Payroll Remittance Deadlines in Canada: Important Dates and Penalties

I spent three hours once tracking down a $212 discrepancy between a client’s payroll liability account and their CRA remittance history. Turned out someone had manually adjusted an EI premium two pay periods back and never updated the GL. The remittance went out short. CRA didn’t care why—it was late on the difference, and the penalty notice arrived five weeks later.

That’s the reality of payroll remittance compliance in Canada. The rules themselves aren’t complicated. Every employer who withholds Canada Pension Plan contributions, Employment Insurance premiums, and income tax deductions from employee pay is responsible for remitting those source deductions to the Canada Revenue Agency on a strict schedule. Miss that schedule—even by a day—and penalties and interest start accumulating.

The problem is rarely that someone doesn’t know remittances exist. Problems show up when payroll workflows and accounting processes run on separate tracks. A payroll run happens, deductions are calculated, but the remittance step gets delayed because the liability account wasn’t reconciled, the bank payment wasn’t initiated early enough, or nobody flagged that the client’s remitter type changed.

This guide covers exactly how CRA payroll remittance schedules work, what the deadlines are for each remitter type, how penalties are calculated, and—most practically—how to keep your payroll reconciliation workflows tight enough that remittance errors stop happening. Reader promise: By the end, you’ll have a clear operational framework for managing payroll remittance deadlines without relying on memory or last-minute scrambles.

What Are Payroll Remittances?

Payroll remittances are the CPP contributions, EI premiums, and income tax withholdings that Canadian employers deduct from employee pay and must forward to the CRA on a set schedule. Employers also contribute their own share of CPP and EI on top of employee deductions. These aren’t optional. Employers act as intermediaries—they collect source deductions through each pay period and hold them temporarily. The money was never theirs. CRA expects it remitted according to the employer’s assigned schedule.

Here’s what gets remitted together in a single payment:

• Employee income tax withheld
• Employee CPP contributions (and employer’s matching portion)
• Employee EI premiums (and employer’s share, which is 1.4× the employee amount)

Many employers assume they can batch or delay remittances if cash flow is tight. They can’t. CRA treats unremitted source deductions as trust funds held on behalf of employees—and the consequences for holding them are steep.

Payroll Remittance Deadlines in Canada

This is where operational discipline matters most. CRA assigns every employer a remitter type, and each type has different due dates. Getting this wrong—or assuming your schedule hasn’t changed—is one of the most common payroll mistakes that trigger CRA penalties.

Remittance Schedule Summary

• Quarterly
  Range: $0 – $2,999.99 (perfect history) | Due Date: 15th of the month after each quarter-end
• Regular (Monthly)
  Range: Under $25,000 | Due Date: 15th of the month following the pay period
• Accelerated – Threshold 1
  Range: $25,000 – $99,999.99 | Due Date: 25th (1st–15th pay days); 10th following month (16th–end)
• Accelerated – Threshold 2
  Range: $100,000+ | Due Date: Within 3 working days after each pay period

One detail that catches people: if a due date falls on a weekend or CRA-recognized statutory holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day. But “shifts” doesn’t mean you get extra processing time from your bank. This usually happens when employers initiate payment on the deadline day itself and the bank doesn’t process it until the next business day—which is now late.

How CRA Determines Your Remittance Schedule

CRA classifies your remitter type based on your average monthly withholding amount (AMWA)—the average of total source deductions you reported over the previous two calendar years. Many employers assume their remitter type stays the same year to year. It doesn’t always. If your payroll grew—new hires, salary increases, bonuses—your AMWA can cross a threshold, and CRA will reassign you.

CRA sends a notification when your remitter type changes. But if that notice gets buried in a pile of mail or lost in a shared inbox, the first sign of trouble is usually a penalty notice.

Stop/Go readiness check: Can you confirm, right now, the CRA remitter type for every payroll account you manage? If not, log into CRA’s My Business Account and verify before your next remittance run.

Once they crossed Threshold 1, the remittance calendar got a lot tighter. That’s the phrase I use when onboarding new clients who’ve recently grown. The jump from monthly to twice-monthly deadlines changes your entire payroll cutoff workflow.

What Happens if You Miss a Payroll Remittance Deadline?

Even a one-day miss can trigger a penalty. CRA’s late remittance penalty structure is tiered:

• 1–3 days late: 3% penalty
• 4–5 days late: 5% penalty
• 6–7 days late: 7% penalty
• 8+ days late: 10% penalty

On top of penalties, CRA charges interest on arrears at the prescribed rate, compounded daily. Penalty is bad enough, but interest keeps compounding the cost long after the original deadline has passed. During tax season, a CRA penalty notice for a client means stopping everything to investigate, respond, and reconcile. It pulls resources away from T4 reporting and year-end filings at the worst possible time.

Common Payroll Remittance Mistakes Businesses Make

• Outdated deduction rates. If your payroll system isn’t updated, every calculation is wrong from January forward.
• Manual spreadsheets. One mistyped cell can throw off the entire remittance amount.
• No remittance calendar. Relying on memory instead of automated reminders.
• Systems not synced. The payroll register says one thing; the GL says another.
• Off-cycle payments missed. Bonuses, termination payouts, and retroactive adjustments often get processed outside the regular payroll run—and the source deductions on those get missed.

Payroll Reconciliation Problems That Cause Remittance Errors

When payroll data doesn’t match accounting records, remittance errors are almost guaranteed. The root cause is almost always disconnected systems. Payroll runs in one tool. Bookkeeping happens in another. Nobody reconciles the two until something breaks.

Clean accounting workflow automation eliminates most of these gaps by keeping payroll liabilities visible and reconciled as part of the regular month-end close.

Best Practices for Managing CPP and EI Deductions

Use this as your operational checklist:

• ✅ Update CPP and EI rates every January 1
• ✅ Verify employee birth dates and status quarterly
• ✅ Confirm self-employed CPP obligations
• ✅ Apply EI exemptions only where CRA criteria are clearly met and documented
• ✅ Reconcile CPP and EI remittances monthly
• ✅ Cross-check T4 totals before year-end filing
• ✅ Monitor payroll remittance deadlines in Canada to avoid late penalties

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the payroll remittance deadline in Canada?
For regular (monthly) remitters, payroll remittances are due by the 15th of the month following the pay period. Accelerated remitters have earlier and more frequent deadlines based on their average monthly withholding amount.

What happens if payroll remittances are late?
CRA applies a penalty ranging from 3% (1–3 days late) to 10% (8+ days late) on the amount owing above $500. Interest on arrears is also charged daily.

Do employers match CPP and EI?
Employers match CPP contributions at a 1:1 ratio. For EI, employers pay 1.4 times the employee’s premium. Both amounts are remitted together to the Canada Revenue Agency on the employer’s regular remittance schedule.

Can payroll remittances be automated?
Yes. Most payroll software supports automated remittance calculations, and employers can set up pre-authorized debits through CRA’s My Business Account.

Are CPP and EI reported on a T4?
Yes. Employee CPP contributions appear in Box 16, CPP2 contributions in Box 17, EI premiums in Box 18, and EI insurable earnings in Box 24 of the T4 slip. The employer’s share is not shown on the T4 but is tracked through CRA remittance records and reconciled at year-end.