When are payroll remittances due to the CRA?

The 15th-of-the-month rule most small employers follow

A regular remitter, generally an employer whose average monthly withholding amount was $25,000 or less two years prior, sends CPP, EI, and income tax deductions to the CRA by the 15th day of the month after the pay period in which they were withheld. If you pay employees biweekly through September, for example, everything withheld across those September pay runs is due together by October 15, not split out by individual pay date.

This is the schedule most new small businesses land on when they first open a payroll account, and it stays in place unless your withholding volume grows enough to push you into a faster remittance category. Our answer on setting up payroll for a first employee covers what else needs to be in place before that first remittance comes due.

Quarterly remittances for small, new, and compliant employers

A subset of employers can qualify to remit quarterly instead of monthly: generally new small employers with a low average monthly withholding amount, roughly $1,000 or less, and a clean history of remitting and filing on time. This is a real reduction in administrative burden for a very small payroll, but it is not automatic; the CRA needs to have assessed the employer's eligibility and compliance record first.

Losing quarterly eligibility usually happens through a late remittance or filing, at which point the CRA moves the employer back to the standard monthly schedule. Businesses growing quickly should not assume quarterly status will last once payroll and withholding amounts start climbing.

Threshold 1 and threshold 2: faster remittances as payroll grows

Once average monthly withholding crosses roughly $25,000, an employer becomes a threshold 1 accelerated remitter and must remit twice a month, generally within a few days of each half-month period ending. Above a higher amount, roughly $100,000 average monthly withholding, an employer becomes a threshold 2 remitter and must remit even more frequently, tied closely to the pay dates themselves rather than a monthly or semi-monthly cycle.

• These thresholds are based on your average monthly withholding amount from two calendar years prior, not your current month's payroll.
• A business that grows fast can be assigned to an accelerated category even before its own bookkeeping team notices the shift, since the CRA sets the category and notifies the employer.
• Confirm your current remitter type on your CRA notice or account rather than assuming it has stayed the same since your first year of payroll.

The exact dollar boundaries between remitter types are set by the CRA and reviewed periodically; confirm the current thresholds directly with the CRA or your notice of remittance schedule rather than relying on a figure that may have shifted.

What actually gets remitted, and the PD7A statement

Each remittance covers three amounts together: the income tax withheld from employees, the CPP contributions from both the employee's and the employer's share, and EI premiums, where the employer pays 1.4 times the employee's premium amount rather than matching it dollar for dollar. The CRA sends a PD7A statement of account that shows what has been remitted and what is outstanding, which is worth reconciling against your own payroll records rather than assuming the two always match automatically.

Businesses that also pay contractors alongside employees should keep those payments separate in their own mind from the source deduction remittance, since contractor payments generally do not have CPP, EI, or income tax withheld at all; see our answer on what a T4A is and which contractors get one for how those payments are reported instead.

How the payment actually gets made

Employers can remit through online banking using the CRA as a payee, directly through CRA My Business Account, or in person at a participating financial institution using a personalized remittance voucher. Many payroll platforms, including Wagepoint and QuickBooks Online Payroll, can remit on the employer's behalf as part of the service, pulling the correct amount and sending it to the CRA on the due date without the employer initiating a separate payment each period.

If a due date falls on a weekend or a statutory holiday, the CRA generally treats the remittance as on time if it is received on the next business day, but this is worth confirming for your specific situation rather than assuming every holiday shifts the date the same way. Employers who use a third-party payroll provider to remit on their behalf are still ultimately responsible for the remittance being correct and on time, even though the provider is doing the mechanical work.

What happens when a remittance is late

The CRA charges a penalty on late remittances that scales with how late the payment is: generally 3% for one to three days late, rising through 5% and 7%, up to 10% for amounts more than seven days late or never remitted at all. A 20% penalty can apply where the CRA considers the failure repeated or made knowingly, which is a materially higher cost than a routine late payment.

Interest also accrues on the outstanding amount separately from the penalty, compounding daily from the due date until the balance is paid. Our answer on penalties for late payroll remittances covers this in more depth, including how the CRA treats a first late remittance differently from a pattern of them.

How we keep remittances on schedule for clients

We track each client's remitter type and due dates directly rather than relying on the employer to notice a CRA notice buried in an inbox, and we flag when growing payroll volume is likely to push an account into an accelerated remitter category. Our payroll services include remittance filing as a standing part of the payroll cycle, not a separate task someone has to remember every month.

Source: CRA — Payroll.