T4A Slip

The T4A slip reports income your business paid during the year, including self-employed commissions, RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan) educational assistance payments, pensions, annuities, and research grants. If your business, as a payer (employer, trustee, organization), deducted tax from a payment or paid more than $500 (unless listed as an exception), you must issue a T4A slip.

Scenario: Zylker Consulting, a business advisory firm, hires Alex, an independent contractor, for marketing services. Over the year, Zylker Consulting pays Alex more than $500 in self-employed commissions. Since they meet the reporting criteria, Zylker Consulting issues a T4A slip to Alex, detailing the total payments made. Alex can then use the slip for tax filing purposes.

How T4A Slip Works

In Zoho Books, enable the T4A Slip option while creating or editing a vendor to track the payments made to the respective vendor. Once enabled, all paid transactions of that vendor will be tracked as payments to be included in the T4A Slip report.

Next, generate the T4A Slip for the applicable Calendar year by mapping the accounts to the corresponding boxes, selecting the vendors, and reviewing the details.

Once the T4A Slip is generated, you can download it as an XML file and file it in the CRA Tax Portal. Then you can mark it as filed in Zoho Books and email a copy of the T4A slips to the vendors.

Enable T4A Slip Tracking for Vendors

To track the payments made to your vendors for T4A Slip filing:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Purchases on the left sidebar, and select Vendors.
Click + New in the top right corner to create a new vendor, or select an existing vendor, and click Edit on the Details page.
In the New Vendor or Edit Vendor page, fill in the necessary details. Scroll down to the Other Details tab, select T4A Slip in the Tax Tracking Type field, and enter the vendor’s Tax ID.
Click Save.

Once you enable this option for the vendor, payments that meet the threshold will be included in the T4A Slip when generated, while the rest will be excluded.

Generate T4A Slip

Note: Your business must issue a T4A Slip to vendors if it deducted tax or made payments to vendors exceeding $500.

Once you’ve enabled payment tracking for T4A for vendors, you can generate the T4A slip. The system automatically categorizes transactions that meet the threshold, and only those payments are included in the T4A slip. To generate:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Tax Returns on the left sidebar, and select T4A/T5018.
Click Generate T4A Slip in the top right corner.
In the page that follows, under the Map Accounts tab, fill in the following fields:
- Tax Slip: Select T4A as the form.
- Filing Year: Choose the year for filing the T4A Slip.
- Once you select the tax slip and year, the boxes that need to be mapped in the T4A Slip will appear.

Note: Map the accounts to the boxes, and Zoho Books will calculate the values based on payments made to vendors in the calendar year and the overall CRA vendor-level threshold.

Hover over the box you want to add accounts to and click Add Accounts. In the Select Account popup, under Recommended Accounts, you’ll see accounts filtered based on the accounts you used to record purchase transactions of T4A-tracked vendors. You can then select the account to match the box.
If an account isn’t listed under Recommended Accounts, go to All Accounts to manually select the account you want to add for the box, and click Select.
Click Next.
In the Select Vendors tab, filter vendors based on tracked transactions and the overall CRA threshold:
- Tracked and Qualified Vendors: This filter shows vendors whose payments meet the CRA’s vendor-level threshold for the selected boxes and have their accounts correctly mapped for tracking:
  - All these vendors are preselected by default. If you don’t want to include a particular vendor, you can simply unselect them.
  - If you want to exclude transactions for a vendor manually, click the vendor, go to the Reportable Payments tab on the next page, hover over the transaction, and click Exclude on the right side. After excluding the necessary transactions, click Save to confirm the changes.
- Tracked and Unqualified Vendors: This filter shows the vendors whose transactions are tracked and mapped to the correct boxes, but their transactions do not meet the CRA thresholds for the mapped box. You can manually add their transactions to qualify them for T4A Slip filing. Here’s how:
  - Hover over the unqualified vendor and click Qualify Vendor.
  - On the next page, go to the Non-Reportable Payments tab.
  - Hover over the required transactions and click Include.
  - Select the boxes to map the transactions.
  - Click Save.

Note: If you click Track for T5018 and the vendor doesn’t meet the CRA threshold or your business hasn’t deducted tax for filing, they will be moved to the Tracked and Unqualified Vendors tab.

Non-Tracked Vendors: This filter includes vendors whose payments aren’t tracked yet. Click Track Payments for T4A to start tracking payments made to them.
Click Next.
In the Review tab, check each vendor’s Tax ID, Address, and Box values. If any details are missing, a warning will appear for that vendor. Hover over the warning and click Add Now.
In the Edit Vendor popup, fill in any details that you’ve missed or add details of the vendor.
If you want to exclude or include any reportable or non-reportable payments, click View Details to the right of the vendor.
In the page that follows, under Reportable Payments, select a box, and click Exclude against the transaction you don’t want to include for the vendor.
After reviewing the details, click Save and Generate at the bottom.

