CRA Payroll Remittance Deadlines for Small Business (2026)

Most small employers in Ontario are regular remitters, which means the CRA has to receive your payroll deductions by the 15th of the month after the month you paid your employees. Smaller employers with a clean record may remit quarterly instead, and larger ones remit two to four times a month. The CRA assigns your schedule from your withholdings two calendar years ago, so you do not choose it, and it can change as you grow.

What is a payroll remittance?

Every pay run, you withhold CPP contributions, EI premiums and income tax from each employee's pay. You send that money to the CRA, along with your own share of CPP and EI, by a deadline separate from payday (CRA: Employers' Guide T4001, Rev. 25, rules current for 2026, accessed October 2, 2026). Paying your staff on time does not cover it.

How does the CRA decide my remitter type?

The CRA looks at your average monthly withholding amount, or AMWA: the total of your required remittances for a calendar year divided by the number of months, up to 12, that needed a remittance. It uses the figure from two calendar years ago, so your 2026 schedule comes from your 2024 payroll (CRA: when to remit, rules current for 2026, accessed October 2, 2026).

A "perfect compliance record" covers all your payroll and GST/HST accounts over the previous 12 months. On the payroll side, that means no late remittances, no failure-to-remit or failure-to-deduct penalties and no overdue T4 returns (same CRA page). The CRA notifies existing employers who qualify for quarterly remitting in writing. No letter? Check My Business Account.

When are regular remittances due for the rest of 2026?

The date follows the day you paid your employees, not the days they worked. If your pay date is October 2, that payroll belongs to October, even when most of the hours fell in September.

The November date moves because of a CRA rule: when a due date falls on a weekend or public holiday, your payment counts as on time if the CRA receives it, or a Canadian financial institution processes it, by the next business day (same CRA page). Quarterly remitters have two 2026 dates left: October 15, 2026 for July to September, and January 15, 2027 for October to December.

"Receive" is the word that matters. A cheque you mail on the 15th is late. Online banking counts on the date your bank credits the payment, so build in a day.

What does a late payroll remittance cost?

The penalty scales with how late you are (CRA: Employers' Guide T4001, accessed October 2, 2026):

• 3% if the amount is one to three days late
• 5% if it is four or five days late
• 7% if it is six or seven days late
• 10% if it is more than seven days late, or if nothing is remitted

The CRA generally applies this penalty only to the part of the late amount above $500, unless the failure was knowing or grossly negligent. A second or later failure in the same calendar year can draw a 20% penalty if it was made knowingly or under circumstances of gross negligence. Interest runs on top, from the day the payment was due (CRA: interest and penalties on late payments, accessed October 2, 2026), at a prescribed rate the CRA resets every quarter.

How do you stop missing remittance deadlines?

Put payday and remittance day on the calendar as two separate events. Then guard against two traps. The first is paying on last year's schedule after the CRA moved your business to a new remitter type. The second is dating a remittance from the pay period instead of the pay date. Check your remitter type in My Business Account every January.

Intersect's payroll service runs the pay and files the remittance on its own deadline, tracked separately, so one cannot slip while the other gets done. Books and Payroll starts at $1,500 a month. See what a payroll service includes, and note that HST filing deadlines run on a different calendar again.

Already late on a remittance, or not sure which remitter type you are? Get in touch and we will look at it with you.

Frequently asked questions

When is my payroll remittance due if I am a regular remitter?

The CRA has to receive your deductions on or before the 15th day of the month after the month you paid your employees. Pay staff on October 30 and the remittance is due November 15, which in 2026 moves to Monday, November 16.

Is the remittance date based on when my employees worked or when I paid them?

When you paid them. A pay period that runs September 21 to October 4 with a pay date of October 9 belongs to October, so a regular remitter owes that remittance by November 15.

Can I choose to remit quarterly?

Not freely. Quarterly remitting depends on a low average monthly withholding amount and a perfect compliance record on your payroll and GST/HST accounts over the previous 12 months. The CRA notifies existing employers who qualify in writing.

Can the CRA come after me personally for unpaid payroll deductions?

If your business is a corporation, yes. The directors at the time of the failure are jointly and severally liable with the corporation for deducted amounts that were not remitted.