CRA, in plain English.

The last day of February does not negotiate. Miss that date with Canada Revenue Agency, and the year-end T4 filing is late. Not one day late. Late. Most payroll professionals mark it in January. Fewer carry the full picture of what CRA administers, which starts not on the last day of February but on the first pay run of January and runs through every pay period in between.

What CRA administers.

Canada Revenue Agency is the federal authority that administers payroll source deductions across Canada. Three deductions define the obligation: income tax withholding, Canada Pension Plan contributions, and Employment Insurance premiums. Together, these are what employers calculate, collect, and remit to CRA on behalf of their employees, every time a payroll runs.

CPP and CPP2 are separate contributions, both administered by CRA. Each is a distinct deduction. Both flow from employer to CRA along with the employee EI premium and income tax withholding. Every pay period, the combined total of those deductions is what the employer owes.

The vehicle for payment is the PD7A.

The PD7A remittance schedule.

Employers remit source deductions to CRA using the PD7A. The schedule depends on remitter size: smaller operations file monthly, larger ones file on an accelerated timeline. A growing payroll can shift between those categories, tightening the filing window without much warning. Same form. Different cadence, different deadline.

Year-end brings a second obligation, separate from the PD7A cycle. CRA requires the T4, the annual summary of employment income and source deductions for every employee, by the last day of February. That date does not vary by province, industry, or payroll size. It is the same for a ten-person firm and a ten-thousand-person employer.

Two forms, two authorities.

Service Canada, not CRA, receives the Record of Employment. That is not a technicality. That is a distinct federal body with a distinct form and a distinct filing process. CRA owns the T4, filed annually by the last day of February. Service Canada owns the ROE. Same government. Different forms, different authorities, different processes.

What shows up in audits.

• Routing the ROE to CRA or bundling it into the T4 package. Service Canada is a different federal body with a different form and a different process entirely.
• Missing CPP2 when it applies. CPP and CPP2 are separate contributions, and payroll systems not updated for the second tier omit it from the calculation entirely.
• Filing on the wrong remittance schedule. Remitter size determines whether the PD7A goes monthly or on an accelerated timeline. A category shift that goes unnoticed turns timely-looking payments into late remittances in CRA records.
• Missing the T4 deadline. The last day of February applies to every employer, regardless of province, industry, or payroll size.

How Workzoom runs it.

Workzoom has run Canadian payroll since 2001. Still family-owned. County of Renfrew, an Ontario municipality, and Silvera for Seniors both run on it today. Twenty-five years of CRA remittance schedules, CPP changes, EI adjustments, and T4 filing cycles absorbed into the platform, not bolted on after the fact.

On every pay run, Workzoom calculates income tax withholding, CPP, CPP2, and EI, and generates the PD7A for the employer to submit and remit to CRA. At year-end, it generates the T4 for the employer to file with CRA by the last day of February. One database holds HR, time, and payroll in the same employee record, which means no export step between the data and the form. The employee data that drove the pay run is the same data that populates the year-end filing. The employer submits. The employer remits. Workzoom makes sure the numbers are right before they get there.