T4, T4A or nothing: which slip a barbershop issues

Short answer: an employee barber gets a T4 with CPP, EI and income tax in boxes 16, 18 and 22; a self-employed barber who works in your shop — a chair renter or a barber on commission — gets a T4 with employment code 13 in box 29 and their gross income under code 83, and no T4A; a T4A with the fees in box 048 goes only to someone you pay more than $500 in a year for services and are not the EI employer of, such as a cleaner or a photographer. As of October 2026 the shop is the deemed EI employer of every barber working in it who does not own it, which is what sends the self-employed ones to a T4. This post covers the decision table box by box, the CRA sentence that draws the T4A line, what the barber files with a code 83 slip, the deadlines and penalty charts, two unsettled questions, and the records BarberFlow keeps for whoever prepares the slips.

Which slip does a barbershop issue?

The slip follows two questions: is the barber an employee, and if not, are you their deemed employer for EI? The CRA's T4 slip instructions list employment code 13 in box 29 as "Self-employed barbers and hairdressers," and the gross income you paid them goes under code 83 in Other information, never in box 14 — the page is explicit that if you report an amount in code 83 you have to enter code 13 in box 29. Every barber who works in your shop and is not an employee lands on that row, whether they pay you rent or you pay them commission.

The employee row is normal payroll, with two mechanics from the CRA's T4 page worth knowing: an amount in box 18 requires the insurable earnings in box 24, which shows "0" when there are none, and the employer's share of EI and CPP is remitted but never appears on the slip. The other two rows are where shops go wrong, so they get a section each.

Why a chair renter gets a T4, not a T4A

Because the regulations make you their employer for one purpose. Paragraph 6(d) of the Employment Insurance Regulations includes in insurable employment the employment of a person in a barbering or hairdressing establishment who provides any of the services normally provided there and is not the owner or operator of it. Section 8(1) of the Insurable Earnings and Collection of Premiums Regulations then deems every owner or operator of such an establishment to be the employer, and section 8(2) requires them to pay and remit both the employee's premiums and the employer's premiums. The money can flow either way — the shop can pay the barber nothing and still be the EI employer.

The CRA's page on payments and earnings related to barbers and hairdressers turns that into three conditions — the worker is a barber or hairdresser, provides services normally provided in a barbering or hairdressing establishment, and is not its owner or operator — and its own chair-renter example meets all three and "is considered employed in insurable employment." RC4120, the T4 guide, says you may be considered the employer of the self-employed barber even if you do not provide a payment to them, and the CRA's CPP/EI explained page says the same: the owner is the employer even if the individual is not under a contract of service and is considered self-employed.

That is why the slip is a T4. The barbers page lists what to report for a self-employed barber: box 29 with code 13, box 24 with EI insurable earnings, box 56 for PPIP insurable earnings if they worked in Quebec, code 83 for gross income, and code 88 only for a status First Nations barber with exempt self-employment income. RC4120's step 6b fills in the rest: do not report the worker's self-employed earnings in box 14, report only the worker's share of the EI premiums you remitted in box 18, and report the insurable earnings you used to calculate those premiums in box 24. A booth rent barber and a commission barber who is not an employee get the same slip. The CRA adds that you do not withhold CPP, EI or income tax deductions because the worker is self-employed; the barber remits CPP and income tax the way any other self-employed person does.

Insurable earnings for box 24 are the barber's net revenue for the week when you know it. When you cannot determine it, section 8(3) of the collection regulations deems a weekly figure: the lesser of the days worked times 1/390 of the maximum insurable earnings and 1/78 of the maximum. The dollar amounts, the rates and the weekly maths are in the chair renter EI guide; this post stays on the slip.

When is a T4A with box 048 the right slip?

The CRA draws the line in one sentence on the same barbers page: "Generally, if you provide payments to the self-employed barber or hairdresser for their services and you are not considered their employer for EI purposes, you need to report the amounts on a T4A slip." Read the condition in the middle. A barber who meets the three EI conditions has you as their EI employer, so the sentence does not reach them — their commission is gross income under code 83 on the T4. No CRA page says to issue both a code 83 T4 and a T4A for the same payments. The T4A is for the people the sentence does reach: a barber who is not working in your establishment, and every non-barber contractor you pay.

The mechanics come from RC4157 and the CRA's page on fees or other amounts for services. Box 048 takes any fees or other amounts paid for services, and the figure excludes GST/HST or PST. The slip is required when tax was deducted or the year's payments to that person were more than $500. Goods are not fees for services, so the supplier of your pomade gets nothing, and payments to employees go in box 14 of a T4, never on a T4A. The CRA waives the T4A where the payer is an individual hiring in a personal capacity — a shop is a business, so that waiver does not help you.

On enforcement, the CRA's reporting fees for service page says it is not assessing penalties for failures relating to the completion of box 048, and that the moratorium remains in place for all industries with the exception of trucking, where it was lifted on December 4, 2025 for the 2025 tax year onward. A barbershop is outside trucking, so a missing box 048 is not currently penalized; the slip is still required, and the cleaner still needs it to file. A renter who pays you never gets a T4A; there is no payment to report.

