CRA T4A Penalties Hit Trucking-related Businesses For 2025 Slips: Are You Compliant?

The moratorium on T4A penalties is over for the trucking sector for the 2025 calendar year. The filing deadline is March 2 (as February 28 falls on a weekend). This change comes after years of advocacy from the transportation industry urging federal authorities to crack down on the controversial "Driver Inc." model, in which carriers misclassify employees as independent contractors, allowing them to avoid complying with payroll deductions and other employment-related obligations. The Department of Finance acknowledged that "these practices undercut competition in the sector and unevenly punish rule-abiding companies and deprive workers of the benefits and pensions they are owed."

The 'reporting fees for services' ("RFS") rules have been in place for years and apply across all industries. However, there has been an administrative moratorium on assessing penalties since 2011. That moratorium is now lifted for all trucking-related businesses paying service fees to other trucking-related businesses that are Canadian-controlled private corporations ("CCPC").

This FAQ summarizes the key issues in practical terms, with a focus on risk and what you should do as you prepare to file.

Who needs to report?

Businesses that are "operating in the trucking industry" that pay certain other businesses operating in the trucking industry for services will now be assessed a penalty if T4A Slips are not issued as required. See below for more details on what counts as "operating in the trucking industry."

Reporting businesses can include CCPCs, foreign-controlled corporations, and non-resident corporations.

Who should be issued a T4A?

Starting with the 2025 calendar year, trucking-related businesses must report payments of more than $500 dollars in fees for services made in a calendar year to a CCPC that is operating in the trucking industry, using box 048 on a T4A slip.

The fee for services does not need to be for applicable trucking activities. All services paid by any business operating in the trucking industry to another business that is a CCPC and operating in the trucking industry will need to be reported on a T4A.

What types of businesses are "operating in the trucking industry"?

A business is considered to be operating in the trucking industry if more than 50% of its gross revenue is from trucking activities such as hauling goods, general freight, specialized freight, and freight transportation arrangements for trucking.

Examples of businesses that may be captured include:

• asset‑based carriers moving general or specialized freight;
• freight brokers and intermediaries that primarily arrange trucking services; and
• staffing agencies whose primary revenue is from supplying drivers and trucking labour.

If trucking activities are not your primary source of income (less than 50% of gross revenue), you are not considered to be operating in the trucking industry. While you are still subject to the T4A reporting requirement for fees for services, the moratorium on penalties will continue to apply.

What are "trucking activities"? What are not "trucking activities"?

CRA has provided concrete examples of what it considers "applicable trucking activities" (local and long distance):

• transportation of goods by truck (carriers, cartage, interlining);
• general freight: consumer goods (food, beverages, clothing), furniture, lumber, machine parts, plants, raw materials, refrigerated goods, roofing materials, windows;
• specialized freight: livestock, construction materials, hazardous materials, heavy machinery, oversized items;
• freight transportation arrangement for trucking: brokers and intermediaries whose main business is arranging trucking between shippers and carriers; and
• trucking‑focused staffing agencies that supply drivers and trucking labour as their primary business.

By contrast, some transportation‑related activities are explicitly considered "non-applicable transportation activities" for these purposes:

• air transportation;
• rail transportation;
• water transportation, including non‑municipal ferry services transporting trucking loads;
• transit and ground passenger transportation: charter buses, school and employee buses, taxis and limousines, urban transit systems;
• pipeline transportation;
• scenic and sightseeing transportation;
• support activities for transportation (other than freight transportation arrangement for trucking);
• postal service, couriers and messengers; and
• warehousing and storage.

When do they need to report?

For 2025 payments, the relevant deadline falls in 2026.

• T4A slips must be issued to the payees and filed with your T4A summary by the last day of February of the following calendar year.
• Because the last day of February 2026 falls on a weekend, the effective deadline for 2025 T4As is Monday, March 2, 2026.

What does this mean for issuing businesses?

In practice, that means:

• If you are a trucking business, you should be issuing T4A slips to service providers that are CCPCs and operating in the trucking industry, irrespective of the type of service the payee provided, when the $500‑dollar threshold is met.
• If you cannot determine whether the corporation you paid is a CCPC and/or operating in the trucking industry, issuing a T4A slip protects you from penalties for failing to report.
• The issuing company will need to have a CRA payroll program (RP) account and allocate staff and resources to complete these filings.
• The CRA business number of businesses to whom a T4A Slip will be issued will need to be obtained. A service provider's business number can often be found on their invoices for GST/HST purposes, but many companies are involved in interlining or the international transportation of goods and are not required to charge GST/HST.
• You should review your contracts with other trucking businesses to determine if these issues are adequately addressed.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.