CRA payroll account under a business number, used to report and remit source deductions for a specific employer payroll setup.
A payroll program account is the CRA payroll account under a business number that the employer uses for payroll filings and remittances.
In CRA language, this is the payroll deductions account. It is the payroll-specific layer under the broader business number, often shown as the business number plus the RP program code and a four-digit reference number.
The payroll program account is what lets the CRA distinguish payroll activity from the employer’s other tax accounts. It matters because payroll teams use it to:
Without the correct payroll account, the employer may have the right deduction amounts but still misfile or misapply payments.
This term shows up on the employer side of payroll, not on the employee side. In practice, it appears when payroll teams:
It is part of payroll administration infrastructure rather than a wage-calculation field.
A business has the business number 123456789 and opens a payroll account shown in CRA format as 123456789 RP 0001.
Payroll uses that account when sending remittances and filing payroll returns. The employee never sees it on the pay stub, but the payroll team uses it constantly.