Note: For 2023 or later, if you report an amount in Box 16, you must confirm whether the recipient or their family had access to any dental insurance or coverage you offered as of December 31. You can select who had access in the Dental Benefits column on the Review page.

Insights:

Reportable Payments are the total vendor payments from mapped accounts that qualify for CRA reporting.
Non-Reportable Payments are the total vendor payments that don’t qualify for CRA reporting, either because they come from unmapped accounts or because payments from mapped accounts didn’t meet the threshold.

Export the T4A Slip for Filing

Once you generate the T4A slip, you can export it as an XML file compatible with the CRA Portal.

Insight: Your Organization Profile details will be used by default when you export for filing or when you send the T4A Slip PDF to a vendor after filing with the CRA. A popup will display these details, allowing you to edit them if needed. Ensure your organization details match the business information provided to the CRA.

To export the T4A Slip:

In the T4A Report page, click Export for Filing in the top right corner.
In the Export Form T4A for Filing popup, enter the following details:
- Tax ID: Enter your 15-digit tax ID.
- Organization Name: Auto-filled from your Organization Profile, but you can edit it if needed.
- Organization Address: The address will be auto-filled based on your Organization Profile. Modify it if needed. You’ll need to enter the phone number manually.
Click Save and Continue.
In the Export T4A Slip As XML popup, enter the filer’s contact details:
- Contact Name: Enter the filer’s name.
- Email Address: Enter the filer’s email.
- Phone Number: Enter the filer’s phone number.
Click Export.

Now, the T4A form will be downloaded onto your computer in XML format, which is CRA-compatible. Once downloaded, you can file it directly with the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency). Learn how to E-file information with the CRA.

Mark T4A Slip as Filed

After filing the generated T4A slip with the CRA, you can return to Zoho Books and mark the T4A slip as filed on the generated T4A Slip page. Here’s how:

In the T4A Slip page, click the More icon in the top right corner, and select Mark as Filed from the dropdown.
In the Mark T4A Slip for %year% As Filed popup, fill in the following fields:
- Filing Date: Choose the date you filed T4A Slip with the CRA.
- Notes: Add relevant notes if needed.
Click Mark as Filed.

The T4A Slip will now be marked as Filed.

Note: You can undo the action by following the same steps as above and by clicking Mark as Unfiled at the top of page.

Email T4A Slip to Vendors

Once you’ve marked the T4A Slip as Filed, you can email its copy to the respective vendors in bulk. Here’s how:

In the T4A Slip page, click Send Email in the top right corner.
In the popup that follows, click Send Email to confirm.

Now, the T4A Slip will be scheduled to be sent to the respective vendors, and you’ll be notified once it is sent.

Insights:

You are not required to distribute the slips to the vendors, but you may still provide them with a copy. Ensure you have their consent before emailing the T4A Slip. If you’ve already provided a physical copy to all the vendors, click the More icon in the top right corner, and select Mark as Sent in Zoho Books to update the status for all vendors, and you cannot undo this action.
If you want to email the T4A Slip only to specific vendors, select the vendors you want to send the email to, and click Send Email at the top.

Other Actions in T4A Slip

Download the T4A Slip

To download the T4A Slip in XML format:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Tax Returns on the left sidebar, and select T4A/T5018.
In the List View page, hover over and select the T4A Slip that you want to download.
Click Download As in the top right corner, and select XML from the dropdown based on your preferred format.

Now, the file will be downloaded to your device in XML format.

View the Details of Vendors Filed in T4A Slip

To view the details of the vendors included in the T4A Slip:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Tax Returns on the left sidebar, and select T4A/T5018.
Select the T4A slip you generated to view the vendor details.
In the T4A Slip page, hover over the vendor and click View Details.

Now, you’ll see the vendor’s details and their transactions you’ve included in the T4A Slip you generated and filed with the CRA.

Download Vendor Details as PDF

Insight: As per CRA rules, your Business Number will not appear in the PDF shared with the vendor.

To download the selected vendor’s details as a single PDF file:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Tax Returns on the left sidebar, and select T4A/T5018.
Select the T4A Slip that you want to download.
On the T4A Slip page, hover over the vendor, click the dropdown to the right, and select Download the PDF.

Now, the vendor’s details, along with the transactions from the T4A Slip you filed with the CRA, will be downloaded in PDF format.

Bulk Download Vendor Details As a ZIP File {bulk-download-vendor-details-as-a-zip-file}

To bulk download vendor details as a ZIP File:

Log in to your Zoho Books organization.
Go to Tax Returns on the left sidebar, and select T4A/T5018.
Select the vendors for whose details you want to download.
Click the ZIP icon at the top.

The vendor details will be downloaded in a single ZIP file.

Was this document helpful?

Yes

Want a feature?

Suggest

ON THIS PAGE