After T4’s have been generated, edited and verified they can be uploaded to CRA directly (i.e. without having to re-enter the details through CRA’s web portal). If you have more than 5 T4’s then you must use this procedure or incur a penalty. The purpose of this procedure is to create a structured file that you will provide to the CRA via their web portal. The generated file contains all T4’s that will be submitted as well as totals and other information required by CRA.
Before you can create the export file, the payroll account must be defined in Company Settings -> Payroll -> Employer -> Payroll Account Number. This is usually the company business number followed by RP and then a 4 digit identifier (ie: 888555222RP0001).
If you have not configured this setting, you receive an error message when trying to export the T4’s.
From the T4 Statement screen click the “Export for CRA” button and the following screen will be presented.
- Submission Reference Number – Enter a number to use for reference purposes
- Report Type – Selections are Original, Amendment and Cancellation
- Preferred Correspondence Language – Choose English or French
- Company Name – Company name. Use second box if the complete name does not fit in the first box
- Proprietor #1 SIN – Company owners Social Insurance number
- Proprietor #2 SIN – Additional owners Social Insurance number
- Name – Contact person’s name
- Area Code – Contact area code
- Phone Number – Contact phone number
- Extension – Contact phone extension
- Email – Contact email address
Clicking ‘OK’ will prompt you to save the exported xml file that can now be uploaded to CRA.
Once you have uploaded the T4’s they should each be marked as ‘Remitted’, to indicate that CRA has received this information. This is done from the T4 Statements list screen, selecting all the uploaded T4’s and clicking the “Mark remitted” toolbar button. Do not mark any T4’s as remitted before you have created the CRA T4 upload file and have confirmed that it has been uploaded and submitted successfully. It is not enough to mark T4’s as remitted after the file has been created by Spire; you must still upload the file to CRA. Talk to your accounting professional if you aren’t sure how to do this.
In addition to creating and uploading Original T4’s, you can also generate either Cancellation or Amendment submission files. To create amendments or cancellations, first update the status of individual T4’s by editing and changing the required forms.
When you choose either Amendment or Cancellation as the Report Type on the Export for CRA screen, only T4’s marked with the respective status are included in the CRA upload file.