What does the barber do with a code 83 T4?

They do not put it on line 10100. The CRA's T4 page for individuals says of code 83: "See Form T2125. Do not enter this amount on line 10100 of your tax return." Box 14, by contrast, goes straight to line 10100. A code 13 T4 carries EI data and nothing else about income tax — the barber's income is business income on Form T2125, with their expenses against it, and they pay CPP on the net figure through Schedule 8. The self-employed barber tax guide walks the T2125 line by line.

Tell the barber this when you hand them the slip. A code 13 T4 that lands on a preparer who has never seen one gets typed into line 10100 as employment income, double-counting it against the T2125.

When are the slips due and how are they filed?

The filing due date for a T4 or T4A return is the last day of February after the calendar year, moved to the next business day when that falls on a weekend or holiday. RC4120 spells it out for the last cycle: for most people the 2025 T4 filing due date was March 2, 2026. February 28, 2027 is a Sunday, so 2026 slips are due Monday, March 1, 2027. The barber's copy and the CRA's return share the deadline.

The how-to-file page makes electronic filing mandatory for returns filed on or after January 1, 2024 when you file more than 5 slips of one type. A six-chair shop with six T4s files online, and the penalty for filing those on paper is $125 for 6 to 50 slips, $250 for 51 to 250, and $500 for 251 to 500.

What are the penalties?

The failure-to-deduct figures come from the CRA's making deductions page: 10% of the amounts that were not deducted, rising to 20% for a repeat failure in the year made knowingly or with gross negligence. That is the exposure on a barber you called self-employed and the CRA rules an employee; the late-return charts are the exposure on a renter you issued nothing to.

Two questions the CRA has not settled

An incorporated renter. The CRA's barbers pages speak of "an individual" and the regulations of "a person"; neither says what happens when the renter bills through their own corporation. Nothing published says the corporation takes the shop out of the EI rule, and nothing says it does not. Treat the claim as unconfirmed and ask the CRA for a CPP/EI ruling — the chair renter EI guide covers the form and the deadline for asking.

Code 83 when the shop pays the renter nothing. The CRA's T4 instructions describe code 83 as the gross income you paid to a self-employed barber, and the barbers page lists it among the amounts to report "depending on the self-employed barber or hairdresser's situation." Whether a pure renter's own chair revenue, which never passed through your hands, belongs there is not stated on any CRA page. The working rule is: report it if you know it, leave it if you do not, and let your accountant make the call in writing.

How to pull the slip records from BarberFlow

The figures the three rows need — what you paid each barber, the days each one worked, and the rent each renter paid you — already live in the employee tools. Each barber sits on a Rent or a Percentage pay model, every appointment is logged against the barber who did it, and Auto-Pay keeps a payout history per barber. BarberFlow does not prepare or file T4s or T4As, calculate source deductions or run payroll remittances; it hands the accountant the records in a few exports.

The five mistakes shops make with barber slips

1. Issuing a T4A to a chair renter. The renter paid you, so there is no payment to report in box 048. They get a T4 with code 13, box 24, box 18 and code 83.
2. Issuing a T4A to a commission barber who works in your shop. If they meet the three EI conditions you are their EI employer, and the CRA's T4A sentence applies only when you are not. Their commission is gross income under code 83 on a T4.
3. Putting a self-employed barber's income in box 14. Box 14 is employment income and flows to line 10100. With code 13, box 14 stays empty and the gross income goes under code 83.
4. Treating "self-employed" as "no slip at all." A renter you never paid still gets a T4 because you remitted EI on their insurable earnings. The late-return chart starts at $100.
5. Leaving GST/HST in box 048, or filing six slips on paper. Box 048 is the fee before tax, and more than 5 slips of one type must be filed electronically, at $125 for the first paper tier.

Quick checklist

• Sort every barber into one of the three rows: employee, self-employed in the shop, or paid and outside the EI rule.
• Employees: a T4 with boxes 14, 16, 18, 22, 24 and 26, no code in box 29.
• Renters and self-employed commission barbers: a T4 with code 13, box 24, box 18 and code 83, box 14 empty, no T4A.
• Contractors you pay over $500 and are not the EI employer of: a T4A with the fee in box 048, GST/HST excluded.
• Tell every code 83 barber the figure goes on the T2125, not line 10100.
• File by March 1, 2027 for 2026 slips, electronically if you have more than 5 of one type.
• Ask for a CPP/EI ruling before accepting that an incorporated renter is outside the rule.
• Export each barber's payouts, bookings and rent from BarberFlow for the accountant who prepares the slips.

The first question — employee or self-employed — is its own post: is a barber an employee or self-employed runs the CRA test on a barbershop. The EI premiums behind the code 13 slip, with the 2026 rates and the weekly formula, are in the chair renter EI guide, and the pay model that decides which row a barber sits in is in the commission split guide. For what the barber does with the slip, see how to file taxes as a self-employed barber.