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T4A moratorium officially lifted, CRA reports
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We have been advised to use reasonable efforts to obtain the Business # of the carriers we hired if we do not already have it on file. If we can not obtain via reasonable efforts issue the T4A regardless. It is not ideal but we will be complying until we see a moratorium to tell us otherwise...
I have been told that the CRA has previously used this same tactic in an effort to try to reduce the # of Cash paid/independent employees in the Construction Industry years ago...
If you are being requested to supply this information, it would be prudent to first identify if you had sales with the person requesting it. Do not reply if you don't recognize the requestor. Yes, more information in the wrong hands could be a risk but if you invoiced them over $500.00 then likely they have a ton of your information already.
You only have to provide
1. Legal Business Name (found on your Articles of Incorporation and should be on your invoice.)
2. Mailing address. (should be on your invoice)
3. GST/HST number (also called BN9 and also your payroll number and likely your business number and should be on your invoice unless you did not charge HST)
4. Confirm if you are a CCPC (Canadian Corporate Private Corporation)
The broker will enter:
Legal Business name in Recipients Name box
BN9 in box 013
Amount paid on box 048
Yes, a large portion of the lanes are awarded to asset based and usually the larger carriers of 100+. But brokers get the harder to source lanes.
I agree with your statement, but the result is that racing the rate to the bottom amplifies the problem. The majority of that problem comes from carriers, but brokers actively contribute to the problem as well. Time and time again you see on this forum guys who gave freight to some carrier who has gone AWOL or hold the load ransom for payment. Likely they were the carrier with the lowest price.
Yes, that is what we all want but the government feels that brokers are a part of this problem and I agree. You may not be one of those but the numerous individuals out there who act as a carrier and double broker will now have to create T4a's or risk a fine for noncompliance and hopefully a significant audit. When CRA comes knocking on my door again, like they did 2 years ago to tear my books to pieces, only to find nothing, they will take all my invoices and check to see if brokers like you submitted the same value on the T4a. I'm planning on matching up my total customer sales invoices with T4a's and seeing just who didn't comply and maybe have the report laying around when CRA stumbles in.
It sounds like you don't care what your suppliers are doing after the work is done and the bill is paid. How do you know or not know if a number of your suppliers are one of these 'pseudo suppliers'? The only way is to enforce it. The government, in their 'infinite' (and I use that term very loosely) feel that T4A's is THE method.
If you look through my posts, going back months, when CTA and others were advoking for it, you will see that I disagreed with the high hopes that T4A's would help. Another onerous task for the law-abiding citizens/business owners and another thing for the non-law-abiding individuals to just not comply with. It was an easy thing for the Federal government to do to keep a large advocacy group happy.
Now we all have to live with it. Thank you, Liberal government, for making small business incrementally harder every year since you got in.
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Thanks Jim. I wont be sending anything as we are not an employee or broker for any company. Will send CRA T-4 for our employees only. Don't have any brokers to do T4A's for. When I spoke to CRA who you have to figure when you call the person you are speaking to knows nothing they said we have paid invoices. Why do they care about who the driver is. Will not ask a supplier either for their information until CRA makes is very clear on the who what and where of how this is suppose to work!
The CRA is very clear about who this pertains to. @hockey posted it earlier.
Compliance requirements for the trucking industry - Canada.ca
Tax obligations for businesses operating in the trucking industry
If you're a carrier, you should expect T4A's from brokers - you don't have to create for them.
If you pay anyone for trucking services, and 50% of your income-earning revenue comes from trucking related activities you are required to issue a T4A for those parties you paid that is over $500.
If you have a supplier that you paid for trucking related services and that supplier meets the definition of a CCPC, such as another carrier, Owner Operators, a broker, DRIVER INC, etc, you will need to issue T4A's
The link @hockey posted is very clear on the requirements and defines what is trucking related, what is a CCPC and who has to create T4A's. I would get your accountant to look into this further. If you're already creating T4 slips for employees, the T4A is very simple.
Just following up, I went through a bunch of my emails. Today I had two companies fishing for information. One carrier I haven't heard of and clearly was taking advantage of the situation to obtain information. When I called him to find out what was going on he just stuttered and had no explanation. Just ordered me to ignore it and move on.
The other was one that sent out an email to everyone even though they have not given me any freight for a couple of years.
Be careful with what information you provide.
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Could not agree more. 2 things in my opinion could have a real effect how treating the driver inc and both are actually in governement hands already. 1. make sure any commercial driver has competency to drive in Canada. We do not accept a doctor from Lebanon to work here but anyone can pretty much drive a truck without ever felt the sensation of ice underneath the tires. 2. If you want to get rid of driver inc, start asking questions when you grant permission to open a business. Once it is open, there is nothing really illegal in my mind. If doctors can do this, why cant driver do it? Only because competition is scarce in transportation. Start asking questions when someone wants trucking NSC or USDOT. This will help. My 2 cents
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Not to mention that they will go after you if the company you have hired did not pay its CNESST in Quebec. All brokers will learn from this with Jovan Transport. They went bankrupt and had a debt with CNESST. You'll receive a letter if not already.
You are correct - unless:
- the company does not put the exact business name as recorded in the governments database on their invoice, ie ACME TRUCKING instead of ACME INC.
- the company did not register or keep their registration up to date on the DBA name they use.
- the company did not charge HST/GST so that information may be missing.
- the address is not accurate.
I try to get the most accurate information that I can up front to avoid issues with CRA. Let them focus their time on others.
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The problem is 90% of the carriers do not put the HST/GST# on the invoice. I had instances of 2 invoices from the same carrier had two different addresses. I had to call to confirm the mailing address.
So now that the filing date is Monday has everyone complied? Wasted a lot of time doing this for no reason. Hopefully the CTA and OTA have someone with a higher IQ telling the CRA what to do next year. Driver Inc. companies do not file T4A's. Also CRA wouldn't accept the xml file saying that file was non compatible. But xml is all they accept for T4A's. Left it with the accountant to figure out. Another cost we pay for others cheating, incompetence and stupidity. On the bright side the penalty for filing them by mail is only $250.
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If you know who they are. Likely companies who do business completely without filing a thing are ones not filing the T4A.
They need the provinces to report which business entities are running provincial authorities. If 123456 Ontario Inc has a valid CVOR then they should have filed a TL2.
I agree, an absolute waste of time. On the carriers end the total amount of invoices for 2025 does not match the brokers T4A that was based on the amount paid in 2025. There is no real way to easily audit it.
Even if you take invoices in a calendar year, one is invoiced date, the other is paid date.
Now, if you have a broker who ghosted you, and didn't pay you, you won't get a T4A. One more kick in the seat for the good guys - just don't pay and you don't have to worry of the hassle of T4A's. You can keep the money AND not worry about the non-compliance fee from the government PLUS you don't have to figure out how to get them sent electronically via a faulty XML process......
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Absolute waste of time! Between not having a carriers business number, a carrier having more than one business number, our accounting program not entering the business number in the correct box (it decided to use the SIN box) and a host of other tedious, time consuming problems, I think we are finished, albeit late. I just have one question. Where will the celebration party be held when, after all this work, CRA has rooted out the bad actors and the Driver Inc model has been eliminated? I think I will be waiting a long time for that answer.