the T619 .XML file that you must upload to CRA.
Humi Payroll Tax Package provides two types of tax information for review and filing needs:
Employee T4
T4 slips are summaries of employment earnings and annual deductions for individual employees. Humi will produce T4s for active and terminated employees, as long as the employees have been paid through Humi Payroll in the past.
T619 is an electronic transmittal record of T4 and T4 Summary. This is to be downloaded and filed with CRA. In addition, the T619 can also be downloaded and viewed as a text file.
Learn more about viewing tax forms. Once the tax package is ready for review, follow the suggested steps to review employee T4s.
6. File slips and summaries with the CRA
Submit T619 to CRA
After you've finalized your T4s, you'll need to download and upload the T619 file onto the CRA's online portal, Internet File Transfer Option.
Note
You can also file the T619 by logging into the "My Business Account" and filing it from there.
The link to do so is also available in the banner just above the list of employee T4s in-app: Payroll > Records > Tax Forms > click into the "Employer Package"
Make sure you have the checklist items specified on the CRA website, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "I Agree."
Enter your CRA Account Number and Web Access Code, and go through the process as instructed on the page.
While entering the CRA account number, use your 9-digit number followed by your CRA program code and CRA reference number (most often 0001). For example, 123456789RP0001
If you don’t have a Web access code, visit the link "Need a Web Access Code?" in the CRA’s online checklist.
Finally, upload the T619 XML file and click "Submit."
Voila, congratulations on filing your T4s successfully. Now is the time to pat yourself on the back for a job well done!
If you have to make further changes to T4s that are already issued, you can just learn more about Amending T4s.
Click here to move on to Step 5 – Set up for the new payroll year