T4 Slips and Records of Employment: What Alberta Employers Need to Know

A T4 Statement of Remuneration Paid reports employment income and related payroll amounts for a calendar year. Employers generally need to give employees their slips and file the T4 information return with CRA by the last day of February following that year. When the deadline falls on a weekend or recognized holiday, CRA’s administrative timing rules should be checked. For example, CRA’s current guide identifies March 2, 2026 as the filing date for 2025 slips because the ordinary month-end date fell on a weekend.

CRA’s T4 guide says employers filing more than five information returns of one type generally must file electronically, unless an exception applies. The threshold and technical format matter when a company has multiple payroll accounts or return types. Filing is not complete merely because a PDF was handed to employees. The employer should retain submission confirmation, confirm the T4 Summary agrees with payroll records, and resolve rejected or amended slips promptly.

A Record of Employment, or ROE, provides Service Canada with information used in Employment Insurance administration when an employee experiences an interruption of earnings. It is not only a year-end document and does not always wait for a former employee to request one. The employer must recognize the event, choose the correct reason code, report insurable hours and earnings accurately, and issue the ROE within the deadline that applies to its filing method and pay cycle.

Service Canada’s ROE guide explains that an electronic ROE for weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly pay periods is generally due within five calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption occurs. For monthly or every-four-week cycles, the guide uses the earlier of two timing tests. Paper ROEs generally have a five-day requirement tied to the interruption. Always check the official guide because special situations and pay cycles affect the calculation.

Before preparing T4s, reconcile annual gross payroll, taxable benefits, source deductions, employer CPP and EI, remittances, and the general ledger. Review employee names, social insurance numbers, addresses, province of employment, and pension adjustments where relevant. Compare CRA account balances and notices with company records. If a discrepancy exists, investigate the individual pay periods instead of forcing the annual total to match through an unexplained journal entry.

For ROEs, keep time and attendance, insurable earnings, insurable hours, leave and termination dates, and the reason for separation current. Give payroll staff a checklist for resignations, layoffs, leaves, reduced work, and other interruptions. Employees rely on timely, correct records, and mistakes can create stress when income has already stopped. A disciplined offboarding process and monthly payroll reconciliation turn both T4 and ROE filing into controlled reporting rather than an emergency.