Quick Answer
Yes — if your business earned more than 50% of its income from trucking activities in 2025 and you paid any Canadian-controlled private corporation in the trucking industry more than $500 for services, you must report those payments in box 048 of a T4A slip. The CRA lifted its 14-year penalty moratorium on December 4, 2025, effective for the 2025 tax year and beyond. The filing deadline for 2025 payments is February 28, 2026, extended to Monday, March 2, 2026 because February 28 falls on a Saturday. Late or missing slips trigger a minimum penalty of $100 per failure and a maximum of $7,500 per return. Carriers paying more than 5 slips must file electronically through CRA’s My Business Account or certified payroll software.
Why Your T4A Inbox Just Got More Complicated
For 14 years, a quiet CRA administrative position meant that trucking carriers across Ontario could leave box 048 of the T4A blank without consequence. On December 4, 2025, that ended. The Canada Revenue Agency announced that the penalty moratorium covering reported fees for services has been lifted for the trucking sector — effective for the 2025 tax year and every year after.
Picture a Brampton carrier running 14 trucks, dispatching eight incorporated owner-operators every week. Through 2024, the carrier could write cheques to those driver corporations without issuing a single slip. For 2025, the same carrier must issue eight T4A slips by March 2, 2026, or face penalties starting at $100 per slip and rising to $7,500 per return. The rule has not changed — only the enforcement has. This guide walks you through who is caught, what to file, and how to get the slips done before the deadline.
Quick Start: Pick Your Path
Where you land depends on three facts: whether your business is primarily trucking, who you are paying, and how the money flows. Find your profile below and follow that row first.
Path 1 — Carrier to CCPC trucker
You run a trucking business (more than 50% of your income comes from freight or specialized trucking activities) and paid a CCPC in the trucking industry more than $500 in 2025. Issue a T4A for each payee by March 2, 2026. Penalties apply for late or missing slips.
Path 2 — Mixed business
Your business has trucking activities but they account for less than half of your gross revenue. You are still required by law to file, but the penalty moratorium continues to shield you for now. Filing anyway gives you a clean paper trail.
Path 3 — Non-trucking payor
You are not in the trucking industry but you paid an incorporated trucker more than $500. The legislative requirement still exists. The moratorium continues to apply, so there is no penalty for missing the slip — yet.
Path 4 — Incorporated driver
You are an incorporated owner-operator. Expect a T4A from each carrier you billed more than $500 in 2025. If you have not seen one by mid-March, ask the carrier for a copy and read our notes on incorporation vs sole proprietorship to assess your structure.
Why CRA Lifted the Moratorium After 14 Years
In 2011, the CRA introduced an administrative moratorium on box 048 penalties. The reporting law had a sweeping reach — every business technically owed a T4A to its accountant, lawyer, and bookkeeper. The volume was unworkable. The moratorium gave the country time to adapt.
Fourteen years later, the trucking industry’s Driver Inc. model became impossible to ignore. Under that arrangement, drivers incorporate their own corporations and contract with carriers, sidestepping CPP, EI, and labour-standards protections. Without consistent T4A slips, CRA could not see the relationships.
Budget 2025, announced in April 2025, committed $77 million over four years for CRA enforcement against personal services businesses (PSBs) and reporting-fees-for-services non-compliance. On December 4, 2025, CRA formalized the change: for the 2025 tax year onward, trucking businesses that fail to file T4A slips for payments to CCPC trucking vendors will be assessed penalties. The moratorium continues to shield every other industry — for now. For broader employer implications, see our Budget 2025 employer prep guide.
Who Is Caught: The 50% Rule, the $500 Trigger, and the CCPC Test
You are caught by the new enforcement if your payment passes three filters in a single calendar year.
First, the payor test. CRA states that a business is operating in the trucking industry when more than 50% of its primary source of income comes from trucking activities — general or specialized freight trucking, or acting as an intermediary in freight arrangements. A logistics company with two trucks and a warehouse may or may not qualify; revenue mix decides.
Second, the payee test. The payment must go to a Canadian-controlled private corporation — a CCPC, a private corporation resident in Canada and not controlled by non-residents or public corporations. You can confirm CCPC status by requesting articles of incorporation or by using CRA’s business-number lookup. If you cannot confirm, the safe approach is to issue the slip anyway.
Third, the dollar test. Total payments to that vendor in 2025 must exceed $500, net of GST/HST. One $600 invoice counts. Twelve $50 invoices that add to $600 also count. For more on contractor classification risk, see our worker classification guide for 2026.
Inside vs Outside the Trucking Industry
Use the table below to find the slip and penalty answer for your situation. The four scenarios cover the combinations CRA carved out in its December 4, 2025 announcement and clarifying guidance.
| Scenario | T4A required? | Box 048 used? | Penalty live in 2025? | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Trucking carrier pays CCPC trucker over $500 | Yes | Yes | Yes — live | March 2, 2026 |
| B. Trucking carrier pays non-CCPC sole-prop driver over $500 | Yes | Yes | Yes — live | March 2, 2026 |
| C. Non-trucking business pays CCPC trucker over $500 | Yes by law | Yes | No — moratorium shields | March 2, 2026 |
| D. Trucking carrier pays non-trucking vendor (accountant, lawyer) | Yes by law | Yes | No — moratorium shields | March 2, 2026 |
The pattern is simple: the slip is technically required in all four scenarios, but penalties only apply to the first two. Both penalty scenarios involve a carrier paying a driver for services — the exact relationship CRA wants to make visible.
