Canadian year-end slip reporting employment income and key payroll deduction totals for an employee.
A T4 slip is the Canadian year-end payroll slip that reports employment income and key payroll deduction totals for an employee.
It plays a role similar to the U.S. W-2, but it belongs to Canadian payroll and tax reporting. Payroll builds it from year-to-date records created over the full year, not from a single pay period.
The T4 matters because it is where payroll totals become the employee’s year-end reporting document. If payroll records are wrong during the year, the T4 is one of the clearest places the problem shows up.
It connects:
The T4 is prepared after year end from payroll registers, year-to-date balances, and year-end reconciliation work. It is not a replacement for the pay stub.
Payroll staff may compare payroll registers, source-deduction totals, and year-end summaries before issuing the slip.
An employee receives regular pay stubs throughout the year. After year end, payroll totals the year’s employment income and deduction records, then issues a T4 slip based on those annual figures.
That makes the T4 a year-end reporting document, not a run-by-run payroll record.