Step-by-Step: Filing Box 048 Before March 2, 2026
You have a fixed sequence of six steps. Done in order, the whole process for a 5-to-25-truck carrier takes most bookkeeping teams between four and twelve hours.
- 1Identify caught payments.Pull every 2025 vendor payment over $500 made to a service provider you suspect operates in trucking. Exclude pure goods purchases — fuel, parts, equipment — because only services count.
- 2Confirm CCPC status.Ask each vendor for confirmation. The fastest evidence is a signed letter from the vendor or a copy of their articles of incorporation. CRA’s business-number lookup confirms whether an entity is incorporated, but not the CCPC nuance, so document your due diligence.
- 3Confirm your CRA payroll program (RP) account.If your carrier has never run payroll, you need to open an RP account through My Business Account before filing. Setup is free and usually completes within one business day.
- 4Gather payee data.Collect the legal corporate name, business number, mailing address, and the net-of-GST/HST payment total for the year. Do not include GST/HST in box 048; that line is for the service fee only.
- 5Prepare the slips.If you have more than 5 T4A slips to file, electronic filing is mandatory through CRA web forms or certified payroll software. See our 2026 payroll management guide for software options that handle box 048 cleanly.
- 6File the T4A Summary and send recipient copies.The T4A Summary aggregates all slips for your business and is filed alongside them. Send each driver their copy by March 2, 2026 — and keep proof of delivery for your records.
Penalties: What Missing the Deadline Actually Costs
The headline penalty for late information returns is $100 per slip at minimum and $7,500 per return at maximum. CRA uses a prescribed schedule that scales with the number of slips and the length of the delay, so the per-slip cost rises with volume.
For a carrier with eight late slips filed 45 days after the deadline, the penalty is several hundred dollars. For a carrier with 200 late slips filed six months late, the penalty reaches the $7,500 ceiling.
The slip penalty is not the only exposure. If CRA reclassifies a non-incorporated contract driver as an employee, the carrier can be assessed the employer and employee portions of CPP and EI, a 10% penalty on each, plus interest going back up to four years. Incorporated drivers face their own exposure — possible PSB reclassification, loss of the small business deduction, and denial of most business expenses. The full landscape is laid out in our CRA penalties and worker classification guide.
Common Mistakes That Trigger T4A Penalties
Many T4A errors are small but expensive. Avoid these six in particular.
- →Treating box 048 the same as box 020. Box 020 reports self-employed commissions; box 048 reports general fees for services. Mixing them triggers a CRA matching mismatch and may invalidate the slip.
- →Including GST/HST in the reported amount. Box 048 reports the service fee only. Strip the tax line out before recording the total.
- →Skipping the CCPC verification step. If you assume incorporation status and turn out to be wrong, you may file slips that were not required — or miss slips that were. Document every check in writing.
- →Filing on paper when you have more than 5 slips. Paper filing is no longer permitted past five slips. Penalties for non-electronic filing stack on top of the late-filing penalty.
- →Using the driver’s last-known address. Send to the address on their most recent invoice or registered with their corporation. Returned mail does not stop penalties from accruing.
- →Forgetting to issue recipient copies. The driver must receive their copy of the T4A by the same March 2, 2026 deadline. Many carriers file with CRA but forget the driver copy. For broader pre-filing exposure, see our CRA audit business checklist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to file T4A slips if my trucking business paid contractors less than $500 total in 2025?
What happens if I miss the March 2, 2026 deadline?
How do I know whether a driver’s corporation counts as a CCPC?
I run a moving company — does this rule apply to me?
Can I just issue T4A slips to every vendor to be safe?
What is the Driver Inc. model, and why does CRA care about it?
Do I need a CRA payroll account to file T4A slips?
Get the Box 048 Filing Right the First Time
The 2025 T4A filing window closes on March 2, 2026. For Ontario carriers running between 5 and 25 trucks, the work is manageable if it starts now — and expensive if it slips. ClearWealth Accounting Advisors helps carriers identify caught payments, verify CCPC status, file box 048 through certified software, and prepare contemporaneous documentation in case CRA reviews the slips.
Book a ConsultationSources & References
- →Canada Revenue Agency news release — CRA strengthens compliance in the trucking sector by lifting the moratorium on T4A penalties (December 4, 2025) — canada.ca
- →Canada Revenue Agency — Reporting requirements for the trucking industry — canada.ca
- →Canada Revenue Agency — When to file information returns (deadlines and penalties) — canada.ca
- →Canada Revenue Agency — Employers’ Guide: Filing the T4A Slip and Summary (RC4157) — canada.ca
- →Department of Finance Canada — Budget 2025 (announced April 2025) — canada.ca
